"I think we ought to write a Christmas letter this year," my wife said at the breakfast table the other morning.
"A Christmas letter. You know, like the kind the Huggins send out to all their friends every year."
I recalled the Huggins' Christmas letters: five page mimeographed reports on family activities for the preceding year, with the simple greetings of the season all but buried.
I hurried off to work before my wife could pursue the subject any further, but, that evening she presented me with a packet of letters including not only the recent efforts of the Huggins hut Christmas letters other families had sent us as well.
"Now you read these and see if you don't think it would be a good idea for us to do this instead of sending cards this Christmas," she said.
One would have been enough, for the letters were indistinguishable in style and content. Posing innocently as Christmas greetings, they were actually unabashed family sagas. The writers touched lightly on the misfortunes which their families suffered during the year, dwelt gladly on happy events, and missed no opportunity for self congratulation.
I haven't the slightest intention of writing a Christmas letter myself, but once I'd put a red or green ribbon in my typewriter, I'm sure I could turn one out in no time at all.
"OUR HOUSE TO YOURS!" is the standard beginning. Centered at the top of an 8 x 11" sheet of paper, it spares the writer the nuisance of penning salutations on the hundred or more copies he will doubtless send out. The exclamation mark is the first of dozens that will be used. No Christmas letter averages fewer than eighteen "!'s," "!!'s," or "(!)'s" a page.
The opening sentence always starts with the word "Well." "Well, here it is Christmas again!" is a favorite; or, "Well, hard as it is to realize, Christmas has rolled round once more!" A somewhat more expansive opening is "Well, Christmas finds us all one year older, but young as ever in the spirit of the Season!" Actually what is said is unimportant as long as the sentence starts with "Well," and ends, of course, with an exclamation mark.
Having taken due note of the season, the Christmas letter writer works immediately into his first main topic—the accidents which befell him and his family and the diseases they suffered during the year. He writes with cheerful fortitude. Broken arms and legs call forth the reminiscent chuckle, and childhood diseases open the way for humor of a sort. "As it must to all children," the Huggins wrote last Christmas, "the mumps came to Albert Jr. and to Susie. Fortunately they were taken sick during the spring vacation and didn't miss any school. We don't think they'd agree with our use of the word 'fortunately.' (Haha!)" The parenthetical "Ha ha!" or simply "Ha!" appears at least once in each paragraph of a Christmas letter.
by William J. Copithorne, The Atlantic | Read more:
Image via:
