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10
Christmas Letter Writing Tips
1. Be yourself – For some reason, people often feel
the need to include "big" words in their Christmas letter that
they’d never use in real life. Stick to words you use
in your everyday English. It will help your readers "hear" you
when they're reading.
2.
Don't exaggerate -
There is a
tendency among some Christmas letter writers to try to make
every daily event sound as if it's the discovery of the Holy
Grail. Don't embellish the truth. The events will speak for
themselves. For an example of how not to write a
Christmas letter, see this
parody
from Fun for the Holidays.
3. Keep it short –
Try to focus on the highlights of your year -
the best things that happened to you, the funniest events, the
most important changes in your life. In most cases, your
Christmas letter shouldn't exceed one or two typed pages.
4. Avoid unnecessary adjectives - This is
a follow-up to rules
#1 and #2 above.
Excessive
use of adjectives that you'd never use in everyday conversation
is a common pitfall for many Christmas letter writers.
Avoid sentences such as, “My beautiful wife Jane and I took
our wonderful kids to the fabulous city of New York and spent exciting hours
visiting the incredible museums."
Keep the modifiers to a minimum.
5. Write for your audience – Do you send your Christmas letter
just to close friends and family who already know the details of
your everyday life? Or to casual acquaintances and business
associates? Your letter should entertain the people who aren't intimately
familiar with your daily happenings without boring those who
are.
6. Make it visually appealing
- Your letter will be more interesting if you include photos,
clip art, or other images. Photos will liven up any Christmas
letter, and many people find it easier to
describe one photo at a time than to chronicle an entire year.
You can get an inexpensive one-week membership to
Clipart.com
to get access to over 2 million images or buy
Christmas stationery. The more
art you have, the less text you need to write.
7. Be creative - A Christmas letter
doesn't have to be a letter at all. See some of our
creative Christmas letter ideas for fun ways to give your
annual holiday update a fresh new look.
8. Add a personal note - A
quick handwritten note at the bottom of each recipient's
Christmas letter will make the update feel more personal and
less like an anonymous form letter.
9. Read it aloud - Read your letter
aloud, or have someone else read it to you. Does
it flow well? Is it interesting to listen to? If not, you might
want to rewrite some sections.
10. Have fun! - Remember that Christmas
letter writing is an opportunity to have fun and
keep others up to date about what you and
your family have been doing all year. It shouldn’t feel like a chore
to write your letter - or to read it. If it
does, you’re doing something wrong.
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