What Do You Do For A Christmas Letter?

[Madi100]

Family Fun Magazine this issue had clever ideas for making the annual Christmas letter more fun. Some of the suggestions were a top ten list, animals writing the letter, a crossword puzzle, a comic strip, and some others. I need to do something different this year. Ours is getting boring. What does everyone else do for a Christmas letter?

 

[WDWAurora]

Well, I like the top 10 list idea a lot...But I've seen one written by the family pet before....it was a little scary. Of course, this woman (it was a patient where I used to work) wrote her letter in the form of her pet DONKEY who lived in her backyard! I don't know, it just kind of turned me off to that idea. If you guys are artistically inclined, the comic strip could be really cute too!!

 

[princess lovers mom]

when we were expecting our "Christmas baby" who decided not to come until Jan 6 by the way...we wrote our letter to the theme of twas the night before Christmas

something like

twas a week before Christmas and in the Herrick house....we sit waiting for something to announce and so on...

one year it was to the song Silent Night ...the words fit the song if you sang the tune in your head as you read it (this was the year of the newborn so there were no Silent Nights !)

We have received a letter from friends every year that says a seasonal word in large letters down the left side of the page like Merry Chrismas...each letter then starts a paragraph about something in their year....it has been fun to watch the words go from HAPPY HOLIDAYS to NOEL last year....their life is getting busier and Mom not so much time to be creative !

 

[missypie]

We don't try to be clever. We just tell what has been going on with our families. Both DH and I have lived several different places and have relatives all over, so we just tell what's happenin'. If folks want to read it they can; if they want to pitch it, so be it.

 

[aprilgail2]

Does anyone here actually read these when other people send them to you?? I asked a bunch of friends last year if anyone read those and 9 out of 10 said they just toss them away....I personally never read them either...I figure if they are people that I know well enough to send Christmas cards to then they already know whats going on with my family...otherwise we don't even exchange cards!

 

[meandtheguys2]

I always read them! I enjoy hearing what other's are up to, what they are struggling through or enjoying. I can't imagine just ignoring one I recieved.

I am too lazy to actually write one, so I don't have any great ideas for the OP, however.

 

[decker96]

Originally posted by aprilgail2
Does anyone here actually read these when other people send them to you?? I asked a bunch of friends last year if anyone read those and 9 out of 10 said they just toss them away....I personally never read them either...I figure if they are people that I know well enough to send Christmas cards to then they already know whats going on with my family...otherwise we don't even exchange cards!

I always read them. Even the ones my mom and dad send, LOL! Most of the ones we get are pretty funny, even though they're only about what's going on in people's lives. I guess my family and friends all have a good sense of humor.
I don't know everything that's going on with everyone all the time. I've got friends from college that I maybe see once a year and e-mail occasionally, so it's nice to get a more detailed letter from them.

 

[princess lovers mom]

I don't enclose a letter to people we see all the time or to work colleagues, only to family that we do not see freq, friends far away etc...

always put one in our scrapbook too...

 

[elemusing]

Well- I just tried to do a top 10 list for us for this year and couldn't think of 10 interesting things. . . how sad.

 

[MerryPoppins]

No original ideas. I just write what's been happening in our family. And yes, I always read the ones I receive. We have a lot of extended family and friends that we seldom see, so it's good to catch up. MIL on the other hand calls them all "brag letters" and hates them. We don't send to her.

The last couple of years we didn't print our letter. We just added our family website to our Christmas card signature and put our holiday letter up there. It allows us to add a bunch of pictures and links them to trip reports, etc. We get thank you's in our guestbook, so I guess some people like it.

 

[DISshopkeeper]

I read them and enjoy them!

 

[Madi100]

I send to a lot of people I don't talk to on a regular basis. I love getting the letters. One of my favorite traditions at my mom's house at Christmastime is to sit down and read all of the ones she gets from friends that we only hear from once a year.

I like the idea of the top ten, but how do you put number 1?

 

[missypie]

Originally posted by aprilgail2
Does anyone here actually read these when other people send them to you?? I asked a bunch of friends last year if anyone read those and 9 out of 10 said they just toss them away....I personally never read them either...I figure if they are people that I know well enough to send Christmas cards to then they already know whats going on with my family...otherwise we don't even exchange cards!

Yes, we read them! We only send cards to people we DON'T see...if we see someone over twice a year, they don't get a card...so our church friends and neighbors aren't getting a card...it's the relatives, old roomates, etc. With most of them, that's the only contact we have with them all year. And we always hope to get a letter from them, too. When we only get a card with a signature on it, all we know is that they didn't die during the year.

 

[tonyswife]

I write ours in "newsletter" format. Each family member gets an "article" which is written from them. Last year, I wrote an article from DS from "in the womb" LOL. At the top I put "The Blank Family Newsletter" and I use a few pictures from through out the year. I'll probably put a picture of the day we brought DS home in the center and then go from there. This year we have big news that most of our extended families and friends are not aware of, that we are moving halfway across the country next summer, so i should get some big responses.

Yes, I read them when I get them. I can't imagine why I wouldn't? I enjoy exchanging cards and letter with family and friends over the holidays.

Madi100, if you're interested, I can try and IM you the one I did last year so you can see. I'll probably blank out my last name and such. Let me know, I won't be offended if you don't want it, LOL.