CAROLYN HAX

On holiday newsletters, adapted from a recent online discussion:

Carolyn:

I had a friend years ago who sent out a Christmas letter that was SIX SHEETS OF PAPER -- front and back, typed, single-spaced. It was, like, every tiny thing they had done all year. Please, people! One page! One side! If we cared about all the rest, we've probably been in touch with you all year anyway.

I can't ever receive or send one of those letters now without thinking of her novella!

Christmas Letters

I got one of those! Complete with pictures of ambitious vacations! It was totally worth it, good for big warm fuzzy eye-rolling moments for more than a decade now, and counting. I feel nothing but gratitude.

Carolyn:

Jeez . . . I was just going to talk about job changes and the big Japan vacation -- are they that bad? We work hard not to gloat, belittle, whatever.

Wondering

Don't go on for six pages single-spaced, and do employ liberally your humility, sense of humor and perspective. I'd say they're listed in order of importance, but really all are essential if you want people to read your newsletter without a barf bag handy.

Carolyn:

Oh no, is that me? My husband and I are the kind of people whom it would be easy to hate. We're getting PhDs. We travel a decent amount (including to Europe). We run marathons. A cat, no kids.