Christmas Letters?

So how many of you know people that send Christmas letters every year keeping you "up-to-date" with their oh so amazing life? I just got the first one of the year today and as I was reading it I thought, who the hell cares? Congratulations you went on a cruise and had the H1N1 in the same year! Even though I wanted to get out my paper shredder that's been collecting dust for the past year, I decided to keep reading.

Of course the rest of the letter was just bragging about how spectacular and horrific their life was. As my English teacher would say, "all pathos, no ethos." After I finished the letter I thought, why did I even read this letter, I barely know the people! So since I barely know you, why did you send me a Christmas letter? I'm sure that everyone that knows your family already knows all of this garbage that was in your Christmas letter.

It seems almost hypocritical for me to write this. I mean sure a Christmas letter slightly resembles a blog but at least I don't only blog once a year! Maybe I should reword my purpose a little bit. I don't mind reading about people's lives, in fact, I enjoy it a lot, but tone down the bragging around the holidays. Especially when there are people way less fortunate than you that are struggling these holiday seasons. So if I were to ever write a Christmas letter, it might go like this.

Dear friends and family,

Happy holidays! A whole year came and went so fast but brought so many memories. I hope that you will enjoy your holidays as much as I will. God bless, and merry Christmas.

Jorski

Short, sweet, and to the point. Isn't that what a Christmas card is? So this year I propose a different approach for anyone considering creating a Christmas letter, send Christmas cards with a short but sweet personalized message in each card. Thank you and happy holidays!