Tis the Season to be a Complete Narcissist

Every December, the controversy re-emerges about whether the holiday has become too commercial and if we have moved away from the true meaning of Christmas. I, for one, am concerned we have. With all of the shopping, decorating, parties and commitments during the holidays, we often do not have enough time or energy left to focus on what is truly important about the season.

And by that, I of course mean the Christmas letter.

Let’s face it, the Christmas letter is an American tradition currently on the endangered list. Christmas letter authors have endured the mocking for years, late-night talk show hosts have aimed jabs at it in their monologues … and really, with everyone now using social media, we’re all kept updated about everyone’s lives throughout the year, anyway.

This is tragic for those of us who unabashedly and enthusiastically embrace the holiday letter — the longer and gushier the better. We‘ve received all kinds of holiday letters: those written from the perspective of young children or grandchildren, those allegedly written by family pets, and even one or two that rhyme (rhyming should be left to professionals and I mean it, anybody want a peanut?*) I find that when they’re bad, they’re often at their best. People who are not used to doing so try something creative and I can appreciate that.

For an over-sharer like me, the Christmas letter is a fantastic tradition. You already know what I have done this year thanks to networking sites, my blogs and this column. But the Christmas letter enables, nay, requires me to recapture it all in one document.

For a couple of years now, we have sent out holiday postcards with a photo of our family on the front and list of things we did that year on the back.  On a standard 4x6 postcard, this was relatively inoffensive (I hope).         

However, this year I was apparently feeling more verbose. Even though I captured our year in 15 bullet points (that’s a mere five bullet points per family member, for those keeping track), the bullets themselves contained more information than in the past. My husband suggested editing the list so it would fit on the standard postcard, but I thought a better idea would be printing it on a larger postcard, forgetting that the 5x8 would mean that the photo on the front would also be quite a bit larger.

It took me a while to get used to seeing our tremendous melons on the card after they were printed and delivered, but figured our friends and family are so busy this time of year they may not even notice, so I went ahead and sent them anyway.

And have already begun receiving comments like, “Good Lord, that's a big picture. It is life-sized! I think we need a bigger Christmas card holder!” and “Thank you so much for the holiday poster.” I believe there was also a simple “wow” in there somewhere.

Looks like I may be alone in my fight to put the Chirstmas letter back in Christmas.

*thanks and apologies to The Princess Bride