For over the last ten years, I have written an annual Christmas letter to friends and family. In the past, I have often felt like holiday letters were intended to show how glamorous the life of the sender was in comparison to the rest of us. We might learn that a friend had traipsed around the Argentina pampas, learned to dance the tango and their gifted child had received high honors for a research study project in molecular science. Some of the letters were not only self-aggrandizing and tacky but felt more like a public relations exercise, rather than showing any genuine desire to connect with the recipient.

But with my decision to write an annual letter, my perspective has changed. Now when I receive a letter, it feels more like I am sitting down to have a cozy chat with someone after a long absence. Electronic communication has made things faster, but email language is flatter with abbreviated sentences, utilitarian words and experiences reduced to emojis. My appreciation for these holiday communications has grown because they are more expansive with colorful details that often go missing in the usual practical online communications.

Admittedly, I hesitated before beginning my Christmas letter tradition because the act of sharing the past year’s highlights felt like an admission that we weren’t necessarily living an interesting life. And for someone who values their privacy, it feels like a special effort to share this much information. And is it too much information?

When I write the annual letter, I don’t feel any urgency to provide a complete list of what has happened during the year because my main goal is to be entertaining and make people laugh or at least smile. It creates a momentary intimacy. Living in Australia means that we can’t casually drop in on someone living overseas, but one way to bridge the distance is to communicate in a meaningful way. It is a small gesture, but briefly, we can share a small part of lives. But our mailing list is shrinking as people depart this celestial realm or just lose interest.

For me, our holiday letter has become a small act of resistance with so much faceless electronic communication and strange online oversharing. But these letters conspicuous fault is that they aren’t tailored individually for each person, but I do try to write a small personal note on each one.

Writing an annual holiday letter feels a bit old-fashioned, but it is like putting a period at the end of a sentence. This means that last year is ‘done and dusted’ and before it ends, we would like to share some of our stories with you.

Here is what AI had to say when I asked it, “Are Christmas newsletters tacky?”

Christmas letters can seem tacky when they come across as impersonal, overly braggy, or like a shortcut for genuine connection. People find them tacky if they feel dishonest, like an unsolicited list of achievements, or like a “one-size-fits-all” attempt to stay in touch with people they aren’t close enough to contact more personally. Ultimately, whether a letter is tacky is subjective and depends on the content, presentation, and the recipient’s feelings. 

Sometimes you have to hand it to AI. It seems there is an artificial intelligence consensus that these letters can be insincere, but hopefully, I am able to surmount this challenge with the time and effort that I put into creating it. It is genuinely meant to be a gift.