A Christmas Letter?

[Italiahaircolor]

So, this year was pretty exciting for Mark and I. He won an award of excellence at work that took us to South Beach for a week. We remodeled our home. Celebrated our first anniversary in Las Vegas. And a bunch of other little things that added up nicely.

This year we were kind of out of touch with people due to my working and his working and life in general. I was thinking about doing a nice little mass Christmas letter enclosed in our x-mas card. I''ve never done this before but I do enjoy reading other peoples Christmas letters when the come. But, I''m nervous about doing it, since I''m a Christmas letter virgin and all.

Do any of you compose a letter? What details do you include? How do you open the letter?

And if you don''t write one...

Do you enjoy receiving them? What do you like to hear about? When is enough, enough?

Thanks!
Ashley

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I do write one, but I keep it lighthearted and funny (i.e. "Dan and I picked up 387 piles of Byron''s poop this year!" or "Dan decided to take a break from his career to try day trading with our savings account...as the stock market was crashing", etc). I live far from my family and only talk to many aunts/uncles occasionally, so it''s a fun way to keep them updated on our lives without taking it too seriously.

The key is not to brag. If you write a holiday letter about your endless promotions at work and amazing vacations around-the-word (everybody has this aunt, right?) then I promise you all of your family members are calling each other to laugh about your self-indulgent letter

 

[monarch64]

Date: 10/21/2008 10:23:07 AM
Author: NewEnglandLady
I do write one, but I keep it lighthearted and funny (i.e. ''Dan and I picked up 387 piles of Byron''s poop this year!'' or ''Dan decided to take a break from his career to try day trading with our savings account...as the stock market was crashing'', etc). I live far from my family and only talk to many aunts/uncles occasionally, so it''s a fun way to keep them updated on our lives without taking it too seriously.

The key is not to brag. If you write a holiday letter about your endless promotions at work and amazing vacations around-the-word (everybody has this aunt, right?) then I promise you all of your family members are calling each other to laugh about your self-indulgent letter

My thoughts exactly. I don''t send a Christmas letter but I do enjoy reading some of them. However, I have relatives who really get into the bragging thing and I toss letters before reading them when I see certain folks'' return address labels every year.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 10/21/2008 10:23:07 AM
Author: NewEnglandLady
I do write one, but I keep it lighthearted and funny (i.e. ''Dan and I picked up 387 piles of Byron''s poop this year!'' or ''Dan decided to take a break from his career to try day trading with our savings account...as the stock market was crashing'', etc). I live far from my family and only talk to many aunts/uncles occasionally, so it''s a fun way to keep them updated on our lives without taking it too seriously.


The key is not to brag. If you write a holiday letter about your endless promotions at work and amazing vacations around-the-word (everybody has this aunt, right?) then I promise you all of your family members are calling each other to laugh about your self-indulgent letter

Well said!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Two relatives of mine send out letters and they keep them light hearted even when talking about upgrading homes, (or family deaths!) etc. We read the letters and giggle at what they wrote and it''s become an annual tradition and we expect the letters.

One person writes a month-by-month summary of what occured and the other writes a general letter explain bits of the funny stuff that happened.

Aside from the advice about not bragging, the other advice I would impart is keeping the letter short. Two pages of blabbing away about "Byron''s poop" will drive people nutty. With the month-by-month letter I mentioned, I stuck it in a drawer half way through because it was TOO long. Yawn! I found it months later when packing to move and finished reading it then.

 

[purrfectpear]

Frankly I have zero interest in little Susie''s school accomplishments, how well Johnnie plays the trombone, or where auntie and uncle went on vacation. Nor do I have any stake in work promotions, or the new hamster that was adopted

Christmas letters are exercises in self indulgence IMO. Since you asked

 

[UCLABelle]

I cannot agree more with PurrfectPear- my second cousin sends out a 2-3 page "how great are we?!" letter every year. It has become a joke in the WHOLE family. The sad part is, they actually include their kids GPAs!

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 10/21/2008 12:43:15 PM
Author: UCLABelle
I cannot agree more with PurrfectPear- my second cousin sends out a 2-3 page ''how great are we?!'' letter every year. It has become a joke in the WHOLE family. The sad part is, they actually include their kids GPAs!

That is the over the top bragging I HATE in those kinds of letters. Those poor kids having their GPA''s spread to the entire family!

 

[Haven]

I recently started getting Christmas letters from friends, and I have to admit that I was shocked the first time I read one. I had never seen one before, so I had no idea why I received or why anyone would write it in the first place.

I agree with Purrfectpear, they seem self-indulgent to me. I would much rather receive a handwritten note from a friend than a mass-produced breakdown of the year''s highlights.

 

[Linda W]

No, I do not like them at all. We receive on every year from our friends, who live out of state. All they do is brag about their adult children. They brag about how many houses they have bought and are now renting out. How many exotic vacations they took, within the year.

At the end of the letter, she always writes "We are so fortunate and we love our life", it makes me sick

 

[ChargerGrrl]

OK, i hope this doesn''t come off the wrong way...

I have about 3-4 friends that include an annual letter in their holiday card. two have kids, two don''t. I enjoy reading the kidless letter SO MUCH MORE than the kid letter. I could care less if "little Tom" is now potty trained or was Harry Potter for Halloween, but LOVE reading about R&J''s travels and what wines/books they''ve discovered that year.

Short, to the point and interesting- that''s how i like ''em!

 

[Elmorton]

We did our first last year and had a lot of fun with it - but it was harder than we thought it would be. We both despise "braggy" letters, but look forward to all of our weird friends and relatives'' letters (my mom''s cousin writes about her nine-million year old kitty Boo Boo every year..I sooo look forward to every Christmas to see how Boo Boo weathered all of his ailments this year). So we wanted our letter to be funny and well-written (we''re both writers, so it would be pretty embarrassing if it stunk), but also let friends and family know what we''ve been up to since we''re pretty lousy at keeping in touch and we did have quite the rollercoaster year with getting married, changing jobs, and moving to another state. We made fun of ourselves a lot. On the back of the letter, we included our favorite "literary selection" from the senior-most writer at the newspaper where DH used to work (a sweet guy, but referred to "petting" as "pounding" when discussing how he interacted with his cat, so you can see where that went - and no one edited it because they didn''t want to explain the implication). The literary selection was omitted from anyone''s letter where it might offend. I have nooo idea what we''ll choose last year. Our letter was the talk of the table when we went home for Xmas, so I guess it was well received. I''m thinking this year, we might ditch the actual card and just send a the letter, since we''re trying to spend less money.

 

[Haven]

I would totally love to get your letter, El! I wish my friends were more creative.

 

[Miranda]

I''ve never done a Christmas letter...I probably never will. My thought is that anyone who is really interested and cares about what is going on in my life already knows. That said, when I receive them I do enjoy reading SOME of them.

It seems like Xmas letters fall into two camps. They are either ''Look at me and how wonderful I am. Aren''t you jealous?'' or ''Our life is so horrid. Don''t you feel so sorry for us?'' We get too few that are humorous and pleasant like NEL''s.

 

[oobiecoo]

My aunt and uncle usually send one out and I really like reading it. We only see each other every few years and don''t talk much so its nice to hear about their lives. I think if I ALREADY had any sort of malicious feelings towards them, then the letter may seem like bragging. But they are sweet so I like hearing about their trips/surgeries/kids.

 

[diamondsrock]

Date: 10/21/2008 1:26:28 PM
Author: Linda W
No, I do not like them at all. We receive on every year from our friends, who live out of state. All they do is brag about their adult children. They brag about how many houses they have bought and are now renting out. How many exotic vacations they took, within the year.

At the end of the letter, she always writes ''We are so fortunate and we love our life'', it makes me sick

Linda I would not enjoy reading a letter like that. Talk about bragging and making other people feel like crap!
I don''t do them and normally don''t enjoy reading them, with an exception here and there.

 

[Cind11]

I used to always hand write notes on my Christmas cards. Then, with two kids and everything else going on in December, it got to be too much. So, I switched to the dreaded form letter. I do try to make it funny and definitely try to avoid bragging. I have recieved many letters that were so long, I felt comatose by the end. So, I try to keep mine short and sweet. I didn''t send one a couple years ago, and had comments from people that they missed it, so I guess it must not be too annoying-lol. I think handwritten notes are the best but I''ll take a mass letter from my friends rather than just a signature. It''s nice to hear what''s been going on in others'' lives.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 10/21/2008 8:03:21 PM
Author: Cind11
I used to always hand write notes on my Christmas cards. Then, with two kids and everything else going on in December, it got to be too much. So, I switched to the dreaded form letter. I do try to make it funny and definitely try to avoid bragging. I have recieved many letters that were so long, I felt comatose by the end. So, I try to keep mine short and sweet. I didn't send one a couple years ago, and had comments from people that they missed it, so I guess it must not be too annoying-lol. I think handwritten notes are the best but I'll take a mass letter from my friends rather than just a signature. It's nice to hear what's been going on in others' lives.

I use to do hand written notes as well, but became lazy a few years back. . .oh, and to top it off, talk of lazy, I lost my address book so either I have to call tons of people to get addresses (and listen to them blab on for an hour a person) or wait until everyone sends their cards and I'd rather just not do either because, like I said, I don't even want to do anything anymore but be lazy and play on Pricescope. Also, there's always the people who don't send cards unless I send them one first, which is really obnoxious! Guess those ones won't get cards this year since I don't know where they live. lol

 

[KimberlyH]

Letters are not my thing. I don''t mind receiving them, if well written and not too longwinded and boastful, but I don''t particularly enjoy them, with a few exceptions.

 

[luckystar112]

Date: 10/21/2008 8:03:11 PM
Author: diamondsrock

Date: 10/21/2008 1:26:28 PM
Author: Linda W
No, I do not like them at all. We receive on every year from our friends, who live out of state. All they do is brag about their adult children. They brag about how many houses they have bought and are now renting out. How many exotic vacations they took, within the year.

At the end of the letter, she always writes ''We are so fortunate and we love our life'', it makes me sick

Linda I would not enjoy reading a letter like that. Talk about bragging and making other people feel like crap!
I don''t do them and normally don''t enjoy reading them, with an exception here and there.

Sounds like DH''s brother and SIL....no Christmas letter, but they have a BLOG, so it''s like a Christmas letter every week.
They are constantly saying stuff like "We are so blessed", "We are so fortunate" blah blah blah. It can be interesting sometimes, because they just had their first child and so it can be fun to see him grow. But sometimes the blogs are about how they celebrated each holiday, or what they did over the weekend, and it''s always sooooo great and sooooo special and they are sooooooo blessed.
I wouldn''t be complaining, and I wouldn''t even look, but they took it upon themselves to subscribe me to their blog...so I get updates through email.

 

[Linda W]

HA, sounds like fun luckystar. I am waiting for this years Christmas letter. They bought 2 condo''s in Mexico and are learning Spanish. They want to spend 6 months out of the year in Mexico, for the warmer weather. They live in a snowy state. This years letter ought to be a killer one. HA!!!



Linda

 

[Hera]

I agree that the letters come off boastful and have been sitting here wondering if there is a way to share your fortunate experiences in life with others without appearing like you are bragging. I don''t know...

 

[violet02]

Does anyone do those xmas photo cards? Or are those even worse?

I hate to say it but my grandma LOVES the ones with the kids on them. I personally am not a fan at all. I do like the ones with my friends on them though.

 

[Diamond*Dana]

Date: 10/22/2008 7:58:12 AM
Author: violet02
Does anyone do those xmas photo cards? Or are those even worse?

I hate to say it but my grandma LOVES the ones with the kids on them. I personally am not a fan at all. I do like the ones with my friends on them though.

We do photos of our kids every year. And I love getting the picture cards that my friends send out with their kids on them. We have a lot of friends that live out of town that we do not see, so it is nice to get pictures. Not to mention, I know that my Christmas card will not be a duplicate!

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 10/22/2008 12:52:41 AM
Author: heraanderson
I agree that the letters come off boastful and have been sitting here wondering if there is a way to share your fortunate experiences in life with others without appearing like you are bragging. I don''t know...

I think if you avoid using the words "fortunate, blessed, so lucky" after every event AND avoid simply listing accomplishments I think you can share what you''ve been up to, even accomplishments, without coming across too braggy. I agree with the others that humor is the best way to go.

 

[Linda W]

Now the Christmas photo cards I like. A few of my friends do those with pictures of their grandchildren on them and I love seeing those. These are friends I went to high school with, so I really enjoy the pictures.


Linda

 

[hibiscus]

Hmm, I''m not sure if I''ll be writing a Xmas letter this year, would like to (if so, it would be the first). I truly enjoyed reading some of the letters but I agree with the rest on this thread, its major bragging and same ol'' story for the rest of the letters.

I would love to hear about trip(s) that they went to, moving into a new house/upgrades, candid blunders, jest.. Lighthearted notes.

 

[Italiahaircolor]

LOL, thank you ladies, I appreciate your input. I guess I will have to do a few drafts, read them out loud, and make a decision from there!

Thanks so much, again!

 

[princesss]

I''m pretty tempted to send one just to my grandparents (and send a copy to my parents in e-mail). I don''t really communicate with them that often, and I''m sure they''d like to know how life is going.

That said, I also love the chance to write something funny, so it''d end up being "Tales from the Smith Family, Inc''s new satellite branch" and talking about how I''ve finally achieved my life-long dream of becoming the neighbourhood cat lady (complete with pictures of me and the cats...possibly dressed up), and have finally come to terms with that dreaded thing called "morning" (Don''t worry if you call me at 8 o''clock in the morning and I answer cheerfully. The body snatchers haven''t arrived, I''ve just joined the land of the crazy little thing called "work". The silly things people do for paychecks.)

 

[mia1181]

Yes every holiday letter I receive are from people that are just trying to brag. The people that really care about you already know that you bought a new house or that little suzie was in the school play.

DH has an aunt and uncle who are notorious braggers about their adult sons. He even receives B-day cards from them with little notes at the bottom about how well his cousins are doing!

Now I like photocards. I can appreciate regular family or kiddo portraits, but a really artistic or funny shot goes right up on the fridge!

And I am a nanny so I DO like seeing how the kids are growing each year.

This year I was thinking of doing a christmas-y picture of our dog. But DH thinks its a corny idea. Our xmas list is only people we are close with and our dog is a bit of a celebrity in our family, because of all of his health issues. I just thought it might be better than a regular hallmark...