The memory jar.
A year of good moments, to open on New Year's Eve.
A joke at dinner, the first snow, a Sunday with no plans. During the year they feel like nothing much. By December, we've forgotten them. A jar and a few slips of paper are enough to keep them together, ready to rediscover on 31 December.
A memory jar is a container where, throughout the year, you drop a note for every good moment. You start on 1 January and open it together on New Year's Eve. Research from Harvard Business School shows that rereading everyday moments moves us more than we expect, especially the ones we remember least.
We remember less than we think
A team of researchers at Harvard Business School, led by Ting Zhang, asked 135 students to make a small time capsule at the start of the summer: their last conversation, three songs they'd been listening to, an inside joke, a photo. Three months later, reading it again made them more curious and interested than they had predicted.
In another experiment, people in relationships wrote about an ordinary day spent together and about their Valentine's Day. Three months later, the ordinary day was the one they remembered least, and the one that surprised them most to reread.
roughly: how much they remembered, three months on, of what they had written about the ordinary day. For Valentine's Day, almost 47%.
Special days remember themselves. Ordinary ones need a note.
How to make a memory jar
- Pick a container. A glass jar, a tin, an old shoebox you decorate together. What matters is that it sits somewhere you see it every day.
- Get the notes ready. Small slips of paper, all the same size, with a pen right next to the jar. If writing is easy, you'll actually do it.
- Add the date. At the top of every note. In December, the date is what takes you back to that day.
- Find a rhythm. Once a week, say on Sunday evening. Or whenever something happens that's worth remembering.
- No peeking. The magic is opening the whole jar at once, on New Year's Eve.
What to write in a memory jar
One or two lines are plenty. If you're not sure where to begin, try finishing one of these.
Besides notes, anything small and flat can go in: a concert ticket, the receipt from the first pizza in your new home, a leaf picked up on a walk, an instant photo.
Memory jar ideas for families, couples and kids
As a family
Everyone gets their own colour of paper. On New Year's Eve, guess who wrote what before you turn the note over.
With kids
Little ones who can't write yet can draw, and a grown-up adds the date and a line. Kids' words, written exactly as they said them, make the best notes.
As a couple
Something the other person did that made you feel good. Reading them back at the end of the year is a gift for you both.
Just for you
A jar on your desk, a note in the evening. It becomes a small journal of your year, made only of good things.
How to open it on 31 December
Choose a quiet moment, before the party or on the morning of 1 January. Tip the jar out on the table and put the notes in date order: the year comes back together, month by month.
- Take turns reading, one note each.
- Choose the three best moments of the year together.
- Keep the notes in an envelope with the year written on it, then start again.
- On 1 January, write the first note for the new jar.
If you like the idea of writing to the future, read how to write a letter to your future self.
What if the jar opened again in ten years?
The paper jar opens on New Year's Eve. Photos of the notes, voice recordings and videos from the year can wait longer: in a Memories capsule, delivered to you or the people you love on the day you choose.
Gather
Photograph the notes, add the year's pictures, record the whole family's voices on 31 December.
Choose who will receive it
Yourself, your partner, or your children when they're grown up, for example at 18. Nobody needs to download anything: a personal, secure link arrives.
Choose the day
31 December five years from now, your daughter's 18th birthday, your tenth anniversary.
Erabox keeps your memories on servers in Switzerland and delivers them on the day you chose, even many years from now.
Memory jar: common questions
Can't find your answer? Write to us from the Support page.
Guides to go further
Small moments pass quickly.
Keep them for when you'll want to find them again.
Gather the memories of your year and choose when they arrive.