<p>This thread has me scrutinizing the letters I have so far this year more carefully. My favorites are from two different families who keep track of quotes from family members during the year, then weave those in with stories from the year (sometimes the quote tells it all, though!). Another family I know did a multiple choice newletter that was really funny.</p>
<p>Don’t know what it is about this year, though. I was able to draft a letter without too much struggle the year my brother committed suicide, and I did tell about the pending divorce last year. I guess I am just ready to put 2008 in the rear view mirror, and didn’t want to relive it. But I ate some Christmas cookies, turned on the tree lights, and that helped put me in the right frame of mind. :)</p>
<p>I love them and read every word. A couple of our far flung friends have just started sending them, and it is wonderful to have so much information, instead of just a few handwritten lines or signatures only. I am happy to hear about anything they care to tell me.</p>
<p>I’ve been sending them since 2002, with only one year off when both of my parents died in November, just 3 weeks apart. Most of what I report is the good news, except for important things like deaths or serious illness in close family members. There are certain types of bad news that I just can’t picture typed out in perfect grammar next to a Santa Claus sticker. My close friends and family already know those things anyway.</p>
<p>I don’t understand people who say that they don’t like Christmas letters. They can just put them in the recycle bin unread.</p>
<p>I even like the so-called “brag” letters. The way I see it is that people are just reporting facts. I want to hear about people’s accomplishments, whether they are very special or just ordinary. A person shouldn’t have to downplay something they or their child did just so it doesn’t look like they are bragging.</p>
<p>So glad to read here that many like getting the letters, because I have been doing them for at least a decade. I try to keep mine somewhat humorous while updating. I agree with those who get frustrated when all you hear from someone is a signature – “not dead yet” is all that conveys.</p>
<p>Our annual Christmas letter is also a nice keepsake for our family. I mean to put one from each year in an album.</p>
<p>I don’t get too many of them , but they are fun…mostly filled with bragging about the minor accomplishments of their children…that’s okay though.
My mother gets some that we all love to read.</p>
<p>One lady sounds like Debbie Downer because all she seems to write about is who died and who has the goiter now. Classic Christmas cheer !</p>
<p>I HATE them. That’s not meant as an insult to those of you who enjoy sending or receiving them, it’s just me. Truthfully, I have gotten to where I generally just never read them.</p>
<p>On the other hand I really enjoy it when the sender includes a short, handwritten update on how they are doing. I’ll usually do the same when sending a card to friends who live far away.</p>
<p>I guess the letters seem kind of mass produced and impersonal to me.</p>
<p>I love the lady who asked folks to email her assistant if they wanted to be notified of her death…that is so something that I would do. I’ve had a “funeral” folder in my files at work for years…songs, scriptures,…just in case.</p>
<p>I love them. I don’t care if they brag or not. I especially enjoy the creative ones. I try to do ours differently each year. We’ve written one like a tabloid once with shocking headlines to explain what happened in the year. Did one in a multiple choice format once. This year, each person wrote their own synopsis of their year. Running out of ideas.</p>
<p>At our house it seems those newsy letters arrive only from people outside mainstream society. Some of the letters we can’t even bring ourselves to read anymore – like the one from the survivalist family who pulled their kids from a fundamentalist Christian school (in the Bible Belt!) because “it was too liberal.”</p>
<p>This is my tenth year sending letters. I admit they’re not as personal as handwritten notes, but the cards wouldn’t get sent out at all, if I had to write them!</p>
<p>There is the problem of letters leaning either to the bad news or the good news side, I admit. I used to be able to lighten them with stupid, funny stories about the kids when they were younger, but now W, who reserves the right to edit me, takes the “funny” stuff out, except where it’s aimed at me, because she doesn’t want people to think I’m criticizing!</p>
<p>So, they end up looking too much like “brag” sheets (or else they’re really short), with some references to my bumbling incompetence.</p>
<p>Still, I like to have these letters simply to record the big events of the year, and welcome them from others.</p>
<p>What I’ve noticed in the letters for the first time ever are references to working in the Obama campaign and/or how excited the writer is about the upcoming administration. Believe me, our Christmas card list is not very “blue” so I’ve been thrilled by these references (including some by Husband’s cousins, which really surprised me). I kept politics out of our letter - don’t want to anger anyone who is still disappointed by the results - but I did write a couple of notes to like minded folks.</p>
<p>I don’t remember anyone expressing how thrilled they were by Bush’s elections.</p>
<p>I send a newsletter each year. The good, the bad. I try to keep it light-hearted. I check it over and over to make sure nothing in it sounds like I’m bragging about the kids because (like everyone else) I don’t like to read newsletters full of bragging about the kids. Cousins who live far away have told me they like my newsletter. Last year we had a really hectic December and I didn’t do Christmas cards or a newsletter for the first time since DH and I got married in '84. I got several calls, emails asking if we were all okay. Told my mom everyone probably assumed someone in the family had been arrested. </p>
<p>My mom and I think people maybe sit down and read the newsletters after Christmas. Isn’t everyone’s house too hectic right before Christmas to sit down and read all of the massive missives? :)</p>
<p>missypie - I included references to my work for the campaign, but most importantly shared that I’d gone down to Grant Park election night, and how it was one of the most moving experiences of my lifetime. I did kind of preface the paragraph with my hesitation to bring politics into the newsletter, but it was an important event in my life in 2008, and if someone is offended or angry with my sharing that news, then they will have to deal with it. I’m not going to pretend to be something I’m not.</p>
<p>I LOVE Christmas letters, any kind. I even like the bragging variety. My mother used to receive one each year from my old high school boyfriend that was of that sort and I loved reading it. We also get one letter that is always well-written but full of every sort of brag the woman can think of, but I look forward to reading it every year. (Sailing to Alaska on their boat, trips to Europe, la di dah…) </p>
<p>This year I received a Christmas letter from a good friend who handled the death of her husband and the birth of a new grandchild so gracefully. She used a “if…then” format and it worked wonderfully. If this had not happened, then this wouldn’t have happened. It was so well done that I called her to compliment her on her writing.</p>
<p>I just e-mailed my first one last night – I’m so bad at snail mail but when I received some holiday newsletters via e-mail, the light bulb went on. It was actually a good exercise to sum up the year and remember what had actually transpired. Although it did read a little like a list of accomplishments as three kids graduated, etc., I hope the recipients will enjoy it. I’m glad to see that so many people on this thread enjoy receiving them. I don’t know about e-mail as a venue for newsletters, but I do know I hate throwing those hard-copy letters and pics from people away but I never know what to do with them – this way I can copy those I want to keep into a document and not have to feel guilty about tossing photos later.</p>
<p>Regarding politics in the newsletter… I included a bit, too. I mentioned that I went to an Obama rally in Little Rock and Bill Clinton was the featured speaker. The recipients can draw their own conclusions.</p>
<p>Four years ago I wrote that I had campaigned for 4 days in PA but didn’t say who my candidate was.</p>
<p>I save a copy of each newsletter I compose, figuring that is a mini diary of the highlights of our year. People always tell me they like them and I don’t think they are just being polite. In this one I used some nice graphics related to one fabulous trip but only emailed them as color printing is pretty expensive. I still need to learn how to insert photos.</p>
<p>My niece did a cute Q and A multi choice letter about what she did during 2008.</p>
<p>I enjoy getting them but I’m never organized enough to put them together and send them out. This year, however, I did respond to the letter I received from my college roommate (actually one of her two sons has done their family letter for the last several years) with an update letter, I was so inspired by the one I received from her family. But I only sent it to her. It was newsy, chatty, full of joy and some sadness, and more than a few challenges over the last year. And it was very satisfying to put it together. It’s made me think that I should really take the time to do it next holiday season.</p>
<p>One easy way to do a holiday letter is to combine it with photos. I did this last year in a very low-tech way. I put about five photos on a plain sheet of paper and wrote little descriptions beside each one. Then I added some holiday gift tags to the layout and a cheery headline and greeting and color-copied the whole thing. It turned out really well and wasn’t hard. This can be a good option for some years, if you are in a hurry or if you don’t quite know what to say about certain things.</p>
<p>I left my political activity out of the letter - - which left a gaping hole, since most of my free time between March and November (at least the time not spent on CC!) was spent campaigning. My cards had a quote about the new year bringing things that we had never seen, though. I figured my political friends would get it :)</p>
<p>Yea! I’m so excited. In my letter this year I told people that I was now on facebook, and to add me as their friends. Just got a friend request from a college buddy who I haven’t seen in several years, who’s one of those people who sends a pre-printed card without even signing it and gives absolutely no update. Now I can keep up with her; just finished stalking her facebook for about a half hour. She’s probably doing the same to mine ;)</p>