As we head towards the busiest time of year, my staffers have been on fire with some fabulously creative ideas. The beauty of a staff that’s been together for as long as we have is we know each other very well. Dan and Emily are our new hires this year, but they fit in seamlessly. And here’s the very interesting thing about Flying Pig employees: many of them are professional musicians as well as being amazing booksellers. This musical ability is what spurred Sandy to think, in a moment of pure genius, “what would happen if…” way, that led to: let’s make a holiday video! 
So, we are planning a video with book-related lyrics inserted into ‘Let It Snow.’ I have to say, I love the enthusiasm everyone is showing for this project. And who knew we were all so creative. Laura is in a folk duo, Cricket Blue, and she has an absolutely beautiful voice and plays guitar and cello. Dan is also a music teacher, professional musician and can really sing, David is at Berklee College of Music for alto sax, and he’s amazing. Elizabeth can play just about any instrument by ear and has quite a lovely singing voice. Emily apparently can play four instruments! Darrilyn, Sandy and I represent the folks who appreciate music.
I love how this project is coming together. It feels a lot like a barn raising. We have a deep bench of talent leaping to help. Everyone is coming up with a stanza or two of funny or heartwarming lyrics. The musician folks will work on arrangements. Then the two staffers under 30 will work on filming, audio issues (should we sing, lip sync or some combination of both?), and how to post it. God bless the millennials who know about things like Snapchat and all the other things the kids are doing these days.
Then we will organize all the folks who are willing and able to help. We will film on or near our 20th anniversary date which is Small Business Saturday. We might use the store filled with holiday shoppers as something we can edit into the video. We also have some extremely talented customers who we might want to get in on the act. Oh, there are so many ideas!
I will post the video when it’s finished. I’m publicly stated this as a galvanizing way to keep us on task so we get this done. It’s such a fabulous idea and a very special way to enter our 20th holiday season.
Has your store ever done a video for the holidays? How did it go? And are you considering doing one this year?