<p>UCDAlum82–sorry for your loss.</p>
<p>All of these ways people keep connected help. I think triumphs and tragedies are best shared.</p>
<p>It’s always so sad to take a name off the list due to a death. (I refuse to delete departed friends and clients from my Outlook address book. It’s like I’m afraid that if I delete them, they’ll be forgotten.) </p>
<p>In July, we got a note in the mail from an unknown address in Arizona. Turns out, the lady’s single brother had passed away and she took all of his Christmas cards and sent a note of his passing to everyone who had sent him a card the year before. It was very considerate of her to do that.</p>
<p>I do a picture-is-worth-a-thousand words Chrismas card, either 5x7 or 4x6, with 15 to 30 very small photos, arranged in chronological order (usually) with some different theme every year–this year it is filmstrips–and little teeny sized type (6 pt–get out your magnifying glass!) that you can read or not. Sometimes I think they are kind of obnoxious, because they are all pictures of us! But I really do them for our own family and our own recollections, as they have been a sort of mini-scrapbook for the year (I’m far too lazy to do real photo albums–yes, I do edit each album, usually weeding out 75% or more. I hate unedited online photo albums.).</p>
<p>Have been doing them since the days of scissors and real photos and gluestick. Now it’s all Photoshop/InDesign. Mailed, except that I email copies to some distant friends. Someday I will frame our collection, if I can find them all!</p>
<p>I do like Christmas letters, to answer the question. I, like garland, am nosy/curious.</p>
<p>We send out a letter that we incorporate into the card. My wife is very creative. She buys nice stock paper and then goes to Kinkos and has the letter copied onto the paper. She then attaches the photo on the front. So the letter is in the middle and on the back of the card. My wife has the great knack of telling what is going on with the family without embellishing or bragging about the achievements of the kids. </p>
<p>We look forward to a number of cards each year. There is the ultra-right wing card that professes the end of the world with the election of Obama. There is the sad sack card where the family has a continuous black cloud over them. There is the super bragging card that tells how many vacations and all the awards the kids win. Then our favorite, the card that spends two pages of dull month by month occurences (John was promoted to assistant manager at the Red Lobster in July and Susan knitted a beautiful Afghan in September) I think knowing that other people are living boring lives just like ours is comforting.</p>
<p>I love them. We have friends that we have met over the years that live far away. I love getting to see how they are doing and how their kids are growing up. Some can be a little like brag sheets but I still enjoy the news.</p>
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<p>My favorite quote of the day!</p>
<p>For several years now, I’ve made our Christmas cards by stamping. This August, we had professional family portraits taken at Lake Michigan and the photography studio offered a great deal on creating Christmas cards with the portraits if you placed a certain dollared amount order. I have to say I’ve already received several comments from people who absolutely love our cards this year (humpf… so much for the handmade ones from previous years!). Each year I try to condense our newsletter more and more. I will say that this year, I was able to use an 11 pt. type and keep it to one page (front and back). In years past, I’ve gone as low as 8 pt.</p>
<p>All joking aside, when I don’t get cards from people, I do worry, especially if they’ve been diligent in sending cards previous years. </p>
<p>In Chicago, on WGN radio, there’s a talk show every weekday from 9-noon with Kathy and Judy. Every year they have a ‘Very Merry Medical Christmas’ show where they read excerpts from Christmas letters listeners have sent them. They make everything here people have mentioned seem tame… really. It’s hilarious. I can’t believe the details people are willing to share in a Christmas letter.</p>
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<p>There are several people who send us gorgeous hand made cards. They put me in such a quandry - what do I do with them? Too nice to be thrown awan, but no place to display. They are kept, probably never to be looked at again, but still kept.</p>
<p>We save all of our favorite/handmade Christmas cards, cut off the inside, and then use the pretty front cover as either a bookmark or a gift tag for next year’s presents.</p>
<p>Oh, gift tags would be a great use for them! Maybe while I’m “babysitting” Son to force him two write those two honors college application essays, I can get out the scissors and hole punch.</p>
<p>^^UCDAlum82–I’m very sorry to hear of your loss. This is your first holiday season without your DH and it will be hard for you and your family. I wish you all the best.</p>
<p>My DH died in October a few years ago. Of course I mentioned his death in my Christmas letter that I sent out early that year. There were actually several people who didn’t express condolences on their cards or at another time. The following year’s list became shorter when I dropped their names.</p>
<p>I believe in sharing bad news and struggles as well as the joys of the year. I get lots of compliments on my letter, because it sure doesn’t paint the picture of one triumph after another. I DO try to share the news with a sense of humor. My mother didn’t always like my letters, because she likes to pretend everything is perfect, but if I’m going to tell people about our life, I’m going to be honest. This year’s was a little easier for her to read, because none of her grandkids got arrested or sent off to boot camp etc. 
I put pictures in it, too. I think it is important to keep in touch with old friends, and it is starting to bother me a lot that others don’t feel the same. I’m starting to cut back the list- why bother sending these masterpieces into nothingness?</p>
<p>I like them. We try to keep ours pretty lighthearted, though we do include news of family deaths if we must. One of our best letters was about the year both boys got taller than us. We keep ours pretty short, we make it part of the card so it’s only about half a page total.</p>
<p>Agree with the majority, I love them, too. I send them but sometimes not till after New Year’s; one year we had to wish everyone a “Top o’ the mornin’!” (in March).</p>
<p>I am reminded of the Christmas letter I got from a friend who was dying. She’d been ill for years with a brain tumor. She joked about everyone else’s cards and how they were filled with college acceptances and new retirement homes. The highlights of her year included having a third brain operation and time in rehab learning how to sign her name again. She then said that she was fairly sure that she would die before the next Christmas and she didn’t want anyone to learn about it when their Christmas card was returned marked deceased the next year. So, if you wanted to be advised when she died, please send your email address to her assistant to be included in the list of those to be notified when the end came. </p>
<p>It was just so her–brave and straightforward until the end. As sad as they come, but still filled with dignity and guts.</p>
<p>We moved from our home town when the kids were very small and began a tradition of a photo card to all and a letter to friends far away. I do cringe when I reread some of my old ones, but I think it all depends on the tone you read into the letter. We get one every year from a junior leaguer that is just nauseating and we all get a laugh out of the perfection that is her life. We try to make it amusing on purpose so people are laughing with us not at us :D</p>
<p>I still have not put my cards together as we have not yet done a family photo, it just never worked out all summer so we need to do it this week- it gets more and more difficult as they age and have their own lives. I am sorely temped to “Go Green” and email the photo and letter, but am feeling guilty about that. </p>
<p>I agree with what people have said above about not wanting just a card with a sig, I want details!!</p>
<p>UCDAlum82, I hope this season is a gentle one.</p>
<p>I love the letters. Being a military family for so long now both our families and most of our friends are far flung and I so look forward to the updates. I’ve never written one but I think I might do it this year. I send cards out for New Year, so I’ve still got time to decide.</p>
<p>I like reading letters but I’m getting less every year. One family that used to send my family letters now decided to send a reunion pictures of 30+ people in a small postcard.
Maybe I should write my own Christmas letter to let them know that I can barely recognize anyone anymore. How on earth do they expect me to see all those tiny little faces, even with glasses. Arghh!!</p>
<p>My sister in law always sends one that is over the top bragging about each of her kids…</p>
<p>Being the evil genius that I am, last year I was home when it came - so I opened the card, inserted my new alternative letter, and then sealed it back up and put it back in the mailbox. I am still laughing thinking about it - and my wife’s reaction reading it. If I can find a copy, I’ll post it…</p>
<p>LOL scualum!! Please post it!</p>
<p>I enjoy the letters we receive, and usually enjoy composing one of my own. Prior to easy computer printing, etc. I wrote individual notes in each card. It took hours and days. I try to include some less than perfect news, ie daughter’s car accident, so I’m not totally obnoxious. </p>
<p>Last year one letter informed me of the unexpected death of a former neighbor. This letter came from a different neighbor, not the spouse. I was horrified that I had already sent out a card to the surviving spouse with the name of the deceased on it as well. I still feel terrible about it. </p>
<p>I did notice a few less letters this year and an overall decrease in the cheerfulness of the ones I did receive. I too dislike s simply signed card from someone I don’t see often. Share some news!</p>