It is no secret amongst my family and friends: I love a good Christmas letter. I love sending out our little Christmas card with our little Christmas photo every year but I love even more, writing a big fat Christmas letter. With lots of paragraphs and lots of rambling on about what we did all year. And every year I wonder to myself - do people still write Christmas letters? My Christmas letter-receiving experience tells me no, they do not. So I am here today to tell you why Christmas letter writing should be making a comeback and why you should consider writing one.
The Case for Christmas Letters
I think the first and most obvious reason people don't write Christmas letters anymore is because of social media. We are seeing what everyone is doing all year long. Why would I need to send a Christmas letter to my friends and family updating them on how our year went when they've been watching it unfold on 37 different social media platforms in live time? I'll tell you why. Because it's fun. And writing a letter is nostalgic AF. But also because yeah sure, you post a picture here, update a status there, but a writing a letter gives you a chance to tell a real story. It allows you to provide context and details that would normally get left out of a 140 character limit, or a measly Instagram caption. That, plus the algorithms probably burry your posts so your friends and family don't even see your stuff anymore because Big Tech can't just leave us alone and let our feeds be in chronological order but hey, the egregious overreach of the social media overlords are another convo for another day right?
Secondly, it's a fun exercise to look back on your year and document it - even just for yourself, more than for sharing with others. There is a quote that goes, "...Let us balance life's account every day...One who daily puts the finishing touches to his life is never in want of time." I like this quote because sometimes it feels like you maybe didn't do anything fun this year, or you spent a lot of time being bored, or whatever it is; but when you actually sit down and think about it and 'balance your life's account' you realize that you in fact, actually had a lot of good days. It's easy to only remember the last couple weeks or last couple months and let that be your general assessment of your entire year. But to sit down and think about your year in full I'll bet you had more good times than you think.
And lastly, writing a Christmas letter gives you an opportunity to showcase a little creativity and put a voice behind the photo card you are also presumably mailing out. We spend so much time consuming, challenge yourself and spend a little time creating. Write that Christmas letter! Wanna write paragraphs - do it! Wanna just bullet out a list - go for it! The world Christmas letter is your oyster.
Other honorable mentions and reasons as to why you should write a Christmas letter:
1.) I like to read them. Send me one.
2.) See above.
Do you write Christmas letters? Will you be, now that I've 100% fully and totally, undoubtedly convinced you?!
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