Long distance relationship gifts that put both places on the wall

Being apart for Christmas changes what makes a good present. It has to survive the post, and it helps if it says something about the distance without being glum about it. These are the prints we make that work for two places, and how to set each one up.

Both towns on one map

The travel map print takes two to twelve stops and draws them on one map, joined by a curved arc like a flight path, a straight line, dashes, or nothing at all. For a couple living apart, the plainest version is two stops: your town and theirs. Add a third for the place you met, or list every place you've managed to see each other so far, in order, with the dates. The example above counts its stops and the miles between them as the crow flies along the bottom of the sheet.

Two things worth knowing. The lines join the places but don't trace the real flights or train routes. And if one of you lives somewhere small, try the nearest town in the search, or add the country.

The same Moon, seen from two places

At any given moment the Moon is in the same phase for both of you. It doesn't look the same, though: seen from Australia or New Zealand it appears turned round compared with the view from Britain. The Moon print works out the phase and the way the Moon is turned for the place you choose, so two prints of the same date, one for each town, make a pair: one Moon, drawn the way each of you would have seen it. A date is all it strictly needs; the place and local time fine-tune it.

The night you met

The star map print shows the stars above one place at one moment, placed from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue. The night you met is the usual choice. If you don't know the time, leave it blank: the sky is drawn for ten at night and the print shows the date alone. For a single place rather than a sky, the map print marks one spot on a real street map with a heart; our where we met map print page has more on that.

Their voice, drawn

A long distance relationship runs on voice notes. The soundwave print draws one as a wave with the words underneath: a WhatsApp voice note exported to a file, a saved voicemail, or the sound from a video. Your browser reads the recording and it is never uploaded. The print shows the shape of the sound and doesn't play. Our voice message gift page explains how to get a voice note off a phone.

Posting it

Unframed prints travel rolled in a tube; framed ones arrive ready to hang. Parcels carry no receipt or invoice, so the print can go straight to their address, abroad included, though customs paperwork may show the value. Check the delivery estimate on the product page against the last day you want it to arrive.