Christmas Cards and 'The Yearly Letter'...

I love those yearly letters! I've yet to write one myself, maybe I will do that this year.... I've had a crazy enough year to write quite an entertaining informative one.

I think mostly you just recap the whole year.... anything significant, anything funny that may have happened.

I hate Christmas letters, though I have not ever read one with a funny fish hook story, unless it was about little Jounny on his church mission trip to Honduras teaching the poor to fish, and ended up with one in his hand...then had to use his state runner up cross country skills to run 20 miles to the nearest clinic, where he was able to stich himself up because of his AP placement courses that have him half way through premed as a Junior in highschool...sorry, I just can't stomach them myself, so I say, send a picture, and a personal note that tells the people you want to tell things the things you want to tell them, especially about the new baby.

M.

The yearly family news letter is a lot like your annual accomplishments submitted for annual review at work. You touch on things that have changed, milestones family members have made, etc. Sometimes someone who's passed away gets remembered, but more often a whole lot of bragging goes on (trips/travel gets mentioned, kids good grades, graduations, etc). We only sent out a letter when we moved. We don't do it every year. Another branch of the family did it every year. It was over the top and too much snobby 'keeping up with the Joneses'. Once in awhile a family news letter is nice, but don't get carried away. Not every milestone is so earth shatteringly important everyone must know (little Johnny is finally potty trained! - no need for a front page head line here).

Generally, I brag. This is the time one can get away with bragging about children, grandchildren, pets, spouse, car, vacations, hobbies, and anything else. The rest of the year I have to behave myself.

Sometimes I have to write other things. The year I had breast cancer, I used the Christmas letter as a soapbox to urge everybody to get their mammograms. And sometimes there are indeed sad events to relate with respect.

But I generally like to keep such a letter short (!) and sweet. I TRY not to brag so obnoxiously that I'll lose all my friends. But most people read through Christmas letters once and toss them, if they read them at all. And it's OK if they brag to me in return!

Or make it funny, if you can do it well. One friend wrote last year about his wife's really awful health situations, and besides being informative he made it amusing! I don't know how he did it, but I was quite moved.

I always thought it was tacky ("cheesy") to do the annual letter and I vowed it was something I would never do. However, with all the friends and family I have, by the time I got to writing to the 6th card (with about 20 or so to go!) the details I included in each card got shorter and shorter. By the time I got to the last person, they were lucky to get a "Merry Christmas."

But one year I decided to try the annual letter and not only did nobody complain about it, but I actually got compliments! So, I've been doing the annual letter for well over 10 years now.

What do I include? Well, I go through my calendar. I keep track of "things" that happen throughout the year on my calendar and all the big details get included in the letter. For example, daughter got braces, son got accepted to such and such college. You don't need to include insignificant details such as "sally got a hair cut," unless it was "Sally's first hair cut that she did to herself." You know what I mean? Keep it to one page and I always include our names at the bottom of the letter with the date I wrote the letter, like, "December 2010." Some people actually save the letters (as I've been told by my family) and they like to read through them from years past.
At the top of the letter, I include our family name, for example, "The Smiths" along with our address, phone number and mine and my husband's email address and I address the letter to "Dear friends and family."

I used to call these 'How wonderful our lives are letters'. I started doing them when we moved away from family and friends.

I include the good, the bad, and the ugly but always temper them with humor and love. I think people on a whole enjoy hearing about how/what my family is up to.

Don't forget to add pics to the letter. Gives you less room to have to fill with info. You can play with the font afterward to make it fill a page, but I agree, don't go past a page. It'll save you from cramped fingers and a sore wrist for sure! If you've got kids--you've got every right to do a holiday letter! Have fun!

I never used to like these letters but they have become more commonplace and face it, they make sharing important info with loved ones easy! You've already gotten a lot of good suggestions! I decided last year to include a fun way of sharing our family's info, so instead of the typical newsletter format, I used the info as clues for a crossword puzzle. It was lots of fun to make and I received many compliments on my creativity. Good luck and congrats on the new baby!

Keep the letter to no longer than 1 page and include humorous, interesting tid bits.

I have a friend who decided to do a letter one year... She wrote how they suffered a miscarriage and were hoping to see an infertility specialist... Although true, it was too heavy of a topic for a Christmas letter. Better to stay away from topics that make the reader feel sad for you.

Good luck! Happy writing!

Well, this is one of the few times Martha R. and I are in complete agreement. :P Oh gosh that was funny Martha - and so true.

That being said, I do a picture of my kids every year (and have since my oldest was a baby). To me a picture is worth a thousand words.

I have had many relatives tell me how much they appreciate seeing how they've grown every year.

If I were to do a letter I would keep it short & sweet.

Have fun whatever you do - CONGRATS on the baby! <3

I suggest just going over some of the "daily stuff" then. Maybe "Johnny" is now brushing his own teeth, maybe "Jenny" loves to sing a certain song. Think about the things you would tell someone during a phone call, and go with that.

Just do not talk about anything weird/morbid/sad. We have a relative who writes her Christmas card from her cat's perspective, and then includes horrible details about her mother's UTI from 1995 (grant it, her mother has been dead for 3 years now). Personally, I love getting the card because it gives me a good laugh, but other family members are appalled.

Stick with cute things they do, places you've gone (even if it's just the zoo), and an anecdote or two and you will be great! :)

Hi R.,

I just wrote my first one last year, and it was fun. I thought I had a pretty dull year as well (except the birth of our daughter), so I made it more of a picture collage with captions for the pics. It tells the story of the year in a fun, entertaining way, even if the highlights are minimal.

Just read some other responses - definitely keep it positive!! The negative stuff was probably already shared with close friends/family and does not need to be revisited.

They used to get on my nerves too - like some other moms mentioned...then I had kids...time to brag...lol

Merry Christmas,
L.

I have done this for YEARS! I'm 43. I used to send the letter on the 8.5x11 paper but now I order cards with pics I download and put my exciting info on that. I also had all my addresses in a label maker so I can just print out labels. This year I'm doing Send Out Cards. They also send an automatic card to all your friends/family for their birthday so you don't forget! If you want more info on that, message me...I don't sell it, just use it...also for my business...and I put all kinds of info in there. Basically just try to remember what's happened over the year and put it in there. I HATE to get cards in the mail from people that just say "merry xmas, love Sue". It mean, can't you jot down a note???? Anyway, I always get comments that people love to get my card each year. and I send them out early, on Black Friday, so people usually get my card first. Have fun with it!!

We have a Christmas letter that we include. My husband and I take turns writing it. When I write it I include things that have occurred in the last year like my daughter is now x # years old and loves school, things she is in to, any family milestones, family updates (deaths, sicknesses), things we are thankful for, any family trips/vacation, just an overall update on how we are doing. I also love to receive these letters and the ones I receive include similar items. Good luck!!

You're gonna have two camps on this O.--people who love them (usually they enjoy reading them) and those who despise them b/c they are edited, bragging, self promotion! LOL
I fall into the latter camp, and honestly, I set them aside to well after Christmas to read them--if I ever DO read them!
If you are going to do it--I'd definitely go with the sofa, your labor, the fish hook and the liquid stitches angle! :-)