Design Crafters

Everyone has a little bit of competitiveness in them.  For some folks, writing The Best Christmas Card Letter to enclose with your family’s Christmas card really brings out the competitor in them!  No one wants to be that family with the letter that is unintentionally hilarious in its dour and bland 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 written snapshot of the past year’s events.

We hear you (or, more likely, the competitor in you) wonder, “What goes into a winning Christmas card letter?” The truth is that 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 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?

Competitors, take note.  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 it couldn’t really hurt to include a photo of the family dog wearing a Santa hat, too.  Cuteness almost always guarantees points.

Even if you’re not a terribly sentimental person, you probably still have one or two traditions that you hold dear.  Every year, families all across the nation are thinking about traditions when the holidays approach.  Newlyweds think about the Christmas traditions they’d each like to bring to the marriage, new parents think about the holiday traditions they look forward to introducing their newborns to, and families with grown children think about the traditions they hope will continue even as time marches on.

What do these families (and more) have in common? They’re planning on continuing the tradition of sending Christmas cards out this coming holiday season.  Sending out Christmas cards is much more than grabbing a box of cards from the drugstore, scribbling a hasty message, and slapping a stamp on the envelope.  No, in fact, it’s a lot more.  Some might think it’s a chore, but the truth is that many look forward each year to the process, even with the many steps to do along the way before you can say “I’ve sent out my Christmas cards!”

No doubt you likely know a number of families who have made a tradition of sending out Christmas cards.  For instance, the families whose cards feature a photo of the entire family wearing Santa hats, right down to the family dog.  Or there’s the tradition other families have of using their annual Christmas cards as a newsletter, sharing events and news – both happy and sad – that the family experienced over the past year.  These are all traditions for these families, and it’s quite possible that these same traditions will be continued by future generations of the same families.  What traditions do you and your family enjoy each holiday, and would it make you happy to think that your great-grandchildren will be introducing their children to them someday?

How big is your family?  I’m the little sister in my family, and I’d always see those neighborhood kids who had a large number of brothers and sisters, because it seemed to me that they must have a great deal of fun along with the houseful of kids.  Noise and fun, of course.  It was only when I grew up and got my own family full of kids that I realized just how much work, in all manner of different forms, a houseful of kids can be.  To begin with, think of how just being prepared for the birthday presents and Christmas cards alone would be a full-time job!

Don’t believe me?  Well, just ask an 88-year-old woman in the U.K. who really has her hands full when it comes to sending out her Christmas cards.  Simply to send out a card to each one of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, Mrs. Graham needs to have a whopping 117 Christmas cards each year!  She concedes that it is certainly hard to keep track of where everyone lives, but of course, each of her seven children, 30 grandchildren, and 74 great-grandchildren surely appreciate the effort she makes.  We suspect that Mrs. Graham probably has taken to sending out holiday greetings just to her family, to save on time and effort, not to mention the cost of postage.

As Mrs. Graham knows very well and could tell you, people love being thought of during the holidays and a Christmas card is a lovely way to let them know they’re in your thoughts.  no matter the size of your family – immediate, extended, or just honorary – the folks on your Christmas card list enjoy receiving holiday greetings from you each year. 

It might not seem controversial to some Americans, but it turns out that the 2007 official White House Christmas card was the subject of major controversy and ultimately a lawsuit regarding its constitutionality that was recently ruled upon in the District of Columbia.  The Christmas card in question contained a passage from the Bible and numerous recipients of the cards felt that such an overtly religious greeting should not be coming from a government official entity.  The cards were signed by President Bush and the First Lady, Laura Bush and featured a watercolor scene of wintertime gardens at the White House.

One common response to the religious yet political Christmas card was this:  “Don’t you think it’s a little interesting that the president of all the people is sending out a religious Christmas card? Does this also go to agnostics, and atheists, and Muslims?”   In the end, the court found that the Biblical passage inside the Christmas card did not amount to a constitutional violation because it was paid for by the Republican National Committee.  Nonetheless, some found the meeting of church and state to be a potentially disturbing precedent.

It is estimated that approximately 1.4 million Christmas cards are mailed out from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over the holidays.  Among the recipients of the presidential Christmas cards include members of the Cabinet and Congress, foreign heads of state and government officials, and American ambassadors abroad, as well as countless voters and “ordinary people.”

Today’s world is all too familiar with layoffs from jobs, but a recent cause of a layoff might be the first of its kind.  A town crier in a small town in Great Britain recently lost his job with the town when he appeared on the front of a political party’s Christmas card.

It might initially seem like a silly reason for someone to lose a job, but listen to the whole story first.  Because the job of town crier is intended to be a non-political one, his appearance on the front of the local party’s Christmas card was thought by some to be in violation of his politically neutral job.  Following multiple complaints from constituents, an internal investigation into the controversial Christmas card looked into whether or not the card counted as having been for ‘party political purposes at the taxpayers’ expense.’  It was later determined that the Christmas card – and the town crier’s appearance on it – did in fact may have qualified as “party political literature,” and some time after that, the town crier was relieved of his duties.

Some members of the small town’s council are working to reinstate the former town crier in his job, to the point that they have not yet posted the open job listing anywhere.  But however this situation ends up being resolved, one things seems for certain:  town criers all over the world will surely be careful about appearing on Christmas cards in the future!

Here’s a little quiz:  what popular Christmas season staple will celebrate its’ 165^th “birthday” later this year?  Give up?  That’d be the Christmas card .  History shows that Sir Henry Cole — then-director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England – commissioned an artist to create a card that he could send to his friends for Christmas.  What inspired Sir Henry to think up the idea in the first place?  He realized that he was too busy to write a holiday letter to each and every one of his friends as he had previous Christmases.  And so the Christmas card came into being.

Not too surprisingly, as brand-new to the world as the concept of Christmas cards were in 1843, the cards managed to cause an uproar.  Not just over the brilliant idea of the cards itself, but because the image on the front of Sir Henry’s card was of a family enjoying their holiday dinner while a child sipped wine.  Many were outraged and Sir Henry’s cards were declared to be “fostering moral corruption in children.”

Nonetheless, the idea of Christmas cards took off in popularity almost immediately.  At first, Christmas cards with religious themes were the only ones available, but it didn’t take long for other Christmas card themes to appear on the market. 

Nowadays, of course, you can find a Christmas card in just about any theme or motif you could dream up:  nature, with family photos, corporate, patriotic, humorous, sports-themed, luxurious, classic, cartoon characters, and of course featuring Santa Claus in his many forms. So don’t forget to raise a cup of eggnog to toast Sir Henry’s brilliant idea this winter!

How do you kick off your family’s holiday season?  Many families have an annual tradition that marks, for them, the beginning of the Christmas season.  A few weeks before Thanksgiving, my family and I start planning a trip to the local Christmas tree farm.  It’s a wonderful tradition we began before the children were even born.  It has sort of become the unofficial start to our holiday season, and a very lovely way to kick it off, too.  Hayrides, hot cocoa, baked goods, holiday greenery, Christmas carols playing in the background, and acres and acres of future Christmas trees.

Thinking back on it, I think it was that we first went to the Christmas tree farm with some friends, who had asked us to go with them.  While there, they turned to us and asked us to take some photos of their whole family, standing in front of the rows of beautiful live Christmas trees.  We obliged, snapped a few shots, and then we found “the perfect” tree for our home, so we quickly forgot taking those few family photos. But our friends didn’t forget, and a few weeks later, we opened our mailbox to find a Christmas card from them, with one of the photos we’d taken for them on the card smiling back at us.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, their Christmas card photo turned out so well that we decided we would like to “borrow” the idea for our own cards someday.  And that’s just what we did.  It’s fun to look back at our little collection of photos from the Christmas tree farm that we’ve amassed now; each and every one of them was taken for that year’s Christmas card. Now it wouldn’t feel like the holiday season if we didn’t begin it at the Christmas tree farm.

Republican, Democrat, or somewhere in between, no matter which candidate ends up being elected President of the United States this fall, there’s one thing we can be nearly positive about:  the long-standing tradition of White House residents to send out Christmas cards each year will likely be continued. 

Technically speaking, the first presidential administration to send out official holiday greetings from the White House was the Eisenhower administration in 1953, President Calvin Coolidge wrote out a holiday greeting on White House stationery in 1927 that was published in newspapers across the country.  Since then, the presidential Christmas cards have been sent out each and every year.  It’s estimated that around 2,000 cards were sent out in the first decade of this practice, but in recent years, it’s not unusual for approximately 1.4 million cards to be mailed out from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over the holidays.  Among the recipients of the presidential Christmas cards members of the Cabinet and Congress, foreign heads of state and government officials, and American ambassadors abroad, as well as countless “ordinary people” (also known as your neighbors and family who are registered voters).

There’s a collection of Presidential Christmas cards in the White House archives; from time to time, they are on display for visitors to see.  It’s interesting to see how the card artwork has evolved.  Subject matter of recent White House Christmas cards have featured artwork of, what else? The White House in a wintertime or Christmas setting, or perhaps an interior room of the White House decorated with Christmas trees and other holiday greenery.  In the early years of Presidential holiday greetings, though, photos of the Commander-in-Chief or even simply the Presidential seal appeared on the front of the official White House Christmas cards. 

Each and every year during the holiday season, mailmen all over the country and world are kept very busy delivering holiday greetings to everyone on your block (and the next block, and the next block…).  Typically, most households receive Christmas cards from friends and family, but often other cards will appear in the mailbox.  You guessed it:  I’m talking about those Christmas cards that are sent by companies or businesses.

To better illustrate this point, just this past Christmas, we received holiday greetings from our vet, our lawn service company, the tax accountant we use from time to time, the realtor who sold us our house, the attorney who worked with us on buying our house and setting up wills, our child’s pediatrician, and our family dentist.   My husband would like to add our congressman to the list, but I am not sure that a card from the Distinguished Gentleman from District 8 truly counts as a business Christmas card.  The cards were just as handsome as those sent by friends and family, even if the message came from a business.

True, the motivation behind a business sending out Christmas cards to their client or customer list might be viewed negatively by some, but others would argue that they rather like knowing that they mean enough to their dentist or realtor to receive holiday greetings.  And, in the end, who doesn’t like getting mail from a business that isn’t a bill or invoice?  Especially mail that wishes a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year – that’s happy mail no matter who the sender.

Many things can be a masterpiece.  Perhaps your initial thought might be that the word “masterpiece” is being used in reference to a glorious piece of classical music being played by a major symphony orchestra or breathtaking oil painting that hangs in a world-famous art museum.  But it’s possible to apply that word to other, smaller-scale things.   Such things could include elementary school student artwork, carefully tended gardens, spectacular nature photography, and, yes, even Christmas cards.

Okay, so maybe you’re not sure about this and have doubts about the masterpiece potential in things like Christmas cards, but if you’ve ever yourself worked for days and days on designing your family’s card to send out to family and friends, you know the feeling when you’ve gotten it exactly right.  When you realize you couldn’t possibly get your Christmas card any more perfect, that is when it’s the masterpiece.  When you start getting calls and letters from people who received the cards and they are all raving about how fabulous your cards were, that’s when it’s a masterpiece.  When, years after the fact, you run into friends you haven’t seen in ages and ages and the first thing they say to you is “that Christmas card you sent 6 years ago was fantastic!”….that’s when it’s a masterpiece.

Some may argue that a great many folks don’t need to have a mailbox full of masterpieces each holiday season; they’re thrilled with any kind of Christmas correspondence:  postcards, newsletters, video messages, or the traditional kind of Christmas card.  The fact of the matter is that, masterpiece or not, the odds are very high that your card will be treasured by a great many people.