The Dreaded Christmas Letter

There seems to be two camps when it comes to the annual Christmas letter. One camp is decorated with festive lights and Christmas music can be heard playing in the streets. The annual Christmas letter is welcomed with anticipation and joy in their hearts. The other camp is dark, cold, and only dim fires can be seen burning, barely bright enough to ebb the creeping grip of winter. Audible groans can be heard when a brightly colored card, covered in glitter, is opened and the dreaded Christmas letter falls out!

For most of the year our mailboxes are full of flyers and junk that go directly to the trash, sometimes before even making it inside our homes. With everyone going paperless, there aren’t even bills in there anymore. Christmastime is the last hope that when you check the mailbox there might be something good in there. We peer in, like Charlie Brown, hoping to find a Christmas card, something personal, a note from anyone that says, “I’m thinking of you”.

I love the “Christmas Letter”, and yes, I write one, because I love to get them. Yes, some of them are boring, perhaps even mine. Some detail every little event that happened during the year, but what it really says to me is that someone took the time to sit down, write a letter, even if it’s a type of form letter, had it copied, signed a card, placed the letter inside the card, and addressed it to me. “Me”, the one walking outside to look inside my mailbox, hoping there’s a card there for me to open. A card holding a letter, that I can sit down with a cup of coffee, and read about the things my friend found important in their life this year.

Facebook delivers the final death-blow to the Christmas letter. We share our lives 365 days a year on social media, sometimes in nauseating detail. Why do it again in a Christmas card? Why send a Christmas card at all? You can just deliver one “Merry Christmas” to your entire “Friends” list with a few swift keystrokes, and then move on. No cards to buy. No stamps to buy. No writer’s cramp from addressing envelopes. No time to waste writing a letter, or simply signing your name. Move on! “I’m just too busy!” That’s my favorite! Have you heard it? Have you used it? News Flash!!! We’re all busy!!!!

Did you see that four letter word I wrote earlier? “Time”. That’s what the Christmas letter is all about, time. So, I gladly read about Aunt Sally’s trip to New York, or the beets that were harvested from the garden, and how dreadfully hot this past summer was, because you took the “time” to tell “me”.

It’s not the stories. It’s what the words really say. They say, “I care enough about you, my friend, to give you my time”. Merry Christmas.