From a Swedish mountaintop, live reindeer photos in DIY holiday cards

Thanks to webcams and the power of the internet, consumers can already perform an increasing number of tasks remotely, including vegetable gardening and planning trips to the local health clinic. Our latest spotting? A Swedish effort that lets people snap live photos of real, mountaintop reindeer for inclusion on their very own Christmas cards. Four cameras are trained on a group of real reindeer atop Sweden’s Funäsdalen Mountain, where they’re being cared for by reindeer herder Niklas Blindh and a team of helpers. For SEK 15, or roughly USD 2.25, consumers can focus the live cameras in on a scene they like, snap a photo and have it printed and sent with greetings as a Christmas card to their loved ones; worldwide postage is included. Users can also vote on the photos snapped so far in a gallery on the site. The Living Christmas Card effort, as it’s called — or Levande Julkort in Swedish — was created by Posten, Sweden’s postal service. The world may be an increasingly homogenized place, but sometimes there’s nothing like a local, (still) made here touch. We wouldn’t be surprised, in fact, to see a charitable angle added to an effort like this, with the goal of protecting reindeer habitats around the planet. In addition, it’s refreshing to see a national postal service target consumers worldwide. (Related: Novelty telegram service, $4.70 worldwide.) Spotted by: Erik Boltjes