Happy New Year from our House to Yours
The annual holiday letter has been the subject of much derision and sarcasm, and some it is obviously deserved. But, the truth is, I miss the ones that didn’t come this year. I’m blaming Facebook and Twitter for their demise. Why should anyone bother sending out the annual letter when all our friends know how we took our coffee yesterday morning (decaf, heavy on the cream and sweetener) along with many of the actual thoughts that flitted through our heads in the last twenty-four hours.
But, I like the summary a Christmas letter provides. I like reading about the family vacation to Colorado and the trials of life with a toddler and even the sorrows of saying good-bye to a job, or a house, or a parent. Christmas letters are like miniature memoirs of my friends’ lives, and I savor them.
One of my friends did create an entire family website to replace the archaic letter. I appreciated that. But, he is also one of the first magazine editors I ever worked for, so I could expect something this grand from him. The average bear probably can’t pull that off.
I do love social networking. I like knowing that Judy Coleen is spending the day with her grandchildren and that Cheri is lost in her Bible study of John. I love reconnecting with folks I haven’t seen in decades. But these are like quick greetings in the grocery store aisle when we are all in a hurry to go somewhere else. I am grateful for these encounters, but, some days, I need a long lunch with my friends.
So, this is my ode to the holiday letter. I’m sure its day is just about gone. I hope we find ways to replace it with heart-to-heart communication across miles. It will take more than 140 characters sometimes.
Yea, I don’t think I’ve ever disliked a holiday letter. Something I’ve been thinking about is that every life is fascinating in some way when you give it a chance. We all have a story. Christmas letters prove that. So much happens to all of us in one year. At the very least – maybe people should collect their tweets or facebook statuses into a letter. That would probably be pretty insightful.
Though I haven’t done one this year — I loved every Christmas letter I received and especially the family photos enclosed with them! I too wondered if perhaps we wouldn’t be receiving many of these as Facebook and Twitter take over the world. And then I wondered: Is it our “age” that makes us want real letters instead of electronic post-it notes? I wrote one handwritten letter a week when I was away at college. And my mom wrote one or two back to me each week. What a different world it is now! I love FB & Twitter, but I think I kind of miss the good ole days too.
Let’s do lunch this summer!