Holiday Greetings

Whether you send photo cards, store bought cards, letters or homemade cards, you better get going if you want them to arrive by the holidays. Although I have friends that send them on purpose to arrive in time for New Year's Day along with that theme. In years past I have done store bought cards and I then graduated into hand-made cards to send a little bit of me. That got harder each year as we had children and the list of friends continued to grow. I branched off into "the holiday letter" - a tricky piece of territory in my family. I have heard for many, many years how some letters are so boring or "braggy" or simply just have ages and dates changed from my mother I knew I would have to come up with something good. I searched the Internet to see what ideas were out there and come up with a short multiple choice quiz - the teacher in me was shining through! I wrote 10 questions two about each individual family member and two about big news from the year. It was just enough to share about our past year and brag about my kids. The next year I found a story where you could fill in the blanks to personalize it for your family. It turned out brilliantly and quite entertaining if I say so myself. Another year I came up with a crossword puzzle - I used I web site I had in the past for a classroom project for social studies - you just can't get the teacher out of me. last year had to be the most fun for me. My son decided he wanted to celebrate Hanukkah - we're not Jewish by the way. I came up with a newspaper themed letter. The headline was about Hanukkah because I knew it would flip a few people out. In the lead article I explained what was going on with holiday celebrations at our house including my 7 year old son's fascination with Hanukkah. I included articles about sports the kids were involved in - my favorite was the piece I wrote about my son's fencing lessons and him feeling like a pincushion - "money matters" because of my husband's job, and education because my daughter had started middle school that year.I had fun with it and couldn't stop laughing as I was writing it. The best part of these letters is the kudos - if you will - we get after the holidays. People really do call to catch up and nurture relationships. The downside is that I have to come with and even better idea the next year! How ever you send your holiday cards this year, do it with cheer in your heart. I assure you will enjoy the task even more.