Whoever films Christmas morning is never in it.

Take turns behind the phone

Usually one person films Christmas morning, every year, and that person is in almost none of it. The fix is to stop treating the filming as one job. Put everyone who'll be in the room on one tape, both parents, a grandparent, the teenager who'd rather be asleep, and split the morning by role rather than by person:

• One phone on the kids. Whoever's closest to the tree, at their height, not standing over them.
• One phone on the givers. The face of whoever chose the present, at the moment it's opened, is the half of the reaction nobody films.
• One phone on the couch. The grandparents watching, the dog in the paper, the room as a whole.

Swap roles after each round of presents. And at least once, hand your own phone to a kid and show them to hold it sideways: with REC on, every sideways clip they shoot on it lands on the tape, filmed from a kid's height, with you in it for once. Every clip lands at the moment it was recorded, so the morning comes back as one film with everyone in it, including whoever usually holds the phone.

What to film on Christmas morning

• Before the kids wake up. The tree lit, the stockings full, the house quiet. Thirty seconds, while it lasts.
• The stairs. One phone at the bottom, facing up, before the first footstep.
• First reactions, from two sides. One phone on the kid opening it, one on whoever chose it.
• The grandparents' view. Turn a phone toward the couch. Their faces, watching the kids, are the shot nobody gets.
• The call to whoever isn't there. The kid holding a present up to a video call, and the faces on the other end.
• The first time it goes outside. The new bike in the cold, the scooter on the driveway, everyone still in pyjamas.
• The mess after. Paper to the knees, someone asleep, the toy that already needs batteries.

Let the takes run. Ten seconds of unwrapping is a photo; two minutes is the morning. More on what to film.

Filming it well, before it's light

Christmas morning is one of the hardest mornings of the year to film: it starts early, often before sunrise, in a room lit mostly by a tree. A few habits make the difference.

• Turn on every lamp. Tree lights alone leave faces dark and grainy on a phone. Light from the side, from lamps, is warmer than the overhead light and enough for the camera.
• No flashlight. It flattens every face and blinds whoever's opening a present.
• Get close for the words. Wrapping paper is loud. For the thank-you, or a card being read out, move the phone nearer the person talking.
• Don't ask for it again. "Do that again for the camera" never gets the first reaction back. If you missed it, film them showing it to someone else.
• Stay sideways. The film gets watched on a television, which is wide, and a tape only takes horizontal clips anyway.

Develop it after lunch

Whenever the morning's over, anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop, and everyone on the tape gets the film in their own Tape Cabinet. Send the link to family who spent the day somewhere else. Sharing family videos privately.

Then keep it somewhere you'll find it next year. Make a shelf in the Cabinet called Christmas, and every year's film lands next to the last one. Some families watch last year's on Christmas Eve, which is the best reminder there is to film this year's. How to hold a screening.

Everything on the tape counts toward its owner's 2 GB, about an hour of footage, until it's developed. What counts toward 2 GB.

Questions before Christmas Eve

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