Design Crafters

Believe it or not, in some circles, writing The Best Christmas Card Letter to enclose with your family’s Christmas card makes for some heavy competition. No one wants to be that family with the letter that is unintentionally hilarious in its dour and bland — or even braggy — recounting of the past year, after all. No, the big rewards come with the wittiest letters, the ones that best reflect the sending family’s personalities while also giving a quick (trust us, keep it to a page) written snapshot of the past year’s events.

What goes into a winning Christmas card letter, you ask? Endless debates rage about this very topic. Some people love reading the newsy types of letters, while others argue that their favorites are the letters that rhyme. The funny letters are skyrocketing in popularity (both to send and to receive), as are the ironic or very clever ones. You’ll occasionally see themed letters, top ten letters, letters as jigsaw puzzles, and even letters with multiple choice quizzes about the family’s year. One extremely popular letter format is to use a photo essay approach to the year-end wrap-up—after all, pictures speak a thousand words, right?

The point is that when it comes to the letter to accompany your Christmas card, you can’t please every single person in your audience, but if you start off by pleasing yourself, you’re likely doing fine….but we would hasten to add that using red or green somewhere in the letter is a great start.

And perhaps a photo of the family dog wearing a Santa hat — that can’t hurt.