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Dad Filmed Family On Christmas Mornings For 25 Years, Some Don't Make The Final Cut

Dad Filmed Family On Christmas Mornings For 25 Years, Some Don't Make The Final Cut

A poignant reminder to spend time with your loved ones at Christmas time.

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Families spend weeks and months in the lead up to Christmas, buying food, looking for the perfect presents, and generally trying to make it as special a time of year as possible.

But then in the blink of an eye it's all over. You're left in slightly hungover daze and before you know where you are Big Ben is ringing in the New Year, with Christmas just a hazy memory.

Years later it can seem almost impossible to remember how you spent the festive period as a child.

Well one family won't have a problem remembering any of their Christmases together, after their dad filmed the special day every year for 25 years.

Between 1985 and 2009, Pat Confalone filmed his two kids, Nick and Patricia, as they came bounding down the stairs on Christmas morning to see what Santa had left them under the tree.

Nick gave the video to his dad as a Christmas present.
Youtube/Nick Confalone

When he grew up Nick edited two decades of footage together to make a short film as a festive for his dad.

But sadly not all of the clips made the final cut as Nick said he couldn't find clips from every year.

He wrote in a Youtube post: "This is a compilation of all the videos I could find. Relatives and pets grow up and disappear, and new extended family members appear in their place."

Speaking to Today, in 2016, he said: "When I made that video, I understood the effect I wanted to create on an intellectual level, but I have two kids of my own now, so seeing it now hits me in a whole new way.

"I'm glad that other people connect to it - that we all have this shared experience that life goes by too fast."

Originally the film was 30 minutes long, which Nick showed to his family, but several years ago he released a much shorter three-minute film, complete with music, which has been watched more than three million times now.

Nick said he still keeps the tradition going with his own kids.
Youtube/Nick Confalone

Nick said: "I said, 'You know, I also made this other one...,' and that's when the tears started flowing. Condensed into a few minutes, those 25 years become something universal."

Now a father himself, Nick has carried on his dad's tradition with his two kids.

He said: "We still take videos on Christmas morning.

"My sister and I are in our thirties now and yes, we still slide down the stairs like 5-year-olds."

But at the time of the interview, Nick said he didn't plan to update his original montage.

He said: "It was a Christmas present to my dad and so it kind of exists as a completed thing, even though obviously the tradition continues.

"We do love seeing warm greetings from all over the world in the comments section. I think the video holds the distinction of being the kindest comment section on the entire internet."

Featured Image Credit: Youtube/Nick Confalone

Topics: Interesting, UK Entertainment, US Entertainment