Christmas Letter Examples
Howard Family Christmas
Letter 2003
It was lunch time at the
North Pole. Moe and Joe Jingle, two elves from the
Nintendo division, slipped outside the toy factory and
quietly raced behind the reindeer barn.
“You got it?” Joe asked.
Moe pulled out a sheaf of papers and smiled slyly.
“Yep,” he said. “Got it.” They huddled together as Moe
unfolded the papers.
“So who are we reading
about today?” Joe asked anxiously, trying to peer over
Moe’s shoulder. Santa had never installed satellite TV
at the North Pole, which meant entertainment was mainly
limited to watching reindeer games and playing hockey.
Joe and Moe were tired of both. So the two had hacked
into Santa’s recently computerized “Naughty and Nice”
list to read about the lives of the faraway people who
awaited the red-suited gentleman’s visit every year.
“Let’s see. Today we’ve
got… some folks from California,” Moe said.
“California! Wow! They’ve
got sun there!” Joe said. Joe’s dream was to live in a
sunny place. “I bet this one’s gonna be
good. They’ve got surfing and oceans and Hollywood
actors who become governors. Does it look interesting?”
Moe’s eyes skimmed the
paper. “Sorry. No surfer dudes. No
Hollywood actors. Just a three-year-old
little boy and his parents.”
Joe’s face fell. “Well,
might as well read it anyway. We don’t have anything
better to do.” He leaned against the reindeer barn and
stuck his tongue out to catch the snowflakes that had
started falling.
“Let’s see,” Moe said.
“Cayne, Lisa and Chase are their names. Sounds like they
lead a pretty normal life. Chase just turned three this
year. Chase has a few marks in the Naughty column due to
intermittent three-year-old naughtiness, but he still
got a Nice rating.”
“What about the parents?”
Joe said. He had moved away from the building and was
now leaning this way and that with his tongue out as he
maneuvered to catch the falling snow.
“They’re also on the Nice
list.”
“Darn. Nice people are
always so boring,” he said.
“Well, it’s not all bad.
Says here that they took a few trips this year – camping
in Big Sur and northern California, a trip to Seattle
and the San Juan Islands to see family, and a visit to
Montreal when Lisa had a business trip. That was Chase’s
first trip out of the country. He had to get a
passport.”
“Hey, that’s cool — a
three-year-old with a passport. I’ve never even been
away from the North Pole,” he said wistfully. “But I bet
Montreal isn’t much warmer than here. What else?”
Moe’s eyes continued down
the page. “They were also on TV this year. Cayne, Lisa,
and Chase were on the evening news during a Dr. Dean
Edell segment. It aired in November.”
“There’s also a whole
section here about ‘first’ things Chase did. In addition
to taking his first trip outside the country, he learned
to ride a bike with training wheels and went to his
first dentist visit.” Moe smiled. “Looks like Santa
almost put him on the Naughty list that time because he
cried when the dentist looked at his teeth, but he was
smiling by the time they left. He also got his first
driver’s license…”
“What?! Three-year-olds
can drive now?” Joe yelled, forgetting all about
catching snow on his tongue. “Santa won’t even let me
take the sleigh for a practice ride!”
“Calm down, calm down,”
Moe said, motioning with his hand. “It was just a
license from Autopia at Disneyland. They went there for
a week over Thanksgiving with their families – Lisa’s
dad, brother, sister, and their families came down early
in the week, and then Cayne’s family came down at the
end of the week. It says here that Chase loved the Tea
Cups, the Matterhorn, and the Haunted Mansion. He wanted
to go on all of them again. In fact, Santa has a note
here that Lisa gets extra Nice points for taking the
kids on the tea cup ride six times.”
“Six times? Wow, that
must have made her dizzy,” Joe said. He was back to his
snowflake catching. ”I guess these people aren’t as
boring as I feared.” He leaned his head way back to
catch a snowflake and his green elf hat fall into the
snow with a soft jingle from the bell on top. “What
else?”
“Chase took swimming
lessons during the summer. That was a first, too. He
loved it. In fact, he even enjoys going under the water.
He actually likes to hold his breath. And Cayne has been
doing water aerobics five days a week at 24Hour Fitness,
which she really enjoys. She’s made a lot of friends.
“Water aerobics…” Joe
sighed. “I wish we had a pool here.”
Moe continued reading.
“Oh, no. It says they lost their cat, Kimba, this year,”
he said. “They put up flyers all over town and checked
the shelters for weeks, but they never heard a word.
Then, in a weird, chance meeting, they met a woman who
worked at an emergency animal clinic. She said she was
pretty sure their cat had been brought in by a nice
family who had found him wandering. Unfortunately, he
had a urinary blockage and they couldn’t save him. But
at least they know what happened to him.”
“Gee, that’s too bad,”
Joe said. He stopped catching snowflakes long enough to
look appropriately mournful.
“But they also got some
new critters, it says,” Moe continued. “They’re on the
Naughty list. Callie, their new kitten, who was a stray
whose owner they couldn’t find, is on the Naughty list
for always trying to get Chase’s new pet fish, Beta.
Chase has loved fish ever since he saw ‘Finding Nemo.’”
Moe smiled again. “And Cayne and Lisa get extra Nice
points for completely indulging him and taking him to
see the movie 5 times!! He absolutely loved it. In fact,
that was the theme for his third birthday party.”
“But, uh-oh. Looks like
Zoey, their dog, is also on the Naughty list for chewing
everything in sight. According to Santa’s notes, she’s a
real sweetie, but she has chewed the cover for the BBQ
grill twice, as well as tubing for the drip irrigation
system and numerous other items. And she is on the
Naughty list simply for being too big for her exuberant
puppy energy. It says Chase loves her, but Zoey gets in
trouble a lot because she knocks him down in her
excitement.”
Joe took a break from
trying to catch snowflakes and looked at his watch.
“Hey, we better get something to eat before we get back
to the toy factory. Anything else before we grab some
grub?”
Moe skimmed the list.
“Well, it says Lisa’s company laid off a bunch of people
at the end of the year after MSN canceled their
contract. She lost eight of the 13 people on her team,
but she’s okay for now and looking for another job in
case [the company] goes
under.”
Joe swiped at one more
snowflake with his tongue. “Think you can get another
one tomorrow?”
“Sure. No problem. Santa
will never know.” He and Joe turned and headed off to
the cafeteria to get lunch.
They never even saw the
man in the red suit who was quietly adding names to his
Naughty list.
Merry Christmas and best wishes for a great 2004! |