So our last 20 something years of holiday cards featured our exceedingly cute kids in various photos, and sometimes pets and updates as to what everyone was doing (starring in the school play, getting a drivers license, going to college–you get the idea). But now, we are full fledged empty nesters, and kids have their own thing going on in various parts of the country. No grandkids or other show stoppers to work with.
So the question is, what kind of holiday card can I send out? FYI, I’m not the “Christmas Letter” type, who wants to write an essay on how it feels to be an empty nester. I’d rather keep it lighthearted, fun, and short-with mostly pictures & captions…but of what???
I’m not sure where they came from, but we have a selection of humorous Xmas cards and no one to send them to. An example:
Cartoon face of Santa doing the roll-eyes with a word balloon from Mrs. Claus in the background–“You put the seat down! It’s truly a Christmas miracle!”
Our cards have pictures of our grandkids and our dogs, if I didn’t have any grandkids, it would be all dogs…maybe a picture of me and my husband with the dogs.
We also used to send out photos of the kids, as well as a letter. When the kids moved out, the photos stopped. I’ve not been impressed with the printed photo collages I’ve received of peoples’ trips and such. Generally insufficient definition, and tends to come across as “braggy.” (Yeah - a potential problem for letters as well.)
If you really want to do a photo, I’d suggest you and your SO take a photo of yourselves on a trip during the year, or maybe doing something fun - like attending a show.
Not what you asked, but we realized that when our kids left home, the letters had to be about the 2 of us, rather than our kids’ news. Can be a bit of a challenge to make it minimally interesting. But even when the kids were home, we allowed them the opportunity to read/revise any parts pertaining to them.
For the most part I’ve always done “tailor-made” (as Dad always called commercial boxed cards) with little personal notes written inside. Most have been humorous and lately (the last 3-4 years) on a farm theme. We never had kids and the Old Wench hates her picture so that was just about right for us all along.