This year, among a bunch of Christmas cards, I also received a handful of “Christmas Letters.” The “Christmas Letter” is like the Christmas Card on steroids. It’s a way to send a Christmas greeting to people you know, and fill them in on how your previous year has been. Overall, not a bad concept.

You may be one of those people who gets these letters in the mail and thinks, “Man, I wish I could write a letter like this. But I don’t know where to start.” So I’m going to help you.

Having read a lot of these Christmas Letters over the years, I’m starting to notice a lot of similarities…. we had a new baby, we went on a cool trip, we moved, Uncle Bert had his gall bladder out, etc. I’m not saying it isn’t good to hear about everyone’s lives; I’m saying there are enough standard Christmas Letter features that we can probably simplify this  process.

Here are the main points to include in your Christmas Letter:

Section 1 – Greeting (check one)

____ Merry Christmas  (no other options – get over yourselves with the Happy Holidays thing)

Section 2 – Health

We are:

___ All in Good Health

___ All in Good Health except for (name)

___ Mostly in Good Health, all things considered

___ Knocking On Death’s Door, and You’re Lucky this Letter Isn’t Coming From Beyond the Grave

Section 3 – This Year’s Milestones (check all that apply)

____ New House

____ New Job

____ New Car

____ Baby

____ Puppy

____ Rearranged Furniture

____ Changed Dishwashing Soap

____ Marriages

____ Un-marriages

____ Grandchildren (include great or great-great ones)

____ Learned a Foreign Language

____ Showed signs of forgetting the language I already knew

____ Vacuumed at Least Once

____  Switched from PC to Mac (or the other way around, although who would do that?)

____ Enrolled

____ Graduated

____ Dropped Out

Section 4 – Travels

_____ Disney (land, world, store)

_____ Hawaii

_____ Europe

_____ Covina, CA  (either Covina or West Covina)

_____ A National Park

_____ A National Car Rental Location

_____ Nebraska (why not – someone should probably go there)

Section 5 – Goals/Hopes/Wishful Thinking for the New Year

____ Lose/Gain Weight

____ Move

____ Spend More Time with Friends and Family

____ Spend Less Time with Friends and Family

____ Do Something Meaningful

____ Do Something Meaningless

Closing

Have a…

____ Happy New Year

____ Prosperous New Year

____ Joyful & Prosperous New Year

____ Regular Year

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Christmas Letter-Writing. Send me a  creative letter next year.