As a child, one of the highlights of Christmas was receiving all the Christmas cards and letters from friends near and far. We’d keep the letters on the doors inside the house, and put the family pictures on the refrigerator.
Sometimes, the Christmas letter was our only real communication with friends from our past. But it kept us up on their lives and gave us a small sense of connection, even though our paths had drifted apart.
It was always exciting to hear of marriages, babies, grandchildren, trips, new jobs, and exciting adventures. It was fun to see how the family pictures changed over the years. And it was always somewhat of a thrill to see how many people would send cards.
Many people opt not to send Christmas cards or letters any more. There are many valid reasons given:
“We’re too busy living life to take the time to write about it.” “We can’t afford to mail cards since postage has gone up so much.” Or maybe, “We didn’t get a decent family picture.”
I definitely think that Christmas cards and letters are an optional aspect of Christmas and I totally respect people who have decided not to send cards. That said, I think that we’ve become so used to texting and Facebooking and emailing, that sometimes we forget the joy of sending and receiving real physical mail via the postal service.
Creative Christmas Letter Ideas
If the thought of writing a detailed letter is overwhelming to you, here are some creative Christmas letters out there to help. Just check around online and you can find the perfect template. I have the HP Photo Creations that have some great templates but I think you can also down load them online with Word.
Other Simple and Inexpensive Ideas
If you’ve decided that sending a Christmas letter isn’t your thing or mailing out a lot of cards or letters is outside your budget, here are some other ideas:
::Send photo cards
We’ve skipped sending a letter for the past few years, but we have sent out photo cards. It’s a very simple way to send a Christmas greeting and share pictures of our family with dear friends and those we don’t get to see often. I created 2 this year.. Here they both are.
I made this flip card..
front
inside
And here is the other one I made with Walgreens Online Photo Center
and picked them up at my local Walgreens
or.. you could
::Send out your letter as a PDF via email.
Can’t afford to mail your letter? It’s perfectly okay to send it out as a PDF attachment via email. Be sure to include some sort of teaser in the email you send out so that people will be sure to open the attachment and read the letter!
::Post your Christmas card on Facebook.
. This might not work for everyone–especially if most of your recipients are not on Facebook–but it’s definitely an inexpensive option!
Do you send out a Christmas card or letter or do some sort of creative alternative?
I’d love to hear what works for your family!
Email me!!
Its not too late to get some done and sent out.. just to let someone special know you are thinking about them over the holidays! If you get them in the mail by Monday of next week, they should have plenty of time to get there before Christmas!
K Jaggers
♥
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