For My Tech-Resistant Grandparents, The Aura Frame Was the Ideal Gift
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Buying a gift takes special consideration. And we’ve all been on both sides of the exchange, whether it’s gone well or not so well. You know when the wrapping paper comes off whether a present is a winner. In our Gifted & Approved series, we tell the stories of those winners, the best presents our editors have either given or received. We hope they provide a little inspiration and advice as you go about your holiday shopping and gift search.
When my grandparents were my age, rotary phones were the norm and people sent photos in the post. Although it feels like keeping in touch is so much easier these days, sharing images of important moments is a challenge, at least across generations — Nana and Grampa can’t seem to open a text, and I can’t seem to remember to email it instead. That’s where the Aura frame comes in.
Mason Wi-Fi Digital Picture Frame
amazon.com
$179.00
This photo frame comes with an app that family, friends, and loved ones can add to their phones to easily upload selfies, wedding photos, and even important screenshots to an understated, high-end-looking frame that lives in the recipient’s home. You can even load up the frame with photos via the QR code on the back before you gift it, so you don’t have to worry about walking your aging giftee through too many steps. They’ll just have to connect the frame to Wi-Fi — but Aura also has great customer service for folks of all ages and abilities in case you can’t be there in person to help set it up.
I gave my grandparents this frame a few Christmases ago, and it’s sat prominently in their living room since. Every time I visit, they remind me how much they love it. It’s not just because the photos appear papery due to the matte screen or because the frame itself is sturdy and stylish, but because it’s given them the opportunity to see all the same photos everyone else gets to browse in the family group chat.
When my grandparents couldn’t make it to my sister’s wedding due to COVID-19, they could see all the photos we took by the next day. When my fiancé proposed in the company of friends, they could witness our special moment within just a few hours. When my sister found long-lost family photos in a dusty old box in their house, they, too, got added to the frame.
Now, a few years later, the frame flicks through a collection of photos that spans their entire lifetimes and beyond — photos of my mom studying abroad in London in the ’80s get shuffled alongside photos of me traveling in New Zealand in 2020. My grandfather’s baby photo flicks past my nephew at Christmas.
It’s easy to get caught looking at the frame for an hour or so, but it isn’t just the recipient that gets to enjoy the collection of pictures. Anyone invited to contribute to the photo feed can see the other contributions on the app, too.
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