You Need a Christmas Vacation? | Friday Funeral Fast Wrap #14
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
On this day in 1989, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was the #1 movie in the country. Now, this movie has become a semi-modern classic that is over-quoted every December season.This movie is actually quite fitting for 2020 if you think about it. It’s a movie about having big plans for something and then having everything gradually fall apart. In a way, we’ve all been Clark Griswold this year. That being said, I hope we’re coming to the semi-happy ending it closes with. But, we can’t roll the credits yet, there are still 20 days left in the year. If there’s one thing we should know by now, it’s that a lot can happen in 20 days. So here we go!
So in honor of all of this, here are the best three GIFs from Christmas Vacation!
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? YEAH, I ALREADY REDDIT!
This week an amazing article was posted on Connecting Directors about a guy who was thrown into grief and how he used an online Reddit community to help himself on his journey.
Now, this is a beautiful piece filled with great resources for anyone who is dealing with grief or deals with those who deal with grief. You can check it out here. However, because of the subject matter, and because this pandemic has worsened my ADD qualities, I had to take a second and think about my favorite online Reddit communities. So I thought for about 2.5 minutes, turned up some Wallen, and created this thorough list of the best Reddit communities.
So without further adieu…
THE *FFFW TOP THREE REDDIT SUBREDDITS
*note, these communities are built on user generated content, and FFFW nor Connecting Directors supports all content posted in these following groups. We (mainly just me, aka the writer) find these very entertaining.
Have you ever tried to get something explained to you, but everyone always over complicates it? Well, here you have a community full of people that try to explain everything as simple as possible.
Example:
Q: How is a “fast charging” battery charger different from a regular one?
A: Actually it’s the phone who asks the charger nicely for a quick or slow charge and the charger responds with what it’s capable of. After that quick handshake it’s just a matter of how quickly the phone can gulp the stream of electricity provided by the charger. Picture drinking from a hose when someone is controlling how much the valve is opened. You have to tell them how much you can handle first.
As someone who spent a year monitoring funeral home Facebook pages, this community hits different. See, there’s a lot to learn from our aging generations, but proper internet usage is not one of those things. So, this community is a little museum to all of those cute old people moments.
Example:
Nothing fascinating. Nothing boring. Everything here is just mildly interesting.
Example:
So there ya go! How should we segway to our ad now?
I got it –
SEGWAY
CRUSH SOCIAL MEDIA AS A FUNERAL HOME
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Funeral homes and any death-care business NEED a good social media presence. This isn’t always as easy as it seems. BUT… if you’re looking for an easy way to get some likes on your page, we have you covered!
Top 3 Things that are social media gold.
1) Babies. People love babies. They’re chunky, they’re small, and they just randomly stare at people a lot. That being said, if you see a picture of a baby on social media and you DON’T engage with it – you actually are a bad person. Like no joke. Well, kind of no joke.
2) Puppies. These are like babies with more fur and less questioning about its parents being “ready yet.” I like puppies, you like puppies, and we all like to LIKE puppies on social media.
3) Puppies and Babies. That’s right; it’s not rocket science. Babies do good, puppies do good, you combine them, and you get something simply amazing! This is like french fries dipped in a Wendy’s Frosty; it’s simply a combo that is almost too good to be true!
Now, these three types of content are fantastic, but if you want a social media strategy that REALLY works for you and your funeral home – you need to do a little more than that. You need DISRUPT Media.
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Watch this whole GIF for a satisfying ending!
WANT AN AD IN FFFW LIKE THIS? JUST SHOOT RYAN AN EMAIL AT RYAN@DISRUPTMEDIA.CO WE’LL WRITE UP AN ARTICLE AND MAKE A CUSTOM GIF!
OPINION: YOU NEED TO MAKE IT COUNT
There’s only one Friday between today and Christmas. Frankly that’s mind blowing. In some ways this has been such a long year, like we’re almost at 9-10 months of dealing with this pandemic, but on the other hand it feels like it’s flown by. To me, last Christmas doesn’t seem that long ago – and I’ve had a busy year. But, that’s all just a side note. Next week I promise that I’ll use this section to do something fun and merry, but right now I want to use it for something a little more serious.
Let’s talk about loss. I know it’s not the norm here at FFFW but, it’s timely. I’m fortunate enough to have never had a grandparent pass away, but last December I had a grandfather suffer a major heart attack and a grandmother begin her journey with Alzheimer’s. I have a very blessed life and my whole family has always done everything we can to make the holiday season as special and magical as possible. Normally, we do this by spending the season with family – normally.
For the first time in my life, the week of Christmas was spent wondering if my grandfather would be there on Christmas, and the whole season was a balancing act between not trying to be over stimulating and not neglecting my grandmother. Christmas was different for me last year than it had ever been. This was all stuff that you don’t plan for, nor can you predict. For obvious reasons, this year has its own complications. In 2018, I didn’t realize that that would be my last normal Christmas season for a while. If I had, I wouldn’t have done much different, probably would’ve just taken a few more pictures and would have been a little more intentional with my time. But, even last year I assumed that 2020 Christmas would be back to normal. The truth is, we can never assume.
So, why am I saying this? No, I don’t just want you to feel bad for me. I have it good. My grandpa pulled through and my family is really learning how to adapt and grow with my grandmother’s condition. I’m trying to remind you that someday you’ll have your last time doing something that you love with those that you love. You never know if it’s this year or not. So, I just want to ask you this- are you making it count? Are you making this special season count? Are you trying to create memories? On a daily basis I hear about the amazing life celebrations that you amazing funeral professionals create, but why wait until you’re dead to celebrate life yourself?
I know this year has been crazy, I know this holiday season may be crazy too, but I believe that the best moments come from the least expected times. Christmas time is special because during it people are searching for joy and hope. Both of those things never go away, we just need to grab ahold of them. So please, there are 14 days until Christmas- make them count!
Funny GIF to distract you from emotions.
YOU OTTER BE PROUD
This is our weekly segment where we highlight some amazing things that are going on inside this profession. We get a lot of bad press, so we’re going to highlight the good and continue to keep our chins up!
1) Funeral Directors provide comfort, solace, and care to grieving families
2) Akin-Davis Funeral Homes Joins the Foundation Partners Group Family
3) Funeral homes work to ease extra pain pandemic deaths are causing
There ya go!
Enjoy this week! Only 2 more Fridays before Christmas!
