The Christmas present they can use all on their own

Give your parents the chance to see their slides and negatives again. A little scanner with its own screen, one button, and the whole family box on a memory card. No computer needed.

Every year, the same question comes round: what do you give parents who already have everything?

Another jumper. A bottle of perfume. Or that “very handy” little gadget that needs an app, an account and a password, and ends up in a drawer before January is out.

Meanwhile, somewhere in their home, there's a box. Slides, wallets of negatives: the holidays, the weddings, their children's first Christmases. Yours, perhaps. Nobody has looked at them since the slide projector gave up the ghost.

This year, you can give them the chance to open that box again. And to do it themselves.

Why this present is just right

• They'll manage it on their own. One button to scan, a screen to see the photo, a menu in English. No computer, no app, no account to set up.
• It will actually get used. It's not just another gadget: the box of slides is already there, waiting for it. The very evening they unwrap it, the first photo can be on the screen.
• It brings the family together. Every digitised photo can be copied and shared. Brothers, sisters and grandchildren rediscover the same memories, and your parents tell the stories behind them.

The moment you're giving

Picture the scene. The present is unwrapped, the scanner sitting on the coffee table. Your mum pops a slide into the holder and presses the button. A few seconds later, a photo appears on the screen: a beach, a car, a young woman laughing. It's her, at twenty-five.

And she starts talking. The name of the beach, the friend holding the camera, what happened next. Stories you'd never heard, because nobody had ever asked.

That's the real present. The photos have been sleeping in that box for decades; it's the memories that come back with them.

Three steps, and they can manage on their own

Then you move the holder along one notch and do it again. An hour on a Sunday, a few slides after a cup of tea: the box empties at their own pace.

The scanner's menu is in English. Our illustrated guide in English arrives by email as soon as you order: print it out and tuck it into the present. And if a question comes up, a real person answers in English, seven days a week, until the first photo is digitised.

A tip before you wrap it

If you can, slip a slide from their own box into the present, already sitting in the holder. The evening they open it, all they'll need to do is plug the scanner in and press the button: the first photo they see will be one of their own.

Choose a pack with a memory card (Complete or Family): everything is in the box, nothing extra to buy. The scanner is powered by the USB cable supplied, plugged into a phone charger or a computer.

What it digitises, and what it doesn't

• 35mm slides, even old ones. Colour balance and exposure are set automatically, and you can adjust the colours before saving.
• 35mm negatives, colour and black and white. In strips, with no need to cut them.
• Everything is saved to the memory card as JPEG files. Ready to copy to a computer, send to the whole family, or have printed at a photo shop.

Paper photos? No. We'd rather tell you now: it reads film, not prints. If their memories are in boxes of slides and wallets of negatives, that's exactly what it was made for.

They've reopened their boxes

Where to find it, and what it costs

The Velova Memory Scanner is only sold on our official website. You won't find it in the shops.

One purchase for the whole box: no charge per slide, no originals sent off in the post, and the scanner stays with them for the next box. For the launch, it's half price.

Questions people ask before giving it

“My parents aren't comfortable with technology.”

One button to scan, a screen to look at, a menu in English. No computer, no app, no account. Our illustrated guide arrives by email: print it out for the present.

“Do you need a computer?”

No, not to scan and not to look at the photos: they appear on the scanner's own screen. A computer is only needed to copy the memory card and share the photos.

“How is it powered?”

With the USB cable supplied, plugged into a phone charger or a computer. It has no battery: it works while plugged in.

“Can you look at the photos on the TV?”

Yes, with the video cable supplied, if the TV still has a video input (many recent models no longer do). Otherwise, the memory card can be read on a computer or at a photo shop.

“Their slides are very old.”

Colours and exposure are set automatically, and you can adjust the colours by hand before saving. Badly damaged film will stay damaged (no machine works miracles), but the picture will be saved before it deteriorates any further.

“And if the present isn't right for them?”

It's covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee.