Yes or No? The Annual Christmas Letter

I’m one of those folks who still enjoys sending and receiving Christmas cards, and I’ll bet I’m not alone. What a rare treat these days to get a personal, handwritten greeting in the mail.

I make it a point to write a note in each holiday card. I also put together a one-page annual Christmas letter – which I realize is a tradition snickered at by some. So this year, I did some research about whether this type of "canned correspondence" is still considered an acceptable form of holiday communication.

Indeed it is.

Etiquette expert Maralee McKee of Orlando, Fla., suggests making sure the letter is “not either a brag fest or a woe-is-me fest.” Fair enough. As the Manners Mentor, she has written a commonsense blog on card-sending manners that’s worth reading.

Pinterest contains a wealth of holiday letter ideas, many of which strike me as over the top: No, I won’t be writing about the year from my pet’s point of view, nor will I be rhyming it. I won’t be arranging words and phrases in the shape of a Christmas tree, angel or candy cane.

Maybe I'll use more photos than words this year, as I took some pretty good ones in my 2017 travels.

Above all, I’ll have fun figuring it out. And I thoroughly enjoy the process of note-writing, addressing, stamping and mailing my cards.

On the other hand, my pet peeve is opening a card that has simply been signed. What – no mention of even one family tidbit? Not a single pleasantry you could share? I’d rather read a photocopied letter in each and every one.

Would you like to be on my mailing list? Let me know, right here on the website, and I'll be happy to send you a card!