Every year we get at least one. Instead of sending a decorative
card with a short holiday message or family portrait, some people
feel it’s necessary to send a Christmas letter.
Every year we get at least one. Instead of sending a decorative card with a short holiday message or family portrait, some people feel it’s necessary to send a Christmas letter.
In some cases, these letters, which can resemble novels, fill everyone in on what colleges Bobby Jo was accepted to and how Suzy Ray is now “en pointe” in ballet lessons.
One of my friends even got a Christmas letter last year in which the family wrote, “Yeah, we’re moving to Eagle Ridge,” but they didn’t bother leaving an address.
Is the point of these letters to fill friends and family in on what you’ve really been up to during the year, or are they just an outlet for bragging?
I ask because I have never read a Christmas letter that mentions the low points of the year, and we all know no one’s life is perfect.
“Yes, Suzy and Doug divorced in the summer, and little Jimmy just got out of rehab” doesn’t exactly make a heart-warming letter, and I have yet to read about how Donna dropped out of college to head down the hippie trail with her new deodorant-defying man-friend.
Why is it that during the holidays some feel the need to fill people in on their accomplishments and family achievements? And why in a letter?
I’ve even seen some Christmas letters that the families take it upon themselves to title. The Garrison Gazette, for example, or the Hamilton Herald, as if the material in the letters was so highly esteemed it was enough to be its own newspaper. The letters are more like marketing tools, if you ask me.
Why is it that people feel the need to sugar coat their lives? Maybe, instead, they should eat a slice of humble pie and talk about being thankful despite the bumps in the road during the past year.
The other thing that baffles me about these yearly summaries is if you’re sending Christmas cards to your friends and family, shouldn’t they know all of these things already?
When I look at the list of 50 people to whom my husband and I sent cards, I can remember either seeing them in person or corresponding with them via e-mail or phone during the past year.
It would make no sense for me to send a Christmas card to my biology lab partner from my sophomore year of high school because that person probably doesn’t even remember me. If I’m wrong, I doubt he or she would care that my dog turned 2 and my husband and I bought bikes over the summer.
My advice to those who are sending Christmas letters and cards is to keep it short. Family photos are always nice because kids grow up so fast. A handwritten note shows personal thought, and including milestones such as weddings, graduations and 60th birthday parties keeps people up to date.
But your fifth-cousin-twice-removed and the mailman from the place you lived 20 years ago probably don’t need to know that Little Rudy quit wetting the bed and Darla made the honor roll.
