<p>I also enjoy getting them, especially the ones with pics. I have friends who have sent me photos of their children every year and it was nice to see them grow up. I’ve been bad at reciprocating though!</p>
<p>I love getting them and <em>sometimes</em> manage to get one out from our family. I try not to make it braggy, but one summer I was visiting a cousin and his wife and we got on the subject of holiday letters. She had had a few beers and started describing the kind of braggy letter she couldn’t stand and it sounded a lot like mine! I think she had probably forgotten who sent it.</p>
<p>Last year, I was going to wait until the college decision had been made and send a spring letter instead, but I never got around to it. I’m just too <em>busy</em> here on CC. Come to think of it’s nice to have an anonymous place to brag about my kid.</p>
<p>Those letters always sound so kind of fake to me. They ring hollow:“Spencer has just gotten a fabulous internship in London at one of the top investment banks, while Trevor is loving Harvard”. I don’t know. They make me queasy!</p>
<p>I always wonder the same thing, as I sit down each year and write our annual letter. I try to inject humor into it as much as possible, and get good feedback from most people; I figure the rest throw the letter away; that’s OK by me. We’re generally pretty upbeat people, so yes, I tend to focus on the positives, but try to throw a few details in to assure everyone that we’re a “normal” family. I started this year’s letter saying that D1 had decided there was no future in astrophysics, so had quit school, was working 3rd shift at a local convenience store, and was hanging out with a guy named “Tater”…and that D2 had taken up with a heavily tattooed and pierced bearded lady and had joined the circus. LOL, I’d sent the letter (and the wonderful pic of my girls) out—one of the recipients was one of D1’s teachers…she stopped D2 in the hall today to say how much she loved the letter—except that she almost had a heart attack when she read the beginning!!!</p>
<p>I love to get them, even if they do sound a little bit over the top. I’m glad to here the news, the successes, the disappointments ESPECIALLY if we’ve been out of touch. I have a huge family and there is no way to keep in close contact with all of the nieces, nephews, cousins, etc. I’m always so happy to hear their news and see their pictures. Sometimes it’s the most info. I get in a long time and I would really miss them if we didn’t get them.</p>
<p>I like to get them. I like to send them so far off friends and family will remember me.</p>
<p>But, I have great trouble writing them some years. 'If you can’t say something nice…" The years that the kids were miserable in a new school and city, I couldn’t come up with much.</p>
<p>A woman friend of mine has sent one out each year for the last twenty years and always makes poems out of them. The ryhming kind. Was kind of cute the first couple of times but was a little old in year 3.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the year, thought we would do one at the end of year here (but without ryhmes!) but each of us had such a hardship (illness, death of a close one, etc.) that has kind of washed over the rest of our lives that I think we’ll wait til next year.</p>
<p>Oh, BTW, 2007? Booooo,hisssssss!</p>
<p>Thanks so much! With a little more faith that they aren’t totally passe, I’ll continue writing. These days it seems I receive few, don’t know anyone else who continues this tradition, which is why I was wondering. Will consider a National Enquirer format for next year. Well, maybe not. I did have a friend who put the entire thing to rhyme, year after year, but somehow can’t quite get there myself, though appreciate that sort of cleverness.</p>
<p>Cross posted with dadguy!</p>
<p>we get about 4 a year, eh…one family has a daughter who doesn’t do that well in life, and you can see the mom stretching and searching for something to write about- Becky keeps her room cleaner this year</p>
<p>another, the H and Wife were having problems, and though the wife tried, it came through in the letter</p>
<p>Bobby is really enjoying his free time since being laid off from work…he is coaching more and more, and is often away from home…</p>
<p>I enjoy reading them, but not necessariy for the reasons the sender want</p>
<p>I like the letters which offer a vignette which exemplifies the personalities and sense of humor of the senders. One year a friend told about standing in line at the grocery store with her young son, looking over the tabloid headlines. The story which grabbed his attention reported that a woman had ignited by spontaneous combustion. He inquired about what that might be, and she explained that spontaneous combustion would be when someone burst into flames for no good reason. He paused and then asked patiently “what would be a good reason for someone to burst into flames?” </p>
<p>We told a tale about S’s trip home from college on public transportation at holiday time, which apparently made the rounds at his former high school (one of the teachers was a family friend and had received the letter), and he was contacted by his sophmore English teacher, who was very amused by the story. </p>
<p>This year there were no clever stories, but we went lots of places, and that was fun to tell, the “who went where and why and what they did there.” Folks frequently tell us they love our letters, and periodically we willl hear “we may not always get cards out, but please keep us on your list, we love to read your letters.” Of course if someone has an accomplishment, we tell it, but from the point of view of how it felt, what the scene was, etc., we bring friends to the arena. </p>
<p>This year I did not do the last proofread, and after the letter was written, I found an extra “to” in the middle of it. Now that bothers me…I hope noone noticed.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to admit that our family generally finds those letters to be either boring or hilariously funny (in a bad way - we are laughing at you, not with you!). One such letter that we LOVED and we later emulated however, was a collage of the year in pictures, with no writing at all. It depicted the sports, travel, graduations, etc., without a single brag. Perhaps we loved it because pics (pretty much) validate the reality and emotion of those experiences, as opposed to the writings of a proud mom’s interpretation of them.</p>
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<p>Lorelei-- If it bothered them, you’ll get a polite rejection letter from your family on April 1.</p>
<p>Did you line up some safeties? ;)</p>
<p>I guess I’m not sure which part of mine is bragging- that my son got arrested in two states or that he has a good internship at a law firm and hasn’t gone AWOL from his Ivy League school so far this year? Like I said, I share itall, and I make it funny. I have to, otherwise it would be frightening for the reader!</p>
<p>I think it was Miss Manners who said if all those people aren’t close enough to already know what’s going on your life, they aren’t close enough to care. I’ll admit to making fun of a few over the years. One year I turned all the sentences around as if Yoda had written them. “Dear Catarina the lead in the high school musical was cast.” Some I am happy to get but not the ones that read like a little brag book. I like to know where kids are going to college and such, but bragging is bragging and it is never in good taste - except on this board where it is expected.</p>
<p>I enjoy getting these letters, so that I know what’s new in the lives of old friends and relatives that I don’t see very often. I also send them out. Up until this year, we used a format where each family member did his (or her) own section. This could really be funny when the boys were little, and the relatives loved it. Unfortunately, now that the “boys” are 21 and 24, they refuse to contribute, so it’s up to me. I’m afraid this year’s is a bit boring, but I’ll try to do better next year.</p>
<p>The only time I sent one was the year our daughter got married & graduated from college. There were other big things going on, and I knew I’d be writing the same sentences in every card by hand, otherwise.</p>
<p>Generally our cards just get a couple of sentences to convey news we know the recipient will be interested in. For instance, some people appreciate arcane musical accomplishments, others wouldn’t be impressed if you played the violin with one hand tied behind your back!</p>
<p>I like getting them as long as they’re a reasonable length and about people we know. When I was growing up, a family sent one every year that we read out loud hysterically every year. Most of it was about the writer’s distant relatives who we didn’t even know and told about stuff they did in excruciating detail. Now we get one every year that’s about 6 pages single spaced in about an 8 font. We give up usually after the first page. When we’ve sent out holiday letters, my rule of thumb is that it should be no more than one page double spaced. I like to include photos… I don’t like getting Christmas cards with only a signature and nothing else. I’d like to know what people have been up to, especially if I don’t see them most of the year.</p>
<p>Would should do it like on the essay threads… Can I PM you my
Christmas letter and you give me feedback on whether I’m bragging?</p>
<p>^:)^ .</p>
<p>I like to receive holiday letters of any sort. One that I like is done in the form of a top ten list. That works well, as it’s short but you still get an idea of what the family has done. Another one is just hilarious because it is done in such a bragging style. I love to get that one for the humor: we sailed to Alaska for the summer and here’s a photo of us hiking in Italy…lah de dah.</p>
<p>I find it hard to write my own letter because I don’t want to sound like I am bragging. My D is graduating from college this month though, so I guess I am entitled to a tiny burst of proud-mom pride.</p>