MacGruber, Jerseylicious, Waldo, and Pink Musketeer want to wish you a Happy New Year! (This is not the picture we ended up going with.)I am a fan of the Christmas letter. Because I want to know what is going on with you. Because I am a hermit and probably haven't actually talked to you in person since, well, 1997. And I am fine with that, because you keep me updated with your Christmas Letter.
Some people do not like the Christmas Letter. Those people are out of luck when they get my card, tell you what.
There are a common schools of thought to the Christmas Letter. Shall we?
First, that it should be peppy and cheerful. I fully agree with this one. I knew a girl who, when asked what she wanted to have included in her portion, spelled out details of her intentional overdose. This is not peppy. Yes, it is honest, but is it something you want the nine-year-old of your best friend's neighbor reading? No. Is it something that family should know about? Maybe. Is the Christmas Letter the place to break it to Great Aunt Tilda? No. If Grumpy Boots Teenager wants to tell the world that the holidays are just a commercial scam and there is no Messiah, then it is up to you, the writer, to spin it. Maybe like this: "Becky Sue (who now prefers to be called Rebecca) is really getting into the spirit in her world religion classes! She loves serving others, especially those who do not live in our home. We love that she is so unique and that black is such a flattering color on her!"
Another rule of Christmas Lettering is that it should be short. I agree with this to a point--I keep it down to one page. If you have thirteen children, yours will be longer. That is fine. If you have no children, only show ponies, you should have a paragraph.
Some people like to have a theme with their letters. They recap the year month-by-month, or write the whole thing like a news article. This does not work for me because I don't remember what we did last month, and I am not good at the formatting and photoshopping. But I don't mind reading them. I always wonder, though, for the monthly updaters: do you feel pressure to do something memorable each month? What happens when March is just full of deadlines and crap and your electric bill gets turned off because you were so busy with absolutely nothing that you forgot to pay it?
I have a special theme to my letters--I almost didn't share it because I am quite happy with it and don't want a ton of imitators. But then I remembered that I actually stole it from a Valentine's letter Azucar put out years ago. And I felt guilty. So here it is: We each get a paragraph, and it includes our recommendations for books and movies to read. Then we say what we would do if we had a million dollars. I like it, it keeps the paragraphs unified, and makes us seem very creative and winning. WINNING.
Finally, know your audience. One of my friends has got this down to a science: she has come to terms with the fact that people really only want to know about her grand kids. So that is what she updates about. I labor under the delusion that everyone wants to know about me, so that is what I write about.
This year I experimented with a little religion in the closing paragraph. Usually I don't feel compelled to bear my testimony in a holiday missive, but felt like I needed to express my gratitude for an exceedingly crazy year full of blessings. Some people are all full of the Sperrit and like to testify in the whole letter, with crazy capitalization and Comic Sans. I get a little uncomfortable with that, unless it reeks of The Crazy, in which case I copy it and email to all of my friends.
And that is how I go to Hell every Christmas.
What think you about the letter? Do you do it? Enjoy it? Read it? Hate it?
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16 comments:
I don't know how I feel about my own Christmas letter. I'm not married, so I think it would be awkward. But I don't even know what my parents say about me in their letter. So I just don't do one.
You are off of the hook until you get your own place :)
Oh, Rebecca!
Love the letter. Uncomfortable with bearing testimony at the end (for my own letter, not when I read others' letters).
I enjoy a brief letter, especially if they are funny, but not everyone can be funny. That is okay. I do not enjoy the holiday letters with all the exclamation points! About how wonderful! everyone! is!!!!!!!!! I happen to have married into a family where the matron LOVES capitalization and exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!! It kills me. She also exaggerates excessively, like saying that I am a genealogy whiz and that my company sent me all around the globe to teach in genealogy conferences. (She said this in the 2009 letter, referring to a company that laid me off in 2008. And that company sent me to Australia, but only because I lived in New Zealand at the time.) So anyway, I dread that letter because it is always full of lies, and nothing says Christmas spirit like lies.
First. I love you. We would be friends if I still lived in EP. Even though I can be a hermit too and we might not hang out often, But, we'd be friends.
Second. Yes. I do letters and I love to get them too. The only exception being really long ones. Like more than 1 page. Cause I'm ADD. Mine the last few years have been in a Top Ten format. I'll post mine around Christmas on my blog. And it hasn't been a totally chipper year for me, but I tried to keep it light. My Brother does the best letters by far. They are funny, slighly inappropriate & just a dash spiritual at the end.
Sherry, lies are the glue that hold a family together. Jus Keeding. Maybe you can play "Spot the lie" and circle them in red pen. I would enjoy that.
Anne-Marie, I kind of like the inappropriateness to a degree--but I have received cards that felt like the kids were actually being made fun of, and that is just uncomfortable. Or a holiday dinner at my extended family's! Zing!
And Rebecca, indeed.
I love reading the letters. They are awesome. Which makes me feel extra guilty for not making one. I figure my excuse for now is saving on postage and a blog that I don't update frequently enough, but really I'm just lazy. Big props to you for making it.
I've seen an ABC's of the family that was really fun. Either way, some sort of theme is always good. I like the million dollars idea(no worries...too lazy, won't steal it).
I think the most awkward Christmas letter I ever came across (it was sent to my parents) was one where the family had lost a child a number of years before. He still got his own stanza in the Christmas poem. It was just as awkward at the other stanzas. The kids also held a portrait of the deceased child in their family photo. While I'd hate to feel like everyone else was forgetting this person who was a huge part of my life, I don't think that's the best way to remind them.
One real favorite was done in Book of Mormon style, complete with scripture-like formatting and footnotes. ("And it came to pass that my father did wax exceedingly bald." One of the teens in the family actually did it.) Another was done in two columns: the first was the glossed-over, perky, Christmas letter version of their news, and the other column was the self-deprecating reality. ("Jim amazed us by completing his first 5K! | It took him two hours to run, and two weeks to recover.")
I loves the letters. Writing and getting. And you better send me one OR. ELSE.
But mine's gonna be a New Year's letter this year, if there's a letter at all. Because I suck.
I LOOOOVe the letters
because even when they are horrifically awkward and glossy they are the best of holiday entertainment for me to mock
sometimes I send them, sometimes I don't...
When I get around to it, I like to think I write great letters. When I get around to it. Which these days is never.
I love, love, love the letters. One year, I sent them out it was very tough to come up to come up with anything perky, so we made up a bunch of obvious lies and decided to make it funny.
One sucky year in 20 is not a bad average.
Soybean, you get one this year, but it may not arrive until Epiphany.
Jordan, I NEED to see that letter. because the description brings out the best and worst in me.
Fig and Kalli both need to email me their new addresses, because they had to go and move.
And Azucar--just have J do the letter this year. SERIOUSLY. I WANT TO READ THAT.
Mrs O, I have seen some that were nothing but lies and I thought they were great. Always a good way to keep it nice. you are one I need an address for, as well.
Pretty much if you wrote it, I love it.
I should have been a little smarter in my soap negotiations with you and traded soap for a Christmas letter written by you about my family!
There's always next year...
I like getting them. We had these friends from school that sent out the BEST letter each year. As in " we have amazing jobs at the Supreme court and teach refugees during our lunch hour/ did I tell you about the time we ran a marathon and converted a fellow running during the race" etc, etc. It was the coveted letter to get each year.
We didn't get any cards yet this year. Guess not sending them out for two yearscaught up with us. Derek has a theory that you can't have just the kids in the picture. I kind of don't mind that.
Favorite holiday letter ever? The year Dereks grandpa sent out one to everyone he has ever met. The one where he told every one we adopted " a little colored girl". Gulp.
I love letters. I love letters the same way I love people, either genuinely, or for entertainment purposes.
Now I feel like I have taken away the opportunity for people to love me (either way is fine,) and it makes me sad. Maybe next year.
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