Each year I send out the annual Christmas letter, complete with Family Photo. I know some people HATE to receive this as they feel is it filled with boastful commendations for their offspring. You're right - I hate some of those too, though I do think that parents have a little bit of bragatorial rights at least once per year.
In my annual letters, here are the rules I try to follow:
1 paragraph per person.
Keep it interesting.
Add Humor.
Keep it to one page or less.
In an effort to not crank out the same-ol' same-ol' every year, here are some things I have done to mix-it up or add a bit of creativity.
"A Year In Review" - highlighting one event from each month, i.e., "January - Suzie gets braces. February - Annual trip to Grandma's", etc.
"From a Pet's Perspective" - at the time we didn't have our 4-Legged Creature. So, I wrote it from the Chia Pet's perspective.
"'Twas the Night Before Christmas" - Switched the poem up to be about the kids.
Well, you get the idea. The years I didn't have a "fresh" idea for a letter, we tried to do something fun with the picture. When the Winter Olympics came to UT, ROOTS hats were all the rave. So, we had our picture up in a snowy canyon with our Roots hats. We've also done one in our flannel pj's for a "Night Before Christmas" look. Last year I photo-shopped their faces into snowmen cuz we were having "Snow" much fun! Corny, I know. We've also done the nice holiday clothes. So, here are some "concepts" I am contemplating for this year. Tell me what you think or offer up your own suggestions... And HURRY!!! Pics are THIS SATURDAY!!! YIKES!!!
Whaddya think? Any other suggestions???
16 comments:
I just love the licking the light pole picture. "you'll shoot your eye out" comes to mind lol
I think the snowball fight look is cool but a traditional photo with the santa hats is classic and everyone can look their best too.
No matter what, it has to be something you and your kids all buy into.
Good luck!
Have a great day!
Snowball fight or even making the cookies as a process (someone with the dough, someone sneaking a bite of said dough, someone decorating, and the finished product). I don't know. I want to do something this year but I'm at a loss.
Blog Stalker led me your way.
I love taking pictures...
I try to take our picture in the fall in a pile of leaves...fun and colorful...
Oh, love Mrs. S idea...make it really messy with you standing in the middle all clean and perfect!
Love your blog!
Kaye
I vote for the snowball throwing.
I like the cookies (of course). Maybe a "flour fight" or covered in flour would lend itself to your humor requirement:-)
I too like the snowball fight. That would really shake things up. I too dread the Christmas Brag-Gag letter. But it has to be done right?
i think i like the christmas story scene. you could do any winter movie, though. i also like the magazine cover look. like the one with the snowballs. is that an add for coats or something?
What I did last year was write down a list of things we had all done together, and individually and then found small items to represent some of these things. We placed them in a collage sort of, took a picture and I then I wrote an I-Spy sort of theme. I saw the idea on Familyfun.go.com. It was so fun. People really had a good time. Like I put swim goggles in there and then one question was "Can you find swim goggles? The kids can too because they took swim lessons this year." People commented how fun it was to try to find the items in the picture!
Last year was the first time I didn't have the "stock" photo of the kids. I did a collage picture of all the things we did that year. When my sister got her card, her little girl said "boy mama, they do a lot of fun things" :) So it was fun.
I like the Christmas Story idea.
You could do several of the more memorable scenes and collage them.
Like the bar of soap in Keenan's mouth. Kaden in the the snowsuit with his arms out....You get the idea...or you could re-enact the Denny's dinner scene, complete with FA-RA-RA-RA-RA'S...Whatever you do, just have fun with it...that's your family...FUN!
How about peanuts characters or muppets, or astronauts for the Way Out family, or elves, or the Snow queen. Or how about a mom surrounded by her children....now there is an idea. A beautiful mother surrounded by precious children. I like that one. Hmmmm... I wonder what you will end up with photowise.
I like the baby with the Christmas lights, the snow ball fight, the Christmas story. I also like nursemom's idea about peanut characters. I am sure what ever you decide will be great! I hate the brag letters too, but the one I always got was from my sister in law about all the stuff they did and how much money they made. I don't get those letters anymore thank goodness. Good luck!
We procrastinate and only get xmas cards/pics out every OTHER year. We like to shake it up and surprise everyone when we DO get it done. ha ha
Last year we got a happynew year letter/pic with the family wearing new years party hats...they threw confetti up and the kid were blowing those party blowing thingamajigs and the pic was snapped confetti mid-air. I thought it was the CUTEST!
I love the licking the light pole one! So cute! Plus it brings up A Christmas Story--classic Christmas movie for me!
I like the snowball fight. Too cute!
Thanks for stopping by my BATW yesterday!
Okay last year (if you look under 2007 blogs under December "The Christmas Letter") you will see how I feel about these letters, and how I decided not to do the "traditional" Christmas letter, but to tell the truth and let it all hang out....so to speak. But I would love to get a Christmas letter from you !!!!
I like the making cookies and collage ideas myself.
If you do the what happened month by month maybe try to do a little 12 months of 08 ditty- I know it's corny but it could be fun. :)
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