More Creative Christmas Newsletter Ideas

As someone who has been in charge of the family Christmas newsletter for almost 12 years, I have had the opportunity to create a variety of different letters to send out to friends and family. In an earlier article, I shared several ideas for how to write a creative Christmas newsletter. In this article, the list continues. Why write a regular Christmas newsletter when you can spice things up a bit with something more unique!

1. To-Do List: This kind of Christmas letter looks great on an extra long and skinny sheet of paper. I did this Christmas letter 2 years ago and copied two letters onto an 11x17 sheet of paper and then cut them down the middle. This was basically a list of items I'd checked off through out the year, complete with actual check marks by each of the items. A few examples of things you might include are:

• Help Robert choose from 3 job offers

• Find a house to buy in Portland in 3 days or less. (Don't forget to bring all 3 kids along)

• Redecorate the kitchen for under $300 while Robert is away on business

This letter was quickly put together but still turned out pretty well. I titled it, "Afton's To-do List 2004" in big letters at the top and added some cute clip art and black and white photos of each member of the family.

2. Game Board: I had a great time creating this newsletter about 4 years ago. Although it would have been much easier done in Microsoft Publisher, I created it in Word and I won't deny that it was time consuming. Basically, using the draw toolbar, I made a series of squares and put them end to end so they snaked around the 81/2 by 11 sheet of paper.

Inside the first square I typed "start" and at the last one I put "end". Then, starting at the beginning, in each of the other squares, I wrote something about our year, moving along the game board in chronological order. I had to be succinct to get the information to fit in each box and make sense. Some squares would also include instructions to move forward or backwards depending on whether the event was positive or negative. However, I didn't expect that anyone would actually play the game, but thought it would add to the authenticity.

I included the heading, "What a Year" in a cute font. I also put pictures of a full length shot of each family member. Each picture was only about 2 inches high and was photo shopped to look like a punch-out game pieces. There was also a paragraph of "instructions" that was really a Christmas greeting. It said something like this:

"In the game of life, we hope you and your family find joy and peace. May the Spirit of the Season become a part of your everyday game plan all through out the coming year!"

This was no doubt my favorite Christmas letter that I've done. It did take a long time, but I think it turned out pretty well and I had a lot of nice comments on it.

3. Newspaper-Style: I've written several newspaper-style newsletters. Each was 2 columns and had a newspaper name, issue and volume numbers at the top. One was done in chronological order with a short paragraph story complete with headline and dateline. I went over the major events in our family month by month. That year, the company my husband had been working for closed down and laid everyone off, we had a new baby, my husband got a new job, and we moved to a small island off the coast of Washington State. So, each of these events became little articles in my newspaper. I included pictures of our family, the new baby and a map of our island so everyone would have a visual representation of just where in the world we were.

The second newspaper-style newsletter was done with a short "article" on each member of the family. Starting with my husband, and then me, I continued with each child in order of age. The headline would simply be the person's name, and for the kids, I included their ages. I wrote a small amount about what they'd been up to that year and ended each "article" with some of the kids hobbies and interests.

Make your Christmas newsletter the highly anticipated letter of the season by your friends and family by adding a little creative spice. And don't forget to keep a copy of your family Christmas newsletter each year. Keep them in a scrapbook, or even a three-ring binder in page protectors for a developing record of your family's history.