Write a Holiday Letter That People Will Actually Read
My parents, like many of their generation, have a habit of including a year-in-review letter in their annual Christmas card. One day—I think I was in high school—my dad asked me to edit it.
I didn't edit it. I stripped it down to studs and rewrote it. Now, I write a letter for my own little family (and, yes, I'm still rewriting my parent's Christmas letter ~2 decades after I stopped living under their roof).
Sure, you might consider holiday letters anachronisms—irrelevant relics of the past rendered obsolete by the real-time narcissism of social media. But y'know what? I love getting these notes from friends and family each December. It's a nice change of pace from the credit card ads and bills that stuff my inbox the other 11 months of the year.
THAT SAID...
It's not easy to write a holiday letter people will actually enjoy reading. It can be intimidating to even get started. Here are a couple of tips from my writing process that might make penning your holiday letter a little bit easier this year (and, no, "Use ChatGPT" is not one of them).
Brainstorm or free write to get started.
Write down everything that comes into your head about what you'd like to share. Bullet points and sentence fragments are fine. Just get them out of your head and onto a page or screen. Don't worry about length or coherence. Just write.
Organize your brainstorm.
Sort your notes into groups. How might these details go together logically?
- Maybe the details coalesce around each member of your family.
- Maybe they focus on two or three awesome trips you took.
- Maybe the entire year revolved around a significant life event, like a wedding.
Try to keep the number of groups small - 3 or 4 at the most. If some of the items you brainstormed do not fit into the groups you've chosen, leave them on the cutting room floor.
Organize your letter.
Take the groups you've created and build an outline with them. If your groups are organized around members of your family, for example, your outline might look like this:
- Fun intro sentence or two
- Mom's part
- Detail 1
- Detail 2
- Dad's part
- Detail 1
- Detail 2
- Brothers' part
- Detail 1
- Detail 2
- Sister's part
- Detail 1
- Detail 2
- Fun and/or heartfelt closing sentence or two
Write the "main body" parts.
Begin with the meat of your letter, not the intro or closing. Here's why:
- You basically have these written already in your outline. Start with the easy part!
- The intro and closing can be intimidating to write: Starting with the body paragraphs might give you some ideas on how to tackle those (as you'll see in the next two steps).
Decide on your intro sentence/s.
Your intro should be catchy and concise to capture your reader's attention. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Is there a theme that ties all your "main body" paragraphs together?
- Is there a quote that fits the tone and tenor of your article?
- Is there a question you can ask that the "main body" paragraphs will answer?
For example: This year, my letter's opening sentence is this: "Ah, 2024. You were a bit much."
Decide on your closing sentence/s.
Like your intro, your closing should be concise—but not a summary. Some ideas to consider:
- Share a quote or anecdote from your year that wraps your letter up in a nice bow.
- Preview something to come in the new year that would intrigue your readers.
- Offer heartfelt wishes for the holiday and new year.
For example: This year, my letter's closing sentence is this: "We're sending y'all warmth and love for the holiday season and wishing you good health and courage for the new year."
Punch up the humor (with caution) where you can.
People like funny. Read through your draft to see how you could phrase something in a humorous way. But there's a caveat: Use this sparingly, and don't use inside jokes that most of your readers wouldn't understand.
For example: This year, my toddler learned to walk and talk. I revised my original, straightforward prose to this: "After taking her first steps in May, she started spouting words—and the sass is strong in this one."
Step away from your letter.
Even if it's for 15 minutes, put your attention on something else for a bit. You can't objectively edit something you've just written. (Trust me, I've tried. It doesn't work.)
Edit without mercy.
Nobody's got time to read a novel. Your letter should be as short as possible. Remove flowery introductory clauses and unnecessary adjectives. Use active verbs wherever possible.
Read it out loud.
This helps you find typos and other errors. It also shows where your reader may be tripped up by too many words or too-long sentences.
Proofread.
If you can, it's worth taking a break here, too, so you can come to the piece fresh. But we're all pressed for time these days, so forge head to check spelling, grammar, etc., if you must. If you can, ask someone else to do a quick read, or run your piece through Grammarly, to pick up errors you've missed.
Go-time!
Send, print, or post your letter. You did it!
See? It's not rocket science! And the best part is this: You can apply these tips to just about any writing you do, from emails to cover letters to blog posts to web pages ... the list goes on.
Sending you warmth and love for the holiday season, and wishing you good health and courage for the new year.