Fr. Jim McDermott, SJ over at Gone Walkabout, shares my distaste for Christmas letters.
Between you and me, as soon as I heard “Christmas letter”, two things happened. First, my skin crawled. Second, I tuned out. It was all Charlie Brown’s teacher after that.
Christmas letters — my friends, I just don’t get them. Or the single-space-page-of-text-that-makes-my-eyes-bleed variety, anyway. Who wants to read all that? It’s not that we don’t care, but come on, a typed page or more with nothing but text? Are you for real?
Ironically, these letters take a lot of work. So the writers put a lot of effort in, and at best most people skim it.
Read some of his hints for improving these. I only have one: Set them on fire.
A few lines about what you’re up to is often fine. I look forward to the people who do that each year. Fr Ed Nowak, CSP of the Paulists writes a fine Christmas letter–about the size of a 3×5 card and it’s always filled with interesting tid-bits from the year. Most of the others I’ve gotten are depressing and way too long. I think they’re also a bit pretentious.
I also hate the pictures of just the kids on the card. I may want to see what your dumb face looks like too mommies and daddies. After all, I have to see if everyone’s getting balder and fatter, don’t I?
Here’s my salute to the minimalist Christmas letter:
Happily married. No kids, cool dog. New home in Buffalo. Campus Ministry rocks as do my co-workers. Still blogging at googlinggod.com. Come visit the falls! Life is good. Merry Christmas. -Mike
If someone needs to know more than that…they can read the blog.
Happy Cranky Yuletide