Writing Your Holiday Letters

While physical snail mail seems to be an antiquated reality of the past, there’s nothing quite like receiving a letter in the mail accompanied by a picture card with the smiling faces of your friends and family. This might be a slowly dying tradition, but we think it’s too good to not bring back. Writing a letter that is going to be seen by all your friends and family might be seen as a daunting task, but we’ve included five tips and tricks to help you keep in touch with your loved ones.

1. Plan: The Holidays get hectic, so if you haven’t already, get that family picture taken. You’ll also want to set enough time aside to have the picture and letter printed. Additionally, you’ll want to keep in mind the time it takes to physically write the letter, proofread it, and address each envelope. Start this process now, so that you can mail everything out by the second week of December.
2. Choose a Format: Some people elect to write in the standard letter format, while others choose to use a template, such as one resembling a newspaper. Templates are easy, and thanks to design software like Canva, you can easily design a beautiful Christmas letter.
3. Main Points: No one wants to read a 10 page Christmas letter, keep it fairly brief, no more than 4 pages. Plus, depending on who all you’re sending the letter to, the print and postage could become pretty expensive. When writing your letter, talk about the milestones, maybe include a funny story. Talk about who graduated, got married, and won each award. Talk about upcoming vacations and plans, and maybe give a quick update on the pets.
4. Don’t Get Too Cute: Sometimes Holiday Letters can come across as trying too hard, the overly spiritual introduction, the Onion-like take on your family’s happenings, the long acronyms, and so on. People want to know how you’re doing; they don’t want a bunch of other fluff.
5. Who Gets Included? This can be a tough one, and you’ll have to gage it based on your own situation. As a general rule, non-married significant others don’t need to be in the letter unless they’ve been a part of the family for a number of years. You might include a brief synopsis of your extended family’s year, but in general, just focus on you, your kids, their kids, and your spouse.

Writing Holiday Cards shouldn’t be stressful, but they often are. Not only are these great ways to keep in touch with your family, they make fantastic time capsules allowing your family to look back and reminisce for generations. Wash Hampton is here to make that happen by saving you time! Send us your laundry and get to writing!