Modern yule greetings:
The family letter is just the first step for the time-strapped.
This holiday season, terror-weary
families are aiming for a meaningful but effortless family moment. Less
commercialism. Fewer house guests. Minimum Martha. Focus on the
important things in life. For what will be known as the 9-11 Generation, the
Christmas message of peace and goodwill prevails but the object is to
express this message without burning out, melting down or cracking up.
One solution is to scale down production
of the annual mailing to loved ones. The Christmas greeting needs to be
delivered, to be sure, but delivered without pain or pressure.
This is not a new idea. The Christmas
card task has always loomed ominously, especially as two-career families
started to make time more scarce and as family members dispersed further
afield.
Since two-career families by definition
have experience in the workplace, that's where they look for problem-solving
strategies.
The first generation of the trend to
streamline Christmas mail output was the word-processed family letter we're
all so familiar with. This epistle has its advantages (no more writer's
cramp) and disadvantages (way too much information), but the form is well
established and it's here to stay, and we should be glad it is. Now that
we're in the 21st century, however, it's time to further refine and upgrade
the process.
Here are some ideas:
E-MAIL
The hand-delivered card has many defenders and much to recommend it, but so
did mental math before the age of the calculator. Yes, a mass e-mail can
seem cold and impersonal but only if you let it. Is it really such a
hardship to read about your niece's science project or your godfather's
broken leg on the computer monitor or Blackberry instead of in a printout
folded into a mass-produced UNICEF card? Life is too short to quibble, and
anyway it's the content that counts, not the form. Sure, it's nice to get
cards in the mail, but isn't it just as exciting to hear the "you've
got mail" sound effect on the home PC?
Once you warm to the idea of the e-mail
Christmas letter, you can get creative with the technology. For example,
when the letter comes from the second cousin in New Mexico, hit the
"forward" key to send it on to your grown children or siblings who
might otherwise be out of touch with the sender. (If necessary, insert a
brief note of your own to remind them who the sender is.)
POWERPOINT
Whether you're going to send your message by e-mail or snail mail, make it
short. Not only does this save time, it makes you more popular. Nobody on
your list wants to read more than one page of information. Use colour and
typography to enhance your message, not flowery words or banal details. And,
of course, you can never use enough bullets. Under the heading of family
events, for example, include points such as these:
- daughter graduated
- son got his own apartment (hurray!)
- mother had a mild heart attack
- father lost more hair (ha ha ha)
- dog died
Other headings can be travels, births,
deaths, job changes, awards, etc. Avoid jokes or cute anecdotes about pets.
Your relatives will appreciate your
- brevity
- clarity and
- bullets.
VOICE MAIL
"You have reached the Smith family residence. Jason has just returned
from volunteering as a teacher in Nepal. For more information, press one.
For an update on Caitlin's year in Grade 3, press two. If you are calling to
tell us how your family is, wait for the beep." (Variations here
include teleconferencing and video conferencing.)
MULTI-TASK
The generation that has tried to have it all is familiar with the concept of
completing two or more tasks simultaneously. Writing the family Christmas
greeting can easily be combined with a day's work if you happen to be in the
communications field. Talk-show hosts could incorporate family news into
their daily monologue so friends tuning in can hear about the trip to Paris
while doing the ironing.
The preacher (now there's somebody who's
busy at this time of year!) can include family anecdotes as part of the
Advent sermon to kill two birds with one stone. ("Our family was
relieved to pay off the mortgage this year. Like the kings who knew they
would be rewarded if they followed the star, our own wishes can be fulfilled
over time.")
OUTSOURCE
The best person to delegate the Christmas message to is your university
student teenager, who has three weeks holiday at this time of year and likes
to stay awake all night downloading music and touching up digital images
anyway. Ask him or her to design a 2001 Family Web site with photos,
clippings, background music, hot links and more, as appropriate.
If you were doing it, this would not be
an example of simplifying. But you're not. Alternatively, your offspring
might prefer to create an MP3 greeting. You will be impressed.
And finally, think outside the box: The
January letter -
National
Post
