Holiday Letters

I am already in the Christmas spirit! I really missed out on Christmas last year due to the car accident. My husband put the tree up, but we never decorated it, and it was painful and difficult for me to even wrap presents. This year I want to enjoy the holidays as much as I can to make up for last year.

I have already picked out some holiday cards that I am going to get personalized and then I'm going to write a letter to include with it. I love holiday letters and find it fascinating what people write about. The letters that come from my mom's side of the family are often pretty dreadful because they usually detail someone getting very sick or dying. We don't keep in touch with them but I do look forward to these letters so I know what is going on. Then there are people who use the letters to brag. One person in particular I know that is always unhappy about something tends to write letters just detailing achievements of her family. I love reading all the letters though regardless of what tone people take. I want my letter to be something people really enjoy so I'm trying to include many elements into it to make it fun and interesting. Right now I'm thinking of including a couple pictures, my favorite holiday dessert and cocktail recipes as well as Christmas songs I think everyone should have on their iPod. The letter part will be weird to friends that I see often though since they don't need an update so I'm not sure if I will send them the letter with the card or just the card. I'm also struggling with what tone to take. I had a rough year with all the car accident pain and then finding the lump, but I don't want to have one of those gloomy letters. It's the holidays and time to be happy so I'll just leave those things out.

Please give me any ideas you have to make my letter enjoyable to the readers. What do you like to read in holiday letters or what has worked for you in letters you have written???