Christmas cards, letters and pictures

Everyone has a favorite thing for their favorite holiday.  Although I find Christmas a bit stressful because of the location logistics, with 2 grown children, and two sides of the family quite a distance apart; I love the Christmas card sending portion of this season.

 

I was listening to a local radio station with 2 female hosts the other day.  One of them stated that she thought it was not good to send letters with your Christmas photos.  She did not like the bragging in them. She also said she sent pictures with just her children.  The other host did not seem to agree coming from a family whose father spent many hours on the "Christmas Letter and photo."  To avoid a great debate they asked for opinions from listeners.  To be honest I thought they were going to get a ton of people making fun of folks sending the "holiday newsletter."  I was wrong.  Every listener that called in said they looked forward to the letters and they loved the pictures.  They all thought family pictures should be included in the card and that if you were not in the picture you may be trying to hide something.  Yeah for them and yeah for me.

 

I think that letters and pictures at Christmas are fun.  I have been doing pictures and letters since my children where little tiny babes.  I even started doing a picture of pictures before you could do them on computers.  I would paste pictures on a piece of paper and my local photo studio would take pictures of the pictures and then I had them printed.  It was a great deal of work but it was fun.  I put so much work into my Christmas card because I love getting them.  I do not judge others and what they do.  I just smile when I get them.  I had a friend in Washington that let it slip once that they ranked the letters every year.  He said I was always in the top three.  I took it as a complement.  I do not just brag in my letters, sometimes I talk about things that are not happy because it is a part of life.

 

I know over the years I have been made fun of by many.  I also know that many think that with social media the Holiday Christmas card is unnecessary.  I don't know, maybe it is, but one thing that I know for sure:  I have saved each of our letters over the years for my boys and it is a wonderful quick history for my family.    It is a documentation of what we did and what was important to us.  I am so happy that I have this history for my boys and hopefully they will have fun with these letters looking back and someday talking about their past lives with their children. 

 

I know not everyone is Christian but I do hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season. I hope that you are able to do whatever it is that makes you and your family happy during this very special time of the year.

 

With love from your favorite FACS teacher.

 

Jane

 

 

This is not a simple task.  It is a couple of days worth of addressing and note writing.  This year I ordered cards with our picture on them.  Sometimes I purchase cards from a store and add a picture and a letter.