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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. 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.