So glad I checked in today. My favorite letters are the ones where you happen to know some facts that are omitted from the cheerful bragging. The incarceration that somehow doesn't get mentioned along with the ski trip...
A license should be required. Woxof should administer the licensing bureau. And with that, I will say, Best Wishes As You Walk Your Holiday Journey! love, Kay
My very favorite holiday letter ever was from a friend of my mother's who had clearly had a bad year. Instead of glorifying her family and their many accomplishments, the letter read like a diary: "well, we got though THAT crisis, only to see so-and-so chucked in rehab in lieu of jail time." Complete with "I'm not sure how much more of this I can take, so here's hopping we all prosper in the new year."
We laughed until we cried, and then cried because, having laughed at someone else's misfortune, we were sure we were destined for somewhere hot and firey.
A christmas letter with a litany of complaints? That's brilliant!
We should have our children write letters to Santa Claus explaining why they deserve the gifts that would otherwise be sent to the other children. One can only imagine what Santa might learn.
And the Christmas letter that listed a series of natural disasters that appear somehow associated with the travels of the author. Maybe they should include their itinerary for the new year.
Carl
where's my bucket? ugh!
One year I just sent out a collage of photos/objects created on the photocopier. No words, just icons. A nametag from a job I'd had, a photo taken on a trip with friends, a receipt from a store I liked... It was supposed to represent major events in my year, but I think it just confused everyone. However, I sort of liked the Reader Response aspect of it, like I was saying "My year means to you whatever you think it means." I didn't get any feedback, though, so I just sort of let that tradition slide. I'd be interested in other people's alternatives to the annual newsletter, though.
My favorite story that didn't make our Christmas letter this year was the letter my little niece wrote to Santa. My sister-in-law showed it to me a couple of days ago. My niece is 6 and wise beyond her years. The letter begins: "Dear Santa (if you really exist),"...
We wait every year for another couple we know to receive their annual year-in-review holiday letter from someone they knew in college. We look forward to it every year because the letter is so smarmy and contain so much self-centeredness it has become the annual running joke. Of course, it still makes the four of us want to fly for hours just to take out these self-centered folks.
Bob has promised to put the letter up on his blog when he returns in January. You truly have to experience it to believe it.
Oh boy, if my family and your Norwegian cousins got together, I think we could bring about global destruction!
The winner of Inappropriate Holiday Greetings 2005 was the letter from an aunt who informed me what I was doing wrong with my life--what true spirit for the season.
My family is more into the holiday photo frenzy. And this year, amidst the truly adorable (and sometimes truly unfortunate) pictures of every child I know came the best photos of all--deliciously tacky faculty head shots of my sister and her husband. Heh.
I get the letters listing the kids' accomplishments, and then, although my kids are fine and smart and capable, I start to think that maybe I should run around taking them to speed-skating lessons and flute lessons and getting them modeling contracts... Another way to really wreck your friends' holidays...
Why must there always be the Christmas letter? Why write to every acquaintance during the busiest time of the year? Why not spread the letters out during the year? I didn't get around to a Christmas letter this year, so I'm considering an Epiphany letter, or a Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul letter or a Chineses New Year letter or perhaps a combined Candlemas/Imbolc/St. Bridget's Day/Groundhog Day letter, depending on when I get around to it.
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