Holiday Letters–Yea or Nay?

Sorry, there won’t be the usual stunningly professional, thought-provoking and humorous post today. You see, I used up all my good stuff on the holiday letter that I composed this weekend. You know, the newsy and chatty one that you send to all your far-flung friends regaling them with the events of the year and about how all the men are strong, the women good-looking and the children way, way above average in your little neck of the woods.

If you’re still working on yours (news flash: you’d better hurry), then you might find this list of helpful hints useful. Or not. You see, people either love ’em or they hate ’em.

So, which is it for you–yea or nay?

18 Comments

  1. lAURA

    I like them for out of town. Kent hates them, so we just do the picture cards. We get this one every single year that is so funny and braggy that is why Kent does not like them. So we just send a picture.

  2. Mike the Eyeguy

    Kent hates funny and braggy letters? All right then, he’s now on my list.

  3. Karen

    I usually do one for out-of-town, especially those who don’t read my blog, but this year I am not in the mood. It will just be Christmas cards with a personal note. I might do one after the first of the year with a picture from our Christmas/New Year’s vacation to Disney World, though…. assuming the vacation puts me in a better mood.

  4. Mike the Eyeguy

    A Christmas/New Year’s vacation to Disney World? That should put you in a fine mood. I can’t wait to hear about it.

  5. Jason Bybee

    We’ve never done one. I thought about working up a little something and then slapping it on my blog….you know, a year-in-review type thing. Then I realized that if anybody reads my blog regularly, they already know what’s going on in our lives, so I decided against it. I don’t mind most of them. Like Laura, we always get one that’s just over the top “braggy”. Pretty annoying, actually.

  6. Mike the Eyeguy

    That’s because your kids aren’t playing sports or in school yet and haven’t started racking up all those awards. You just wait, Bybee. You’re gonna eat those words.

  7. Ed

    We opted out of one this year for fear that people we’re being bored to death. We tossed in a new address card and a pic of the family and away they went.

  8. Stoogelover

    I’ve always found my Christmas letters to be brilliant works of literary art, whereas other’s letters are generally boring, far to detailed, and all but obnoxious.

  9. Mike the Eyeguy

    Ed: What part of a wife and four kids living in a nice house in the woods with coyotes hanging around your bedroom window is boring?

    SL: I feel your pain.

  10. Hal

    Great tips! I always enjoy your Christmas letter. And I generally enjoy many other letters as well. However, there are some who violate many of the rules outlined on the tip page you linked. They are the same people every year, so I just skim them. This year I haven’t been inspired to write a letter. Perhaps we will send a New Year’s letter this year like Karen, except we won’t have a wonderful trip to Disney to brag about.

  11. Jason Bybee

    So, it’d probably be poor form to start bragging about how far Joshua can already throw a baseball, right?

    They are near the top of their preschool class… 🙂

  12. Mike the Eyeguy

    Hal–thanks for the endorsement. This year I’ve embedded a secret code. The first person to crack it gets a lifetime subscription to my blog.

    Jason–Poor form? Heck no! It’s never to early to start ranking and sorting. Make sure he switch hits too.

  13. lAURA

    Love everyone’s view points on this issue. Kent wanted to do a christmas letter one year about our average kids. About how our kids are not the smartest but middle of the road, and are not the best at sports but average, and how we live in a average house and have average jobs, and so on but we opted out. It would have been pretty funny. Mike, I want to read yours.

  14. Mike the Eyeguy

    Hmmm…that’s an interesting idea.

    Check back later this week, Laura. I’ll post my “first draft.”

  15. Double vision

    I’ve been lurking on your blog since a patient and friend of yours gave me the address. I have to say that I find it amusing. It is amazing as you have said that our paths have not crossed other than here. I have to say I hate the letters but I rush out to the mailbox everyday to read the very letters which I hate. I guess deep down I like them. I really like the ones about the pets and dogs and what they have done that year. Like spading and neutering and various other adventures. I’m still waiting for a dog to send me one. Maybe that is why I hit the mailbox this time of year.

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year-GC

  16. Mike the Eyeguy

    “I have to say I hate the letters but I rush out to the mailbox everyday to read the very letters which I hate. I guess deep down I like them.”

    Admitting that you have a problem is the first little baby step toward healing, GC. I’ll talk to my dog Gracie and maybe we can get a little canine correspondence sent up your way. She has some good stories about the drugs that they have to use every time she gets her nails clipped at the vet.

  17. Jason Bybee

    I’m not sure if he’ll switch hit, but he throws lefty, which is always nice. I might just draft that letter after all….

  18. Mike the Eyeguy

    If you need some help sprucing it up, let me know.

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