<p>or maybe-
Young Tim is graduating college and soon to enter the workforce. Hubby has 25 yrs tenure now, and wife just got a promotion at work.
Is that warm, personal greeting for the holiday, or a resume?
or maybe a form letter like this:
Dear[fill in a first name]
“Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, or Happy Kwanzaa!”
Really? If the sender doesn’t know{or care} enough about me to know which I celebrate, and doesn’t care to spell Hanukkah correctly, am I really close enough to be getting this “personal” greeting?</p>
<p>I did one in the form of a “Mad Lib” one year. That was fun.</p>
<p>I think that how much you enjoy a Christmas letter is in direct proportion to how much you like the person who wrote it. Some people can do fabulous things and talk about it without sounding pretentious and others, it seems, just want to shove it in your face. The shove it in your face types generally do not get read by me.</p>
<p>Funny, MD Mom, I think just the opposite. When those I am much more fond of only send me a standard form letter, I tend to be more disapointed than if I get one from someone that is only an acquaintance.</p>
<p>^ I’m with younghoss on this one. I kind of enjoy the pretentious letters from those I know to be pretentious … and get bummed by impersonal letters from those I consider friends. </p>
<p>My original point was if the OP decided to prepare a Christmas letter, to please think about the persons who will be receiving the letter. Impersonal letters to personal friends can be disappointing … or worse.</p>
<p>^ I’m with NewHope on this one. A standard form letter is a poor substitute for a warm, personal holiday greeting.</p>
<p>I agree with New Hope too. We have old friends that we love dearly, who tell about every trip they took. (There are multiplt trips with much detail.) They also have an only child who of course is exceptional. I’m sure they don’t realize it seems braggy. Sure, I can skim it, but I can’t help feeling that they are bragging. If the person reading it is a good friend or relative we probably already already know some of it. And if the readers are acquantainces, it is too much information. I think one tidbit per family member is enough.</p>
<p>I always add a note to our holiday letter asking about their family, commenting on their letter from last year, sharing a memory or whatever. As for knowing what holiday my friends celebrate? As far as I know they all celebrate the New Year, and that’s usually about when my card/letter goes out. </p>
<p>I hope people don’t hate us. Ours is one side of a piece of paper has three photos of me and my husband, two photos of one kid, the inside of the very empty refrigerator of the other kid, and a picture of a project I’ve been working on. There’s about a paragraph of news for each of us with such important news as the fact that our youngest cut off his lovely long hair, and yes that our oldest graduated from college and where he’s employed.</p>
<p>We do “the letter”. But I like to leave some extra room for handwritten note (or sometimes I do it on a separate sheet of smaller holiday themed paper). That’s where I can tailor comments to the recipient or perhaps add more details that would interest them or have too much candor for the lighthearted letter. I tend to send to more distant friends/families… but some local friends get a kick out of them too. </p>
<p>I’ve notice over the years more of my friends opting for a letter. One of my favorites is the long, dense text… and in recent years with pictures. It makes me feel lazy compared to their backpacking adventures, but I really getting updates from these faraway college buddies. </p>
<p>When the kids were in elementary school, I often gave the prior year’s letter to the teacher in September. They liked have a quickie way to come up to speed with life of a student.</p>
<p>We were just talking about this. We felt that the Christmas letter is now redundant now that almost everyone - family and friends- are on facebook.</p>
<p>But then were were never the recipient of many of these. And I’m very glad for that. Funny is good but its too easy for these to inadvertently morph into boasting about one’s kids accomplishments or the amazing travels one has had. Funny I should say the same about Facebook but for some reason it never comes across the same way.</p>
<p>Pictures are fine. Just make sure to include enough of your body so we can tell if you got fat or not–that’s what we want to know.</p>
<p>^^That’s why I’m writing it. No pics of me in there. Re: NewHope’s letter rec’d–no one needs to be jealous that the writer is visiting Indianapolis in Nov…</p>
<p>There was a survey done that shows people almost evenly split on their opinions of these letters. IMO that’s because few mass mailed letter are appropriate to each and every person on the list and none imply a two way, personal relationship. For example, a socially cued individual probably would not bring up their most recent trip in a conversation with friends or relative having financial struggles, their romantic weekend with someone headed to divorce court, or their kid’s accomplishments with someone with plenty of heartache from theirs, unless asked. And even then you edit, sometimes heavily, depending on the circumstances or you try to focus almost exclusively on the other person. On a long list that consists of infrequent contacts, it’s inevitable that a letter that is perfectly acceptable to send to one person, will hit some wrong notes with another.</p>
<p>^ [Sarcasm Alert] Nothing says “We Care” like a form letter describing the senders’ month-long European vacation … sent to a family struggling to keep their house out of foreclosure.</p>
<p>Oh Hunt, you made me laugh out loud! That’s why I learned how to use photoshop…</p>
<p>My philosophy is that it is up to the recipient to read our letter or not. I skip the ones from H’s friends that I don’t know.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But of course, we’ll never know that because no one is that honest in a Christmas card letter.</p>
<p>very funny, newhope!</p>
<p>But for me,
" ^ [Sarcasm Alert] Nothing says “We Care” like a form letter"<br>
is enough said!</p>
<p>I do think that with military families–like us–the form letter is more common than anything else. I did get a card from a high school friend, whom I saw at a reunion in the fall, and her hand-written note was obviously the same note to every single person. No mention of seeing her in the fall–hadn’t seen her in years–nor of the reunion. I thought that was kind of wierd.</p>
<p>Yesterday, I got a form letter from former neighbors who wrote the letter describing their three children’s college experiences as a horse race analogy. It was very cute. I hung it on the door so I could read it again.</p>
<p>" A standard form letter is a poor substitute for a warm, personal holiday greeting. " - </p>
<p>Sure, totally personalized is better. (DH gets one cherished letter each year from his best man, hand written and many pages long. His wife probably handles a few dozen cards to others.) But it seems many families send just a signed card. Although I appreciate the cards… I’d rather see updates and pictures. If some of it is overly detailed or borderline braggy, that’s OK - I rejoice in their fun and good fortune. Some of the news may be sad, but it’s good to be in the loop for that too.</p>
<p>Mostly we exchange holiday greetings with friends/family 2000 miles away. We don’t do much FB, but even if I did I think I’d still like the annual summary format too.</p>
<p>Just got my first letter of the year today!</p>