Animoto - The holiday cards guaranteed to make grandparents cry.

Life with four kids means there are a lot of last minute "oops" happening around my place when it comes to gifts and cards. This is also why I've been a fan of Animoto since we first featured them on Cool Mom Picks a few years ago. Their super easy-to-use video slideshow maker has saved my butt more than once, with remarkable professional looking video "cards" that have replaced gifts on more than one occasion--with raves from my lucky recipients.

Well, we're delighted that they're our newest Cool Mom Picks sponsor (we love it when our sponsors are the stuff we love anyway) and just in time for the holidays, they've got an awesome free service that we're excited about.

Yes, free.

You can see what I made with it right here.



[Don't miss a very cool free gift for all of our readers after the jump!]

 

Basically you just grab the photos you've taken all year long, whip them up into a video, and shoot them into your family members' inboxes like digital holiday cards. Super easy.

Truly the best part about Animoto is that you don't need to be tech savvy at all to do what I did here. It's even simple to add text boxes and pick music from their own selection or something you'v'e already got on your computer. 

You'll get 30 second videos for free, or just grab a Plus Membership for $5/month and suddenly get your Spielberg on with videos as long as you'd like. That's pretty much less than what I'd spend on a single paper card anyway.

Actually, calling them cards just doesn't seem right. More like mini gifts. At least, that's what my mom calls them every time I send her one.  -Kristen

EXTRA COOL!: All Cool Mom Picks readers get a free 30-day Animoto Plus membership which gives you unlimited full-length videos via this link. Happy holidays!