A video greeting card is the closest thing to showing up in person when you can't. It gets there the moment you send it, it can have the whole family's faces in it, and the person on the other end just taps a link. Here's how to do it well across time zones, with the Tangy Limes cards we'd pick.
Time it for their breakfast
Instant delivery has one downside, and it's 3 a.m. Check what time it is where they are and send it for their morning coffee. A card at breakfast is a nice start to a birthday. A card at 3 a.m. is a buzzing phone in the dark and your aunt sitting bolt upright, assuming the worst.
Send a link, not instructions
A share link opens a plain web page that plays the video. No app, no account, no password between your grandmother and her grandchildren singing at her. Paste it into a text, the family WhatsApp or an email, or email the card to up to five people from the card page. If there's a relative who usually calls to ask what to press, the link is one tap. You can also download the MP4 and send it like any other video.
Fill it with the people who miss them
WE MISS YOU lands harder when the card is full of the people doing the missing. Several cards fit four faces, and a group photo from the last visit works: you choose who goes on which dancer. If the person you're sending it to is in the photo too, put them front and center. They'll notice.
The cards we'd send
For the holidays you can't make it home for: Merry & Bright fits four faces, from a living room with a gold-lit tree to a kitchen with trays of cookies and a holiday ham to a snowy front yard.
For just saying it: Miss Your Face is one face in the rain under a streetlamp, at a bus stop at night, on a couch with a giant teddy bear and on a platform as a train pulls away. It's sappy on purpose, and you're allowed to be sappy from a distance.
For the Thanksgiving you're missing: Gobble Gobble fits four, from a table full of food to a backyard football game to a living room full of empty pie plates. Nobody has to do the dishes.
For the grandparent who asks about the dog first: Pawty Animals fits two people and two pets, and the dog's face goes on a dancing dog. Expect to be asked for the dog's version every year from now on.
Making it
Pick a photo where everyone faces the camera with mouths visible, since the mouths open and close to the words of the song. Type the names, then rewrite the big headline if you have something better. WE MISS YOUR COOKING is honest. SEND MORE PHOTOS OF THE DOG is honest and a little needy, which is fine.
Watch the whole card free. Keeping it is $1.99, with no subscription, and it works in the browser on a phone or a computer. Then send it for their morning, and let them be the one who calls.