December 21, 2007
The Dreaded Christmas Letter
Hello, BBM Readers! I am delighted to be writing my first blog entry ever while BBM recovers. I have to be honest and tell you that I think this whole "ACL" thing is just a ploy by BBM to get me to start blogging. She’s been harrassing me suggesting to me to write for awhile now. Because she knows I will help her in any way I can, she conveniently "tore her ACL" and needed "surgery." Then, she begged me to help fill the blog void while she was gone. Good one, BBM! You finally got your way! Seriously, though, I’m excited to be writing here. Be gentle with me, dear reader; it is, after all, my first time.
The Dreaded Christmas Letter
by Tkddaughter
It is that time of year when you finally are excited to go to the mailbox. In between the thousands of credit card offers, magazines and bills, you actually get fun mail. You know the kind with cute stamps and little snowmen on the envelopes. It is the time of year where you can reconnect with friends you haven’t seen in years and years. But along with that fun mail comes much controversy…da da DA!!!!! THE DREADED CHRISTMAS LETTER!
You know how it goes…Little Susie started preschool this year and she is already working on quantum phsyics. Johnny Jr. is the starting quarterback for his peewee football team and we hear the Steelers are looking to sign him. Our dog, Snickers, just landed his 10th doggie commercial! Blah blah blah. By the time Christmas finally gets here, you feel incompetent, unworthy, and simple. I’ve already felt the stress of it myself. It’s annoying. At times it’s painful. And you know what? I’m glad they sent the letter.
I’m glad they sent the letter because what I dislike even more than the dreaded Christmas letter is the beautiful Christmas card showing no signs of a human’s touch. Or one that only bears the inscription, "Merry Christmas from the Smiths." I haven’t seen you in 17 years and the best you can come up with is, "Merry Christmas from the Smiths???" Are you kidding me?! I want to hear the growing your family has done during this past year. I want to know a little bit of what you do each day and how you’ve changed. Who is this person you’ve become? I can’t get that from a photo card printed out for you.
So while so many people dread the family Christmas letter, I say do it. Send it out. Tell your Christmas card list what you are up to, what the last year has shown you, and how you’ve grown. Send less cards if you have to, but write a little hello to each person. And a little advice: be honest. Don’t exaggerate to make your family sound like the perfect family. Tell it like it is because let’s face it…we’re all in the trenches here and it’s nice to know we are not alone.
That being said…well, I didn’t send a Christmas letter this year, but I did hand-make all 75 of our Christmas cards. While I didn’t write about our past year, I did put my own personal touch on it. But I bet there are still a few people out there who got my card and thought, "Gee, that’s nice, but what have they been up to this past year?"
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I am afraid I have to disagree with the premise of an otherwise well written post.
The people we send Christmas cards to are those near and dear to us (if not geographically near, emotionally so). They know what we’re up to, since we’re in contact (and for me, e-mail makes this so easy to do).
The few Christmas letters we get are often mocked, because they frequently can’t avoid not sounding like their’s is a perfect family (e.g. my brother’s family).
So as for our family, if you don’t already know what we’re doing, we’re not going to risk boring you at Christmas time.
Charlie-Actually, we do agree. I really don’t need to hear what my close family and friends are doing. The point of this was to address those “friends” with whom I don’t have contact…not even-GASP!-email contact, except for the yearly Christmas card. I’ve never met their kids, I don’t know what jobs they do-nothing. I guess I want those ties to the good ole days and the photo cards just aren’t cutting it for me. Regardless, Merry Christmas!
We got the annually dreaded “brag letter” as we call it this past week. It is from my husband’s uncle & family, who are EXTREMELY wealthy (yet can’t even send a note to his own mother)and of whom the wife is a relative of a pretty big name crime family. (or at least we’ve been told.) Their children are perfect and so are they. Except for the fact that they are LOSERS that they have try to make everyone else feel inferior because they can’t afford Notre Dame. I have told my husband’s other aunt and uncle (the offender’s brother)that one of these years I’m going to make up a holiday letter of my own with graphics of a trailer park (not that there’s anything wrong with that as Seinfeld would say) and tell how we are so proud of our 17 yo daughter, who was promoted to “Head Hanger Bender” at her P/T job at Marshalls, and other fun jibes. But you know what, I think next year, I really will write a letter and start the first sentence with something like “Warning: People and events included in following holiday letter may appear more dramatic than in reality” LOL Seriously, I will just tell it like it is. My goal is to shame the brag letter family into sending a true representation of their past year. But then again, I have a sneaking suspicion that they truly think they are being modest. Sad, isn’t it?
I have discovered the antidote to the bad Christmas letter…Old Home Week!
Seriously!
Tuesday night I had an incredible conversation with someone who called me out of the blue–an old guitar playing friend from a band long ago, who I haven’t spoke with in over 10 years. He looked me up, searching for a keyboard player to join his new band. I had to decline the offer myself, but that didn’t stop us from catching up.
Friday I went to the local Famous Dave’s barbecue restaurant and spent a good 3-1/2 hours catching up with old friends from the technical college I attended in the early 90’s.
I want for nothing this Christmas now–I’ll be glowing a long time from both experiences, and they mean more than just about any Christmas present.
I wrote the antithesis of the annual Christmas card in my blog: http://shelvesinmymind.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-should-have-gone-into-my-christmas.html
Do you think people would have been worried about us if I had sent it out? 🙂
I don’t send out anything via the postal mail. I send e-cards to friends via email, and I make paper cards for friends and family nearby to give with their gifts.
Get better soon BBM!