# Create a Father's Day Time Capsule > A Father's Day time capsule is a sealed collection of recordings, letters, photos and videos made for a father — and partly by him — that is given on one Father's Day and opens on a later date you choose. It holds his own stories in his own voice alongside what his children want to tell him, and it stays locked until that date. Ask him what he wants for Father's Day and the answer has not changed in twenty years: nothing, really, he is fine. Take him at his word. Do not buy him anything. Ask him four questions with a phone recording, write down what you have never quite said, and seal both for a Father's Day he is not expecting. ## He says he does not want anything {#nothing} He probably means it. What he would never ask for is the thing this is: an hour of somebody's full attention, and proof that what he knows will outlast the conversation. Most of what a father knows, he has never been asked. How he chose the job. What the first flat cost. Why the shed is arranged the way it is. What he was afraid of the week you were born. None of it is secret. It has simply never come up. A capsule is an excuse to bring it up. Half of it is about him — what you and the children want to say. The other half is by him, and that is the half the family will replay. ## Half about him, half by him {#by-him} The second half is the one people skip, and the one that matters in twenty years. Record him doing, not sitting. ### The thing he does Whatever it is — the barbecue, the bike repair, the pastry, the pruning. Film him doing it and explaining it as he goes. People who freeze in front of a camera talk freely with their hands busy. ### The story he always tells Everyone can recite it, which is exactly why nobody has recorded it. Get it once, in his words, with the pauses in the right places. ### The drive A car is the best interview room there is: nobody has to look at anybody. Put the phone in the cup holder, press record, and ask about his first car. ### The numbers His first wage, the price of the house, what a pint cost when he started drinking them. He will remember to the penny, and in thirty years it will be the most quoted part. ### The advice, specific Not what matters in life. How to check a used car, how to negotiate a salary, when to call a plumber and when not to. ### What he thinks comes next Where he expects each of you to be in ten years. Seal it before anyone can argue. ## When should it open? {#when} - **Next Father's Day** — A year out, and free, because a capsule that opens within a year costs nothing. Long enough for him to forget he was recorded in the car. - **In five years** — The grandchildren will be different people and his predictions will have started to come due. A good distance for a first serious capsule. - **The year he retires** — If you know roughly when that is. It lands in the first quiet month, when the phone has stopped ringing. - **Your child's eighteenth birthday** — For a new father writing to a baby. Priced by how far ahead it opens, and well within the thirty years our standard plans cover. A capsule opens on a date, not on an occasion, and Father's Day moves every year. Check the calendar for the year you choose. ## Father's Day time capsule ideas {#ideas} Four of these is a capsule. Fourteen is a project nobody finishes. ### In his voice - Him explaining how to do the one thing he is known for, filmed while he does it - The story of the day each of you was born, from where he was standing - His own father, described in five minutes - The worst job he ever had, and what it paid - A message to his grandchildren as adults ### From you - A letter that names one thing he did which he thinks you never noticed - The piece of his advice you ignored, and how that went - What you understood about him only after you had children, or a mortgage, of your own - A photo of the two of you that he has never seen - A question you want answered on the day it opens ### From the small ones - A recording of each child answering: what is Dad good at, and what is he terrible at? - Drawings of him, scanned, with the artist's age written on them - A video of the game only he plays with them - Their heights, their shoe sizes and their current ambitions - One sentence each, recorded by the other parent, unrehearsed Everything is recorded on your own phone and uploaded as files. Nothing is recorded on our site. ## Other fathers, other shapes {#who} ### From young children, through the other parent They cannot write yet, and they cannot make a capsule, so an adult makes it for them. Record them on your phone, scan what they draw, and upload it. Their voices will be the part he plays twice. ### A first Father's Day Written by a new father to a child who cannot read, or by the other parent about the first months. Address it to the child by name — a recipient does not need an inbox yet — and to at least one parent, who has one. ### A stepfather There is rarely a card that says the right thing. A capsule lets you say the actual thing, in your own words, without a printed verse getting it slightly wrong. ### A grandfather The oldest voice in the family is the one to record first. Get him talking this summer, and decide the opening date afterwards. ## How to record him without making it an interview {#record} Do not sit him down. A man placed in a chair opposite a phone gives the answers he would give a journalist. The same man, asked the same question while he is sanding a door, tells you what actually happened. Use the phone's own recorder or camera, keep it close to him, and start by saying the date and who is talking. Ask for stories rather than facts: not where he worked, but what his first day was like. Then stop talking. The second answer, after the silence, is the good one. Keep each file short — a few minutes, one subject — and copy it off the phone the same day. Short files are easier to trim, easier to upload, and far more likely to be played. [Sixty questions to ask your parents](https://time-capsule.io/guides/questions-to-ask-your-parents.md) ## Handing it over on the day {#give} Father's Day is the third Sunday of June in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and France, and the first Sunday of September in Australia and New Zealand. Recipients are emailed when a capsule is created, as well as on the opening day, so for a surprise create the capsule with yourself as the recipient. Seal it beforehand, then give him something to hold: a card with the capsule's link or QR code in it. Scanning it shows a locked capsule counting down to its date, and nothing else. He will act unimpressed and check it again in the evening. Leave the capsule viewable by link, which is the default, and add a password with a hint if you want to restrict who can open it on the day; the password is only asked for once the capsule has unlocked, so the countdown stays visible until then. The trade-off is this. With yourself as the recipient, the opening-day email comes to you, and the link in the card is how he opens it, so tell him to keep the card. If a surprise does not matter, add him as a recipient instead: he is told straight away that a capsule is waiting, without being able to see inside, and the opening-day email reaches him directly. That is also the only case for a private capsule, which opens solely for recipients signed in with the address it was sent to — a link in a card would show him nothing. ## What to know before you seal it {#practical} One person is the author. Only whoever creates the capsule can add to it, so brothers and sisters send their letters and recordings to that person, who uploads them. The author therefore sees everything; a letter meant for his eyes only is a second capsule. Name more than one recipient — you and a sibling if it is a surprise, him and one of you if it is not — so the capsule does not depend on a single inbox, and do it before sealing, because recipients cannot be added afterwards. Free capsules include 300 MB and paid ones 1 GB, with more for a one-time fee — video is what uses it, so trim. Sealing is final: no additions, no moving the date, no early opening, by anyone. When it opens it stays open for the window you chose, and is then deleted from our systems, so opening day is the day to download. [See storage and pricing](https://time-capsule.io/pricing.md) ## Where to go next {#related} - [A Mother's Day time capsule](https://time-capsule.io/mothers-day-time-capsule.md) — The other Sunday, and a different kind of capsule: more letters, fewer car journeys. - [A family time capsule](https://time-capsule.io/family-time-capsule.md) — The household rather than one person: voices, recipes and traditions at one moment. - [Questions to ask your grandparents](https://time-capsule.io/guides/questions-to-ask-your-grandparents.md) — Fifty more, if the father in question is also a grandfather. - [A retirement time capsule](https://time-capsule.io/retirement-time-capsule.md) — For the other day he claims not to want a fuss about. - [How we preserve capsules](https://time-capsule.io/preservation.md) — Whether this will still be here when it opens, answered without marketing language. ## Father's Day capsule questions {#faq} ### What is a Father's Day time capsule? It is a sealed digital capsule made for a father: recordings of his own stories and voice, letters from his children, photos and videos. It is given on one Father's Day, cannot be opened early by anyone, and unlocks automatically on the later date you chose. ### What do you give a dad who says he doesn't want anything? Something that costs attention rather than money. Record him telling his stories and explaining the things he knows how to do, add a letter from each child, and seal it all in a time capsule that opens on a later Father's Day. A capsule that opens within a year is free. ### How do I get my father to agree to be recorded? Do not set up an interview. Record him on your phone while he is doing something — driving, cooking, fixing — and ask for stories rather than facts. Keep each recording to a few minutes. People who refuse to be filmed will often talk freely with their hands busy. ### Can a baby or a toddler give a Father's Day capsule? Through an adult, yes. A young child cannot be a capsule's author, so the other parent creates it: they record the child's voice on their own phone, scan the drawings and upload the files. Nothing is recorded on our site. ### Can a new father write a capsule to his child? Yes. Create the capsule, write the letter, and add the child as a recipient by name — a recipient can be a name saved in your contacts, with no email address. Add both parents by email as well, since a name-only recipient receives no email. Opening dates run up to thirty years ahead under our standard plans. ### How do I give it to him on Father's Day? Recipients are emailed when a capsule is created, so for a surprise create it with yourself as the recipient, seal it, and put its link or QR code in a card. Leave the capsule viewable by link — with a password and a hint if you want to restrict who opens it — because a private capsule only opens for recipients who are signed in. Scanning the card shows a locked capsule counting down to the opening date and nothing else. On that date the email comes to you and the link in the card is how he opens it, so tell him to keep the card. If you add him as a recipient instead, he is told straight away that a capsule is waiting, and is emailed again when it opens.