Creating personalized Christmas cards is a traditional practice during the holiday season. In addition, many families include a Christmas letter to update extended family and friends on what they’ve done over the past year. We’ve put together some great creative Christmas letter ideas to inspire you to pen your best letter yet.

Christmas Letter Cards

One easy option is to combine your Christmas letter with your cards. Browse PurpleTrail’s trifold Christmas cards and Christmas letter templates and find the style that works best for you.  Remember, each design can be personalized to suit your needs.

Christmas Letter Ideas

There’s no need to send the same old generic letter! here are a few creative Christmas letter ideas:

Year in Numbers. Summarize your year in numbers. “Baby Jack took his first, 100 steps this year. We drove 2114 miles on our summer trip, to Yellowstone.” It’s a fun way to share your year’s adventures in a creative way!

Letter from Santa. Your kids will love an official-looking letter directly from the North Pole and the big guy himself. It’s a magical way to kick off the Christmas season and keep the magic alive in your home.

Infographic. A very modern approach to conveying information, this format is easy and sleek. With PurpleTrail the layout is done for you, just update the text for your family, add photos and you’re done! Your friends will love it and you’ll love the time you save.

Photo Collage. If lengthy letters aren’t your thing, create a photo collage Christmas letter. Include some captions to help give a little context to your images. In the PurpleTrail design center you can upload as many images as you like and add text as needed. This Christmas letter style allows you to create a keepsake that friends and family will love.

Booklet Cards. If you’re looking for more than a simple sheet of paper, check out these booklet Christmas cards. With 8 pages to fill, the provide enough space for photos and a story about every member of the family. They are printed on high-quality card stock with professional printing that provides an upscale touch.

To Do List. Create a to do list of that lists all the thing you did this year. “Have baby girl – check, Get approximately 2.2 hours of sleep a night – check, Treasure each moment with little Tasha – check,”, You can get as silly or serious as you want with this idea. Your friends and family will get a laugh out of this style of Christmas letter.

Unique Point of View. Why not let the family pet or child/baby write the letter. Or, even, the house, the car, or the computer. What would that sound like? What kind of year did your house have? Maybe you did a remodel and the house has something to say about it. Or, perhaps Fido finally should have a voice to share his thoughts about the passing year. This style of Christmas, letter is bound to get a great response.

Top 10 list. Share your top 10 stories or moments from the year. “Number 10 – getting in car accident. Dan survived, the car did not. Number 9 – purchasing new house. We are loving our new space!. Number 8 – Lydia was laid off. This is proving to be a good thing. See Number 1….Number 1 – We’re having twins!” You can create a story or just summarize your most memorable moments from the year.

Story. For the writers, create a story style Christmas letter to share your news and updates. “Once upon a time there lived a seemingly ordinary family. The Warners, to most folks seemed regular, but inside the Warner home, strange things were happening…” Get creative! No one can tell your family’s story like you!

Diary Entry. “Dear Diary, I can’t believe 2010 is coming to a close. It feels like so much has happened in just the blink of an eye.”. This is a fun way to let friends and family peek into your life and get caught up with what’s really going on in your day to day world!

Multiple Choice. Create a multiple choice “quiz” for your family Christmas letter. You can make it as hard or easy as you want. “Billy the most home runs ever this year. How many did he hit? A-4, B-2, C-1, D- none, Billy doesn’t play baseball”. Have fun with it!

Other Christmas Letter Ideas & Tips

Here are some other tips to make your Christmas letter shine:

• Keep your audience in mind. This can be a real challenge, especially if you send your letter to your 19-year-old niece in college and your 96-year-old grandmother. Keep the language fairly simple and stick with stories everyone will want to hear. For example, tell them about your trip to Hawaii, not the office politics involved in your new job.
• Don’t embellish. There will always be someone who seems “better off.” Stick to the facts… your life is just great!
• Get personal. Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you and wish them well in the new year.
• Brief is best. We know you’d like to go into great detail, but remember that people’s attention spans get short during the holidays.

The most important thing to remember when writing a Christmas letter is to give enough details to inform your readers of what’s going on with your family, but not so much they have to take an hour to read it. If it has been a tough year, try not overwhelm the letter with all gloom and doom. A little humor and lightheartedness can add a lot to your Christmas letter.

For even more Christmas letter ideas, check out our Christmas letter blog post from last year.

Happy holidays from the PurpleTrail team!