Home > Christmas News letters > Alert Readers > Pre 2007

Border of holly leaves

The Pre 2007 Collection


Christmas News Navigation:

General Suggestions

Best brag

Three short examples

Full-length examples

From me:

01 A practical joke
02 My grandparents die
03 English Tour
04 Barn swallows
05 Buying hubcaps
06 Group photos
07 Mr. Science
08 Backpacking, Middle English
09 Leukemia
10 Comfort Clothes
11 Marmots and Texas
12 Eagle, Turkey and Emu
12 Accident and Hike

From Alert Readers:
01 In the Foothills
02 Excess
03 Things unsaid
04 11 Kids
05 Multiple Choice
06 . . . bit my ear
07 Facts and Stats
08 Neiheisel Review
09 Family and Horses
10 Sing a Song
11 The Professional
2007 Collection
2008 Collection
2009 Collection
2010 Collection
2011 Collection

Parodies:
Erma Bombeck & Martha Stewart
Around the World
Coping with DUI
Defining Pretentious
The 12 McQ's

Other sections on my web site:
Home
Genealogy
Peace Corps
Web Design
Misc. Essays
Homilies
   

This is guide to the the letters Alert Readers sent me before 2007.

In the Foothills: This one is from an elderly lady who lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills. She has problems with age, windstorms and mountain lions. This is a great example of how ordinary problems for one person are exotic to the rest of us.

Doug Hughes (PDF, 3.5 MB) is a Silicon Valley writer who does newsletters professionally, but the techniques he employs - featuring his kids' stories, cute quotes, and Christmas carol parodies - are ideas that anyone can borrow. His annual newsletter is on-line. This link is to his home page. The letter itself is a 16-page, 4.25x5.5-inch booklet saved as a 3-4 MB PDF file. If you have a slow connection, click on "Songs" or "Stories" to see excerpts.
[Ed. note - It is obvious what Doug does for a living. Getting a Hughes Newsletter for Christmas would be like getting a "Come on over to the house for dinner" invitation - from the head chef of five-star restaurant.]

Europe on $1,000 a day: The writer lists most of the paintings and meals she enjoyed while in Paris and Venice. One of her correspondents sent it to me as an example of excess.

Things Left unsaid: The Back Family sent me their 2004 letter as an example of how you could leave the reader wanting more. (Most of mine leave the reader wanting less.)

Merry Christmas from Our 11: What do you do for a family with (almost) 11 children?

Multiple Choice Christmas: A cute variation on a theme.

Christmas in Alaska: ". . . Cheryl leaned over the back of the pew in front of me and bit my ear. I said "You carnivorous little wench!" I knew then that my life would never be the same . . ."

Facts and Stats: Mrs. "Smith" makes light of her annual recap.

The Neiheisel Review: The Neiheisel family deals with children and soccer.

Family and Horses: Tina catches us up on her family and its horses. I thought this was a great example of something ordinary to them being interesting to others, since not everyone has horses.

Sing a Song of Christmas: Deb Lutmer uses popular song titles as lead-ins to her paragraphs. It is a neat idea.

The Professional: Matt Wixon writes a weekly humor column for The Dallas Morning News. This is his column on bragging Christmas news letters. It is part parody and part example of a humorous Christmas letter written by a trained professional.

This is one page of over four dozen devoted to Christmas news letters. The main Christmas News Letters page has links to more examples, plus some general guidelines and specific suggestions for writing Christmas news letters. If you have an example, either good or bad, that you'd like to share with the rest of the world, send it to me and I'll add it to these pages.



Problems, comments or complaints? Need an opinion? Send E-mail to:
This page updated: June 21, 2014