Christmas letters

It is so kind of people to write Christmas letters to include in their cards; I do for a few elderly relatives, but for most people I just write a couple of sentences catching up on our news in the broadest fashion. I am still in touch (mainly only at Christmas) with friends from long ago, and some of them have never met my husband or children, and in this case I keep my message even shorter, hoping maybe that we will meet next year, and just mentioning my writing (shameless self-publicity!)

I have received a couple of Christmas letters… quite long ones, and I repeat it is so kind of the senders to take the trouble to write them… but I have never met their husbands, visited their homes, met their children (nor can even clearly remember which child is which, let alone what they are studying/where they are working/who they are dating/where they are living) I read the letters but become baffled by names and comical comments punctuated with several exclamation marks. I actually am not really interested in the amusing things which have happened during the year or while on holiday, because they don’t seem amusing as I don’t know the people involved.

In the past I have received letters which list children’s’ and husbands’ achievements and it almost… almost seems like bragging… Then there are the catastrophes which must have been awful, injuries, illnesses, unemployment, people I don’t know passing away, and these are all recounted with a typically British stiff-upper-lip stoicism and jollity. I’d like to be sympathetic… but I begin to turn into Scrooge  and become totally uninterested in the tragic events of the past year, or the comedic triumphs.

I received two cards with messages written inside, one from a cousin who in a few sentences sketched in the dramatic effects of the recent storms on her garden (I’ve visited her, sat in the garden, so I know what she’s referring to and was suitably relieved that they are all fine) and the other was from another cousin who wrote a similar brief couple of sentences bringing news that her sister will be visiting from the States in February and inviting us over… delighted!

Thank you letter writers… I do appreciate your effort….