What to write inside a holiday card
How to Write the Perfect Holiday Card
tis the season for holiday cards and in
many cases the creation of that holiday
letter here darkness and coming up with
one that finds the right tone and by
that I don't mean that doesn't sound too
braggy or makes it seem like your life
is perfect but still has you're sharing
information that people are genuinely
interested in is is Jodi RR Smith thank
you so much for being with us
expert and founder of Manor Smith but
yeah this is a difficult balance because
you know we've all gotten those holiday
letters that may be our five pages long
really detail I'd read them yes this is
not a regurgitation of your diary you
should not be going month by month
highlight-reel
one page maximum with a font that we can
read not an 8-point font to try to fit
it all in make it fun interesting so
that people want to find out more about
what you've been doing for the year okay
so it's got to be like I'm with that one
page or less it's like a resume yes get
it all on there in one page the less yes
you mean so many people just do cards do
you have a preference of should you be
sending a letter or just do a card I
happen to really like the letter you
tell Facebook friends with everybody I
want to hear how people are doing a card
it's fun to see them but I want to hear
how old is a kid what's their dog up to
where have they traveled I really do
want to hear a little bit more and it
should not be the same stuff you're
putting on Facebook anyway this should
really be and I look back a year in
review of the highlights of things that
have gone well for you and your family
what about things that have not gone so
well yeah I don't want to come across as
to brag II do you indicate like oh
so-and-so didn't get the job this year
but she's still looking and you know
whatever no so you want to be careful so
you can have negative information if
it's something that people are already
aware of so like a health problem if I
had been undergoing health problems for
the past three years and you can say
Jody is now in remission that's
something to say or Jody needed to go
through some treatments in July but
all's looking well
we don't need any doctor reports we
don't need to know what medications I'm
on and if something really is wrong the
holiday card is not the time to
disseminate that news something I should
not get a card with my smiling family
open it up and real that I'm
I read that I'm critically ill that's
not the Tibet it's not the place okay
let's talk about before you put your
card out to the world I know every year
sometimes you cringe because someone has
a grammatical error or a spelling
mistake if they do the apostrophe s
since that you know instead of just the
S you're like I mean should you make
sure what do you do to make sure people
don't make those mistakes so what
happens is people are in doing these at
two o'clock in the morning I have to get
it out I have to get it out do it in
advance make sure that you have the time
to put it aside to reread it and
everybody has a friend that is a grammar
guru who loves to nitpick send your
draft to them proof it for you they will
send it back and then you can print it
out what I love is my grandmother used
to redline it and send it back she was
quite the woman she was quite the woman
send it again a programmer a lot of my
family members are Jewish I want to buy
one holiday card yeah and I want to I'm
Catholic I want to express my sentiment
my spirituality is it okay to send a
spiritual message to a non-christian
person it's well there's all sorts of
religions with all sorts of spiritual
messages that have holidays during the
the December holiday break time and what
I encourage you to do is to be sensitive
so as the recipient I am happy to get
blessings from any and all religion
because I could use all the blessings
that I can get right okay as the sender
I also want to be sensitive so if I can
buy two different sets of cards or if I
can buy something that is more of a
global message of peace and love
I'm going to opt for that instead but
maybe okay this and say send Merry
Christmas to someone who doesn't
celebrate verses a biblical message
right so you there are gradations here
and there are so many cards on the
market that I encourage you get a couple
of each and when you don't know send
something just a little bit more on the
generic side when in doubt so what about
when you're having this wonderful time
you're sending your holiday letter about
all the great things but you know that
this person that you're sending it to is
having a really tough time they had a
death in the family they lost their job
like should you send something that's
talking about all your happiness to
someone who's having a hard time or
maybe does that lift their spirits I'd
be careful about
sending it because then I bump into one
of the our mutual friends in the grocery
store and say oh I got Kara's letter and
she goes I didn't get it she didn't I
must have gotten dropped from review in
there exactly personalize it at the
bottom of the letter say dear Beth I
look forward to getting together with
you for coffee in the New Year a little
something or I'm thinking of you during
the holidays I know this might be a
tough time for you big big proponent of
signing each Christmas card yes so even
if you're printing out the night but
people don't real signature like if
you're getting the picture cards and you
say from the house family then you do
where you're going to sign them you
can't sign in the picture cards or a ho
ho ho Scott yeah because you do like a
regular card but if you're doing a
picture card and it says from all the
names of the house family should you
still sign it well that's why you add
the holiday letter into the picture card
even though I know what you're doing
every minute of the day that's right but
don't have your dog write the letter I
tried to get cutesy no don't talk about
yourself in the third person don't have
your dog write the letter don't write it
from the point of view of your Christmas
tree really just write the letter unless
you're a professional comedian just
write the letter one last question if we
don't get the Christmas card from the
same person that we've been sending it
to for three to four years now is it
okay to take them off the list yes after
five years of you sending and then not
sending back absolutely you can take
them off they'll take them off the
lesson not be worried about there okay
what if you get one and you hadn't send
one do I know in our house and as we
save the address let me immediately send
them on to we should we do that you can
do that but you keep track of who you're
sending them to and that way you you're
not doing that every single year to that
same person okay and make sure you make
those label changes when people's get
divorced yes you don't put that label on
there yes
all right Thank You Jodi appreciate it
happy holidays for more edit advice from
Jodi be sure to check out a website it's
Manor smith.com
