Christmas Letter

The Christmas letter topic can tend to be a little controversial. You may laugh but it is true. Just think about the history…

There was a time when one's Christmas letter had to be hand written. It would be addressed to the individual and pertinent to how you related to that person- personal if you knew them well, vague and upbeat is you didn't- etc. These were great to receive; being added to one's Christmas list was somewhat of a compliment- you were someone special to be included because of the effort and energy that goes into it.

Then the typewriter came along. It sped things up. Letters could be longer now, so perhaps they were more interesting and personal but a little less impressive due to the fact that it was perceived as making Christmas letters more readily available to the masses.

Then the personal PC came along- WOW, people had fun with this. I remember my first mailing was in mass. I created form letters to individuals and families with fields and everything. I was learning all about this in my computer classes in school so I thought I'd give it a try in real life- the letter was lacking, errors were made, and I'm sure I came off looking a little silly but that was me at age twelve.

Years have come and gone, I've sent letters and I've sent cards- I like to do pictures and they are often in different formats. I believe my form letter has evolved; now I add humor and clipart so hopefully it is interesting (but I suppose it is up to the reader). Now I'm deciding what to do this year- any suggestions? I find people have strong opinions- my advice is not to get too personal and too detailed. My pet-peeve is when people try to lend impressions that are not accurate or get too braggy. What about you?