Happy 70th birthday: wishes and a family video

With seven decades to cover, choose quality over quantity. Six to eight photos per decade keeps the video to five or six minutes, messages included:

• Where they came from. A photo of their parents or the house they grew up in.
• Growing up. School, a first job, a youthful portrait.
• Love and family. A wedding photo, young children, family holidays.
• Work and retirement. Their career and the life they have built since.
• Today. A recent family photo, then the messages.

A brother, sister or old school friend can often fill gaps in the early years. Ask early; finding old prints takes time.

For many 70-year-olds the grandchildren are the highlight. Ask parents to film each child, phone held steady, saying one thing they love about their grandparent. One person collects all the clips and adds them; there is no shared upload link.

Making the clips easy to hear

• Film somewhere quiet, close to the phone, without music in the background.
• Keep each clip to fifteen seconds or so.
• Put the messages after the music, or pick one of the gentler Happy Birthday arrangements under Add music.

Play the widescreen version from a laptop connected to the TV, tested beforehand with the volume up. Afterwards, export a copy in Square 1:1 for their phone and the family chat, or a GIF of the opening card. The happy birthday grandma page has more ideas for grandparents.