5 Tips for Writing a Great Christmas Newsletter

One of the things I look forward to most each Christmas season is finding my mailbox stuffed with Christmas cards and letters. For many, including me, December is the one time of the year I can catch up on friends I might otherwise lose touch with. It's always nice to get a card, but what I really look forward to are the newsletters detailing highlights from my friend's past year.

I've heard some complain about these mass produced, impersonal "form" letters. They say they lack the thought and intimate feel of an individually signed greeting card. Christmas newsletters are also notorious for lacking the appropriate festivity for the season. Often just black ink photocopied onto a red or green sheet of paper, it's easy to see why newsletters of the past had a hard time competing with glossy and colorful cards.

Many of these personal issues with newsletters are starting to disappear with the wide selection of decorative Christmas papers. Another boon for Christmas newsletters is the home publishing computer programs like Microsoft Publisher. Also, there are many online resources for gathering ideas, clip art and fancy fonts for free which can make your family newsletter look even better than it has in years past.

I've had 11 years of experience writing a Christmas newsletter. Over the years I've learned a few tips on making the letter one that our friends and family actually look forward to receiving. If you are just getting started on your own family's newsletter tradition, these tips will help you write a newsletter you'll be proud to send out to your own friends and family.

1. Content: One of the biggest pitfalls of writing your family's Christmas newsletter is the temptation to give too much information. I completely understand how adorable it was when little Sally put her socks on all by herself for the first time, a letter filled with lots of those little details will quickly put any reader in to "skim mode", or worse, put them to sleep.

Think milestones! What is the one highlight of the year for each member of your family? If you could only list one thing about each person, what would it be? Certainly you should write more about your family members, but thinking about major events is a good way to make sure your letter content is as interesting as it can be.

Consider any hobbies your family members have when describing how they spent their year. This is especially good when describing small children who may not have a lot of big academic or athletic accomplishments, but who love to tell jokes, or color on the wall.

Finally, one page should be your goal for your newsletter's length. By thinking of major events and not adding every little detail, you should not have a problem sticking to one page. A two page letter is not the biggest no-no in newsletter writing, but unless you have seven or more children, spent 6 months building an orphanage in a 3rd World country, or recently finished being a cast member on a popular island reality show, one page should be long enough.

2. Fonts: Please consider your reader when selecting your fonts. There are lots of beautiful fonts out there that will look great when printed huge for a headline, but will be completely unreadable at 12 point size. Use your fancy fonts for paragraph headings or titles, or even a festive, "Merry Christmas" at the end of your letter. The main body should be in a nice, readable serif font. Fonts with serifs are easier to read as the serifs guide the eye from one letter and word to the next.

Please refrain from shrinking your font down to a microscopic size so your letter will fit on one page. Try playing with the margins before making those of us still hanging onto our youth and waning eyesight have to don our reading glasses.

3. Clip Art: Using on-line clip art is a great way to spruce up your letter and add visual interest. Just don't over-do it or you might end up taking up valuable content space and making your letter hard to read. A cluster of snowflakes in one corner or a snowman in another should suffice. If you are using holiday-themed paper to print your letter, clip art will probably not even be necessary.

4. Pictures: Adding family pictures to your newsletter is a great touch. I know how much I enjoy seeing pictures of my friends and their kids. Some people choose a nice snapshot and make multiple copies to include with each newsletter. Another option is to print a picture right on your letter. Even if you don't have a color printer, your pictures could come out quite nicely. Choose pictures that are sharp and have a high contrast for best results.

5. Layout: You don't have to stick to the classic letter form for your Christmas newsletter. Try writing your letter in two columns or three. Another idea is to make it look like a newspaper with different sized columns and pictures scattered through out. Creativity is the key in giving your layout a look that will draw people in and give them a real interest in what you have to say.

Writing our Family's Newsletter is something I look forward to each year at this time. It's a time for me to reflect on the past year and think about where we may be next year. Our list of friends and family who receive our letter is nearing 100 names, so a newsletter is a great way to be able to share the most information with everyone.