Well, Since You Asked….
Jessica asked in a comment for me to elaborate on my personal stance on the Christmas letter that many, many people send out each year with their holiday cards.
I want to preface this by saying it is my own personal opinion here. I don’t believe this to be a matter of etiquette really and I don’t judge. Well, unless you send them to me, then I have every right to judge.
I am not a fan of the Christmas letter in general. I don’t know anyone who, in their heart of hearts, actually enjoys reading those things. Because they are lame. Either you know the person well enough that you know all the stuff they are talking about in the letter, or you don’t know them well enough to care.
I would like to move on to the pre-printed photo cards for a moment. And I will tell you that I HATE THEM WITH THE HEAT OF A THOUSAND SUNS. And here’s why. First of all, they are terribly impersonal. If you can’t even be bothered to sign your friggin’ name on the card, then please by all means, take me off your Christmas card list. I actually have a friend who chose this method, a line on her pre-printed holiday photo card, to announce her second pregnancy. My ass clenches even now just remembering that. Secondly, most people use a picture of their kid(s) alone or with Santa or something. If I get a card from a friend, I’d like to see my friend. Not just my friend’s kid(s). Put a picture of the whole family. That’s what gives me warm holiday fuzzies - seeing the family together. I like them even better when they aren’t the studio type photos with the staged arrangement of people in their uncomfortable holiday dresses with fake smiles plastered on their faces. My friend in Connecticut sends the best holiday cards and I’m totally going to take a page from her book this year. She gets those cards that you can attach your own photo to, so that the picture is the front image, but you have actual card in there to write on. And she uses the best pictures! Yes, they do tend to be only of her children, although she has used beautiful family photos before, but she has the most adorable children in the world and the photos are always cute and funny rather than posed and fake.
Not that I have an opinion, of course.
On a completely unrelated note, did you know that you can buy a fresh Maine balsam Christmas tree from LL Bean? I am really thinking about doing this. I honestly think that we’d pay close to $75 anyway for a tree, and they have free shipping so why not? And considering the dud trees we’ve had the past few years, I’m willing to try something new to ensure by Christmas Eve the tree doesn’t look like the one from the Charlie Brown Christmas special.
Filed under Pet Peeves, Product Whore, Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland |10 Responses to “Well, Since You Asked….”
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I love you dude. I swear if we lived closer, we’d get drunk together. A lot.
I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE photo Christmas cards. Maybe part of it is all those years as a bitter infertile, but seriously, I can’t stand them. I actually sign my Christmas cards. Sloppy handwriting and all. And one year, I thought about a Christmas letter, and then I slapped myself hard for even entertaining such a thought.
I don’t mind the Christmas letter as long as it’s written well. My brother-in-law always comes up with the most clever ways to write a “letter” - always with a different theme or highlighting certain things in the past year (ie: they used to travel A LOT and sometimes it would just be about their top 10 trips or something); sometimes I hear about friends’ kids things that I don’t know what was going on.
Personally I like to write individual letters or at least a note or two.
I hate it when cards have no personal words or even a signature!
But I do love getting mail of all sorts so I am happy to receive them, nevertheless.
My family does the Christmas Letter, as do many of our friends…but I think it’s because I come from a military family. Most of these long letters we get are from other military folk we knew when we lived in Spain, or Argentina, or California (my parents are in Connecticut). Some of these people, they haven’t seen in upwards of 10 years, so sometimes it’s nice for them to get a recap of what country they’re in now, and what the kids are doing (no one’s really using email in these groups, from what I can tell, although we all have it).
HOWEVER: almost every single one of them is hilarious. My mother is good friends with a family of writers in CA (who have Cheers, Taxi, Frasier, Golden Girls, etc. credits on their resumes), so you can imagine those Christmas letters. They’re the highlight of Christmas Card Season for me. My father also writes a funny one for our family, which devotes a single sentence to each family member, and three full paragraphs to the dog. Not kidding.
I think as long as you inject some heartfelt feeling into what you’re doing, it comes off well.
I, too, wish people would burn those pre-printed photo cards. Hideous.
“My ass clenches even now just remembering that.” - HA!!! You’re killing me over here, but I needed the laugh today.
I have another one for you that I think is bad manners. People who never spell your name right. I don’t mean people you just met who are unsure if your name is Shelly or Shelley, that I don’t mind. But it’s friends you have known for awhile. Or worse, relatives that continually spell the name wrong. For example, I have been with my Hubby for nearly 6 years and some members of my family continue to spell his name “Hubbie” rather than “Hubby” even though I know they know better. I get the same thing with my name and neither one of us has a particularly creative name.
I have three different friends who have daughters named Cayley, each spelled differently, and I very purposely make note of how the child’s name is spelled so I don’t mess it up. It is not that difficult. As you know, we chose to spell Peanut’s name a bit differently (though not some totally unheard of spelling) and I would say that at least 25% of her birthday cards had her name spelled wrong. Am I being oversensitive b/c it irritates the crap out of me.
Wait. I can’t believe it’s almost time to start thinking about Christmas cards. Where exactly has the year gone?
(Scratching Donna’s name off of Christmas list.) I guess you don’t want the hand blown Christmas ornament with Chloe’s face on it? No….still tacky? Seriously, I am with you a 100% on the pictures being of my friends kids. I am way too curious, I have to know what you look like as an adult after kids…I want to see you! Now I don’t actually mind the Christmas letter if someone is witty. don’t give me a brag list…I hate braggerts! Just hit the high notes and tell a funny story.
I have an aunt who writes out her christmas letter on lined tablet paper, photocopies it and mails it in a regular envelope. No card. Not even christmas paper. Plus, it’s all about how wonderful her daughters are, especially the ones who married doctors and have their own daughters entering beauty pageants. Kid. You. Not.
Then there’s the card with picture from our friends in Chicago. “Here’s us on our yacht in Australia! We had to leave early so I could get to Cancun for my photo session (she’s a model).”
Is there such a thing as a scrooge card? I want that.
I almost never get my Christmas cards sent out on time. Did you know they’ve already got cards in at Target? I’m wondering if I start filling them out now, if I can get them out by December. I always feel that they should be personal, though, and I don’t know what to write in them.
I, too, hate the letters.
Thanks for addressing that Donna!
So it’s no christmas letter for this family (I lack creativity) and a family photo but enclosed in a regular christmas/holiday greeting card.
Got it.
My mom used to be into the whole letter thing. In fact, she still does it, 2 years after dad leaving and all.
It always bugged me. It screamed of trying to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ and of self-importance. But therein lies how different my mom and I are.
I’d love to get really creative, beautiful Christmas card photos. Like if you had some awesome candid of Bridget laughing, and not necessarily posed, etc…that would be so cool. I love it when people get creative about the CHristmas thing. Unfortunately, most people (including me!) just don’t have time to put out such cards.