Holiday Letters: Hell in an envelope, or unintentionally hilarious?

We received our first holiday letter of the year today. We probably see the couple that persists in sending them to us once a year, and typically at a mutual friend's dinner party or New Year's celebration. In other words, we don't hang out with them ourselves. The "letter" consists of many color photos of their various trips, golf expeditions, and whatever new big-ticket purchases they've made that year, with a short block of text to brag about vacation destinations, golf tournaments won, etcetera.

Typically, I enjoy seeing the photos of kids/pets/family celebrations, but I'm just not into the bragging. The best thing we can do is send just a card to the above letter writer. I'd actually like to write to both of them and ask why they correspond with us when they don't see us socially, but that would cause a huge problem with the mutual friends.

If I had any balls at all, I would have saved some of the more unintentionally hilarious or truly embarrassing ones we've received over the years, edited out identifying information, and published them as a book. I can't believe nobody's done it yet.

We write a holiday letter as well, but our letter is more about what each of us are doing, and funny anecdotes about the dog and the cats. The letter goes to long-time friends that don't live in the area now, and people we talk to or see more than once a year. The lovely and talented Patiod has received one of our holiday letters, for instance, and lived to tell the tale.

What do you think of holiday letters? Do you write one? Do you laugh uproariously over them when they arrive in your mailbox?

I always enjoy getting them. I try to keep ours nice and informative. I always feel this is a better way than trying to write a personal note in each one. We have a long list, and I don't have time to do that.

I don't recall ever getting one that really brags, or is embarrassing. Our friends are a lot like us; they are busy, but want to let us know what's going on in their lives, and this is how they do it.

:hi:

For that, I thank you, miss Peggy!

:hug:

Aw, sweetie...

Thank you...

You will get one this year.....even though it hasn't been written yet...

:hug:

:hi:

I've always wanted to, but our families would probably think we were nuts or something.

I understand why folks do this, but it's so generic. I usually take the time to write a short note in all of my Christmas cards and would never send one of those copied letters. YMMV


we used to get corporate ones from small family-owned firms, which delineated all the trips their massive family took around the world. Those were the most amusing since we hardly knew the people at all.

Very mixed feeling on this. I got a newsletter from someone who described the house renovations in extreme details...including such info as the kind of carpet they put in the bonus room, replacing toilets, new shelves, etc. It was pages of house stuff!

I enjoy the ones like yours that just tell me about the lives of my friends, what the kids are up to, etc. I don't really care to know where they went for vacation. I LOVE the ones written from the point of view of the pets. :)

so the ones who send these types of xmas letters are usually deliberately hysterical. I look forward to getting them every year.

Since I am not as comedically gifted, I stick to short hand-written notes in my cards. I'm sure my friends appreciate me not trying to be funny. :)

For one thing, I'd have to keep track of people's addresses and that's beyond my abilities.

I do receive a handful of holiday letters each year and they are hysterical! Most are completely sincere and do not realize how obnoxiously vain they are. One is deliberately done in such a manner to report mundane and predictable changes through life. That one is priceless and I have hung on to each and every one. The woman who writes them is hilarious.

I think if I sent out cards or a holiday letter my friends, family and acquaintances would be convinced the end of the world is nigh.

is from the former 45th District Democrats chairperson. He has a dry, DRY sense of humor, and his letters are the funniest I've ever read.

I may try writing from the point-of-view of the dog and the two cats. The cats would be funnier.

I send cards because I like getting them. Yeah, I'm greedy. ;-)

But most of my friends and acquaintances aren't really the social climbing type. My best friend did send out holiday letters for a few years, which were pretty funny. His description of a house renovation was hilarious, including the episode where he went to bed early the night before while the remodeler was still working in the kitchen. He woke up the next day and groggily made it to the coffee pot to find that an entire kitchen wall was gone. It sounded like a sitcom moment, and I could picture it perfectly.

I already know what the author of the letter did during the year, so I don't fucking want to hear the bragging again at the end of the year. Also, why to they think that I actually give a goddamn about what trips they went on and the like during the year? If I didn't ask follow up questions when they first told me, it means I didn't give a damn then, and I definitely don't give a damn now.

:rant:

My heinous, bitchy, poisonous SIL, who normally will have nothing to do with me (which is just fine with me) sends me an emailed Christmas letter every year describing in detail all their wonderful vacations and the wonderful things they've done to their home, and especially all the wonderful and generous and selfless volunteer work she does for the community. Knowing her, I have to assume she sends this to me just to emphasize how much more wonderful she, and her life, are than me and mine.

Otherwise I can take them or leave them.

My favorite part of a massive number of vacation photos and 3 small blocks of text - the big "thank you" to their church.

>Knowing her, I have to assume she sends this to me just to emphasize how much more wonderful she, and her life, are than me and mine.<

Is her name Kirsten? ;-) I have a feeling our correspondent sent her letter to us for the same reason. After all, we don't have a boat, we don't belong to a country club, we don't go golfing every weekend...

some make me cringe with embarrassment at the quality, others really are good/funny/informative. I LIKE hearing about travels, less about the kids and pets (especially if I don't even know them)

I actually did one last year, my very first - it was in retaliation to one sent by somebody else and actually turned out ok, so I went ahead and sent it out.

I don't have a big list and half the time mail out crappy cheap cards at the last minute just to say HI we are still alive. Other years I get creative and make my own cards. You never know what you will get from me. (if anything:o )

The parents of one of my childhood friends send a letter every year, in rhyming verse.
It's painful, yet somehow endearing. They're in their 70s now, I think.

are all so glowing, and never give bad news, except maybe health related.

My favorite one was once when a relative had bragged for paragraphs about her children, but I guess thought she should mention ALL of the children, even the one in prison.

"Xavier has gotten a lot of much needed rest lately and has gained about twenty pounds. The weight looks terrific on him! He has been reading quite extensively and even read the entire Bible."

No mention was made, of course, that the weight gain was probably because he was finally off meth and he has been reading so much because he is locked up and cant do much of anything else.

could have came from my Mom - always trying to be positive (she really was a freaking saint) and my middle sister - best I have ever seen her since she was about 13, was when she was in for2 months for her second DUI. It really CAN help some.

well - LOL, aunt - she was divorced from my paternal uncle 40 years ago but, well, we took "her side" - she's a great gal, and my uncle was bit of asshole. He passed away a long time ago, but she is till my Aunt Muggs (Margurerite); I've sent her many cards over the years. I like her letters - they are informative and witty and I like hearing from her.

in the service of Uncle Sam, moving frequently into and out of the continental US. It was a way to stay in touch when my personal life was going faster than I could really keep folks up with in any other way.

I retired at what would, to most, seem to be a ridiculously early age, but that was part of the deal with Uncle. And I no longer do these annual epistles.

I still receive them, however, mostly from people I knew back when I was living that life. And yes, many of them, particularly those having to do with the doings of various children (and, increasingly, the offspring of those children) are unintentionally laughable. And yet I know why they write them, and send them, and I try not to laugh.

Perhaps you should simply view them, however flawed, as attempts to maintain connectivity in this increasingly unconnected world.

On edit: correct punctuation, and a grammatical error. (Hope I caught them all ....)

We don't always write for Christmas.

Sometimes it's New Years, with pictures of ice sculptures from Boston's First Night.

Sometimes, it's Valentine's day.

One Year, it was Thanksgiving day, with cards hand made from postcards purchased in Plymoth Plantation and mailed from Plymouth, Ma so that the letters would have that cancellation on them.

This year we mailed Chinese New Year's cards, hand made, with my wife's and my Chinese signature chops in red ink. The chops were hand made in Beijing.