My goal for this class is to help you create a memorable, meaningful holiday letter – without the stress!
Let me repeat that: NO STRESS.
How many things on your holiday list are pure fun, no agony attached?
I guarantee you that by adjusting your expectations, you can make this an exercise in creativity, not torture.
Let’s start here with a few ground rules:
Rule #1: Edit.
Just as you cannot include every photo you took in the past year on a single layout, you cannot include every activity your family took part in from the past year in a single letter. It is impossible! If you were going to create a year-in-review layout for your photo album, you would pick and choose, limiting the photos you select. The same is true for your holiday letter… you will need to pick and choose the events you select for inclusion.
Rule #2: Pick what is important to you and your family.
This letter is going to be a reflection of your family. If the biggest thing that happened to your four-year-old is that he learned to tie his shoes, that fact is worth including. It doesn’t matter if it pales in comparison to your cousin Avery’s daughter who is in advanced Calculus at age nine. This is about you and those you love, not impressing relatives you see once a decade. To make it fun, honest, and meaningful, you have to start with what matters.
Rule #3: Don’t be afraid to add a little personality.
My favorite holiday cards and letters are the ones with character – the ones with imperfect photos or quirky details about how the family all dressed up in costume to go see the newest Harry Potter movie. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Your family isn’t boring; your holiday letter shouldn’t be either!
Rule #4: Think outside the box.
We all have preconceived notions of what holiday cards, photos, and letters look like. Forget all that! Start from scratch and pretend you’ve never seen a holiday letter before. Freeing up expectations and boundaries is what is going to allow you to create something your family will love and your recipients will cherish.
Okay, now that the rules are out of the way, let’s get started!
Grab a piece of paper and a pencil and a gingerbread latte, and let’s get going… it’s time to make some notes!
Step One. Make a list.
Get out your day planner or calendar and write down everything your family did over the past 12 months. Ha-ha! Just kidding! You and I both know there is no way to complete that task. And you know what – it doesn’t even matter! Your holiday letter should not be a blow-by-blow account of what your family ate, wore, and did for 365 days. If people wanted that level of detail, they’d just watch old reruns of Jessica Simpson’s and Nick Lachey’s reality TV show.
Really, what people want to get in the mail is an entertaining and CONCISE glimpse of your family. They want a letter that will make them feel like they know you a little bit better when they are done reading it.
When you create a scrapbook page, there is typically a theme, a hook or angle of some sort, a unifying message that ties the page and its elements together. The same is true for your holiday letter; you want to identify some kind of focus around which the letter and its details revolve. So your first step – yes, even before you break out the calendar – is to brainstorm your hook or theme.
bigtip:
Think of your holiday letter as a scrapbook page – you will be making choices and editing your possibilities just as you would for a layout to go in your family’s album.
Quick – take five minutes and write down the things your family likes to do, however seemingly insignificant or silly. In fact, the more unusual, the better! Don’t forget hobbies, activities, destinations, food, games, events, television programs, etc. Everything is fair game!
Step Two. Interview your family.
Flip to a new page in your notebook and take an informal poll of your family members. Ask them their highs and lows for the previous year. What memories, trips, or events stick out most to them? What were their biggest accomplishments and failures? Don’t edit at this point – there will be time later for removing any embarrassing or inappropriate comments. And refrain from editorializing about your kids’ or spouse’s choices; this is their chance to say whatever comes to mind.
bigtip:
Don’t forget small children and other non-verbal family members! What would Sparky the hamster say was his proudest moment? What family trip did your two-month-old enjoy most? Put yourself in their mindset and get creative!
Step Three. Put it together.
Take a look at your two documents. It’s time to make some creative connections. Was “Grandma and Grandpa’s 50th wedding anniversary cruise” at the top of everyone’s list? Did all the kids make note of the time Dad fell in the swimming pool as their most memorable event of 2008? Take a highlighter and circle anything that stands out to you as particularly significant.
Step Four. Begin concepting.
This is the really creative and fun part of the whole exercise. Based on your lists, you can generate a number of different possibilities for your family’s holiday letter. To illustrate your point, I’m going to go through my family’s list and show you how to translate these interests, memories and annual highlights into a unique holiday letter. I’ll give you several ideas for each one to get your juices flowing!
Remember that these are all lenses or windows through which you can share the highlights of your year. None of them is meant to be complete – nor should they be.
Sports:
Create a “top ten” list of sporting events attended with a short sentence about each and why it made the • list.
Write the letter using sports terminology.•
Write the letter as if you are a sports newscaster or as if it’s a recap of a game or meet. (“In the third • quarter, Johnny drove to the hoop and scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs!”).
Ice Cream:
Document all the places you’ve eaten ice cream this year – and why you were there.•
List what ice cream best describes each person’s year (Rocky Road for someone who had a lot of ups and • downs; Bubble Gum for someone whose year was exciting, etc.).
Books:
Create a list of everyone’s top books for the year. •
As with the ice cream, choose a book that represents each person’s year (“A Tale of Two Cities” with the • classic “best of times/worst of times” line; “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” for a mom-to-be).
Write a fictional account of your family’s year using a famous children’s book format (Dr. Seuss is a fun and • fairly simple one to emulate!).
Icing on the Cake (this is our family’s favorite bakery!):
List of times we went there to celebrate a big event in our family’s life.•
Our favorite things to eat.•
What we like best about our town. •
Church:
For us, the church is the center of a lot of our social life, so we could create a list of all the things we • celebrated there (new births, weddings, the kids moving up to new Sunday school classes, volunteer work, etc.).
Travel:
All the places we’ve traveled this year and why.•
Statistics about plane trips, miles traveled, hotel nights, etc.•
YouTube:
Our favorite YouTube videos, including ones we’ve posted of sporting events, scrapbooking, etc.•
Movies:
List of each of our favorite movies.•
Contrast list of “now and then.” (Before we had kids, we used to go see grown-up movies at the theater a • few times a month, and tickets and popcorn cost under $50. Now we go to see one “kid” movie a quarter, and it costs us $100.)
Like with the books and ice cream, choose a movie to sum up each person’s year.•
Have each person write a review of the year from the point of view of Siskel and Ebert (or whoever those • movie reviewer guys are now). For example: “I’d have to give my year a double thumbs-up,” says Ben. “The action sequences on the ball field were particularly well filmed.”
Computer:
Make a list of each person’s favorite websites (Ben: ESPN.com, gaming sites; dad: MSNBC and weather.com • for the locations he’s traveling to; Callie: Sesamestreet.com; Mom: Bigpicturescrapbooking.com – of course!).
List what each person is doing on the computer (Dad: Work presentations and creating the batting order for • the next Little League game; Ben: California Missions report and gaming sites; Mom: Updating her blog and writing articles).
Food:
A menu with each person being a different “dish,” described in a way that fits their personality. (Callie, my • pre-schooler, would be a sweet dish of ice cream with little chunks of peppermint candy for spice. John is a sirloin steak, predictable and hearty. I, of course, am a fruit salad. )
A list of the various restaurants we’ve been to over the year, from fast food to sit-down dining for special • celebrations.
As you can see, there are a number of ideas you can work with here – some better than others! Yes, some are specific to our family, but the point is to get you thinking outside the box. You do not have to recreate your family’s calendar for the year. In fact, tell yourself right from the start that you will NOT OT do that. Instead, force yourself to think creatively – many of these suggestions can work for any topic.
bigtip:
Don’t stop with the letter – carry your theme into your family’s picture! For instance, if you decide your “angle” is sports, have everyone dress in sporting gear or jerseys for the family photo. Doing the book thing? Everyone can hold up their favorite book from the year. Make it fun and memorable!
ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS
But what if I can’t think of a theme? Or what if I’m too nervous to try something wild and crazy?
Well, I know this can be a little scary. Change almost always is. But even if you like listing family highlights in a more traditional format, you can still mix it up a little bit and have some fun with it.
Try one of these ideas:
A letter to Santa• from your family, where everyone gets a paragraph to justify whey they’ve been a very good boy or girl this year.
A top-ten list• of your family’s accomplishments.
A “by the numbers” letter• where you share statistics that tie in with your family’s highlights (hockey goals scored, number of miles driven on carpool, hours on homework per night, etc.).
A crossword puzzle or word search• where the answers tie in to your family’s top memories (see the resource list for online puzzle generators).
A matching quiz• where you invite recipients to match the accomplishment or event to the correct family member.
A game of Mad Libs• where key parts of speech are omitted from your letter and the recipient fills them in him- or herself (see my example in the extra downloads).
A recipe booklet• where you all share your favorite recipes.
A family newsletter• where each person writes and illustrates (with pictures or drawings) an article.
Won’t this take a lot of time?
No longer than digging through your kids’ old piles of homework, trying to think of something to write about! Once you choose a theme and then give yourself permission to actually leave some things out (gasp!), you’ll find your letter falling together on its own. The hardest part is knowing that it’s okay not to include everything.
Won’t my relatives think we’re weird because we’re not doing “the same
old thing?”
NO! They will bless you for it! I cannot tell you how many people tell me they look forward to our family’s holiday letter every year because it’s always something different, something to look forward to.
You don’t have to go as far out as we do (in fact, few people do!).
The whole idea is to pick something that fits YOUR family’s style.
I guarantee you that your holiday greeting will stand out from the pack and leave your friends and relatives with a smile on their faces.
Final words.
Especially at this time of year, we need to move beyond the idea that there is one “right” or “perfect” way to complete the tasks on our to-do lists. After you’ve worked through the steps above, you’ve likely come up with a letter that is truly a reflection of your family. It won’t be perfect – and it shouldn’t be! Take it for what it is – an attempt to connect with your friends and relatives and share a bit about you and your loved ones.
And isn’t that what the holiday season is all about?
Let me repeat that: NO STRESS.
How many things on your holiday list are pure fun, no agony attached?
I guarantee you that by adjusting your expectations, you can make this an exercise in creativity, not torture.
Let’s start here with a few ground rules:
Rule #1: Edit.
Just as you cannot include every photo you took in the past year on a single layout, you cannot include every activity your family took part in from the past year in a single letter. It is impossible! If you were going to create a year-in-review layout for your photo album, you would pick and choose, limiting the photos you select. The same is true for your holiday letter… you will need to pick and choose the events you select for inclusion.
Rule #2: Pick what is important to you and your family.
This letter is going to be a reflection of your family. If the biggest thing that happened to your four-year-old is that he learned to tie his shoes, that fact is worth including. It doesn’t matter if it pales in comparison to your cousin Avery’s daughter who is in advanced Calculus at age nine. This is about you and those you love, not impressing relatives you see once a decade. To make it fun, honest, and meaningful, you have to start with what matters.
Rule #3: Don’t be afraid to add a little personality.
My favorite holiday cards and letters are the ones with character – the ones with imperfect photos or quirky details about how the family all dressed up in costume to go see the newest Harry Potter movie. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Your family isn’t boring; your holiday letter shouldn’t be either!
Rule #4: Think outside the box.
We all have preconceived notions of what holiday cards, photos, and letters look like. Forget all that! Start from scratch and pretend you’ve never seen a holiday letter before. Freeing up expectations and boundaries is what is going to allow you to create something your family will love and your recipients will cherish.
Okay, now that the rules are out of the way, let’s get started!
Grab a piece of paper and a pencil and a gingerbread latte, and let’s get going… it’s time to make some notes!
Step One. Make a list.
Get out your day planner or calendar and write down everything your family did over the past 12 months. Ha-ha! Just kidding! You and I both know there is no way to complete that task. And you know what – it doesn’t even matter! Your holiday letter should not be a blow-by-blow account of what your family ate, wore, and did for 365 days. If people wanted that level of detail, they’d just watch old reruns of Jessica Simpson’s and Nick Lachey’s reality TV show.
Really, what people want to get in the mail is an entertaining and CONCISE glimpse of your family. They want a letter that will make them feel like they know you a little bit better when they are done reading it.
When you create a scrapbook page, there is typically a theme, a hook or angle of some sort, a unifying message that ties the page and its elements together. The same is true for your holiday letter; you want to identify some kind of focus around which the letter and its details revolve. So your first step – yes, even before you break out the calendar – is to brainstorm your hook or theme.
bigtip:
Think of your holiday letter as a scrapbook page – you will be making choices and editing your possibilities just as you would for a layout to go in your family’s album.
Quick – take five minutes and write down the things your family likes to do, however seemingly insignificant or silly. In fact, the more unusual, the better! Don’t forget hobbies, activities, destinations, food, games, events, television programs, etc. Everything is fair game!
Step Two. Interview your family.
Flip to a new page in your notebook and take an informal poll of your family members. Ask them their highs and lows for the previous year. What memories, trips, or events stick out most to them? What were their biggest accomplishments and failures? Don’t edit at this point – there will be time later for removing any embarrassing or inappropriate comments. And refrain from editorializing about your kids’ or spouse’s choices; this is their chance to say whatever comes to mind.
bigtip:
Don’t forget small children and other non-verbal family members! What would Sparky the hamster say was his proudest moment? What family trip did your two-month-old enjoy most? Put yourself in their mindset and get creative!
Step Three. Put it together.
Take a look at your two documents. It’s time to make some creative connections. Was “Grandma and Grandpa’s 50th wedding anniversary cruise” at the top of everyone’s list? Did all the kids make note of the time Dad fell in the swimming pool as their most memorable event of 2008? Take a highlighter and circle anything that stands out to you as particularly significant.
Step Four. Begin concepting.
This is the really creative and fun part of the whole exercise. Based on your lists, you can generate a number of different possibilities for your family’s holiday letter. To illustrate your point, I’m going to go through my family’s list and show you how to translate these interests, memories and annual highlights into a unique holiday letter. I’ll give you several ideas for each one to get your juices flowing!
Remember that these are all lenses or windows through which you can share the highlights of your year. None of them is meant to be complete – nor should they be.
Sports:
Create a “top ten” list of sporting events attended with a short sentence about each and why it made the • list.
Write the letter using sports terminology.•
Write the letter as if you are a sports newscaster or as if it’s a recap of a game or meet. (“In the third • quarter, Johnny drove to the hoop and scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs!”).
Ice Cream:
Document all the places you’ve eaten ice cream this year – and why you were there.•
List what ice cream best describes each person’s year (Rocky Road for someone who had a lot of ups and • downs; Bubble Gum for someone whose year was exciting, etc.).
Books:
Create a list of everyone’s top books for the year. •
As with the ice cream, choose a book that represents each person’s year (“A Tale of Two Cities” with the • classic “best of times/worst of times” line; “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” for a mom-to-be).
Write a fictional account of your family’s year using a famous children’s book format (Dr. Seuss is a fun and • fairly simple one to emulate!).
Icing on the Cake (this is our family’s favorite bakery!):
List of times we went there to celebrate a big event in our family’s life.•
Our favorite things to eat.•
What we like best about our town. •
Church:
For us, the church is the center of a lot of our social life, so we could create a list of all the things we • celebrated there (new births, weddings, the kids moving up to new Sunday school classes, volunteer work, etc.).
Travel:
All the places we’ve traveled this year and why.•
Statistics about plane trips, miles traveled, hotel nights, etc.•
YouTube:
Our favorite YouTube videos, including ones we’ve posted of sporting events, scrapbooking, etc.•
Movies:
List of each of our favorite movies.•
Contrast list of “now and then.” (Before we had kids, we used to go see grown-up movies at the theater a • few times a month, and tickets and popcorn cost under $50. Now we go to see one “kid” movie a quarter, and it costs us $100.)
Like with the books and ice cream, choose a movie to sum up each person’s year.•
Have each person write a review of the year from the point of view of Siskel and Ebert (or whoever those • movie reviewer guys are now). For example: “I’d have to give my year a double thumbs-up,” says Ben. “The action sequences on the ball field were particularly well filmed.”
Computer:
Make a list of each person’s favorite websites (Ben: ESPN.com, gaming sites; dad: MSNBC and weather.com • for the locations he’s traveling to; Callie: Sesamestreet.com; Mom: Bigpicturescrapbooking.com – of course!).
List what each person is doing on the computer (Dad: Work presentations and creating the batting order for • the next Little League game; Ben: California Missions report and gaming sites; Mom: Updating her blog and writing articles).
Food:
A menu with each person being a different “dish,” described in a way that fits their personality. (Callie, my • pre-schooler, would be a sweet dish of ice cream with little chunks of peppermint candy for spice. John is a sirloin steak, predictable and hearty. I, of course, am a fruit salad. )
A list of the various restaurants we’ve been to over the year, from fast food to sit-down dining for special • celebrations.
As you can see, there are a number of ideas you can work with here – some better than others! Yes, some are specific to our family, but the point is to get you thinking outside the box. You do not have to recreate your family’s calendar for the year. In fact, tell yourself right from the start that you will NOT OT do that. Instead, force yourself to think creatively – many of these suggestions can work for any topic.
bigtip:
Don’t stop with the letter – carry your theme into your family’s picture! For instance, if you decide your “angle” is sports, have everyone dress in sporting gear or jerseys for the family photo. Doing the book thing? Everyone can hold up their favorite book from the year. Make it fun and memorable!
ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS
But what if I can’t think of a theme? Or what if I’m too nervous to try something wild and crazy?
Well, I know this can be a little scary. Change almost always is. But even if you like listing family highlights in a more traditional format, you can still mix it up a little bit and have some fun with it.
Try one of these ideas:
A letter to Santa• from your family, where everyone gets a paragraph to justify whey they’ve been a very good boy or girl this year.
A top-ten list• of your family’s accomplishments.
A “by the numbers” letter• where you share statistics that tie in with your family’s highlights (hockey goals scored, number of miles driven on carpool, hours on homework per night, etc.).
A crossword puzzle or word search• where the answers tie in to your family’s top memories (see the resource list for online puzzle generators).
A matching quiz• where you invite recipients to match the accomplishment or event to the correct family member.
A game of Mad Libs• where key parts of speech are omitted from your letter and the recipient fills them in him- or herself (see my example in the extra downloads).
A recipe booklet• where you all share your favorite recipes.
A family newsletter• where each person writes and illustrates (with pictures or drawings) an article.
Won’t this take a lot of time?
No longer than digging through your kids’ old piles of homework, trying to think of something to write about! Once you choose a theme and then give yourself permission to actually leave some things out (gasp!), you’ll find your letter falling together on its own. The hardest part is knowing that it’s okay not to include everything.
Won’t my relatives think we’re weird because we’re not doing “the same
old thing?”
NO! They will bless you for it! I cannot tell you how many people tell me they look forward to our family’s holiday letter every year because it’s always something different, something to look forward to.
You don’t have to go as far out as we do (in fact, few people do!).
The whole idea is to pick something that fits YOUR family’s style.
I guarantee you that your holiday greeting will stand out from the pack and leave your friends and relatives with a smile on their faces.
Final words.
Especially at this time of year, we need to move beyond the idea that there is one “right” or “perfect” way to complete the tasks on our to-do lists. After you’ve worked through the steps above, you’ve likely come up with a letter that is truly a reflection of your family. It won’t be perfect – and it shouldn’t be! Take it for what it is – an attempt to connect with your friends and relatives and share a bit about you and your loved ones.
And isn’t that what the holiday season is all about?
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