Despite the modern digital age, there is still a significant place in the 21st-century festive season for the traditional Christmas card. Christmas is a unique time of year so Christmas cards send a distinctive message which is special just to that time and no matter how often you may have facetimed your friends and family throughout the year. Even for those you live with, giving that card with a special few chosen words, is always very special. And it’s not just friends and families who send cards and spend time reflecting on exactly what to write in them.
Businesses send Christmas cards and that’s an opportunity to make a real statement about many things – the choice of design, whether the card is recycled and recyclable so their business ethics and, of course, the content of the message which can be punchy, eye-catching and right on brand. Even politicians send them and there is often a bit of a cringe-fest in the press as to the images or personal photographs which are chosen each year, particularly by the Prime Minister and senior politicians.
For many people, the challenge lies not in choosing the card or the design but the wording of the message that should go inside it. So how do you pen the perfect sentiment for your friends, family, acquaintances or work colleagues? It is so disappointing to open a card and find just the signature – how much nicer and more personal would a simple short message be? But many people avoid this as either too challenging or too time-consuming or both. However, if you have prepared a range of short greetings then all you need to do is select one and just tailor it for the recipient – it’s like a smorgasbord of Christmas sentiment and it means you can fly through your card list whilst still making every card really special. Christmas is a time to tell people how you feel about them whatever their connection to you and its such a shame to miss that opportunity because you are literally lost for words.
How to compose the right message
It sounds simple but, in fact, it can be quite challenging to put together just the right form of words without it sounding cheesy or overly sentimental. Humour also has a place for the right recipient but again, it can be hard to nail that and get it just right. Here are some short and sweet messages which you can tweak and personalise to suit your audience –there is a mixture of standard and some more traditional phrasing and vocabulary, one religious reference and even a little bit of humour. Keep the list out on the table and then just cherry-pick the wordings that work for you depending on whose card you are writing:-
- Wishing you all the best that this holiday can offer
- Peace, joy and love to your family
- Sending you glad tidings this holiday season
- Thinking of you all this Christmas – Yule be on my mind
- I’d send you peace, love and joy in an envelope if I could
- God bless you this holiday season – Merry Christmas!
Commercial companies have teams of people writing the messages in pre-printed Christmas cards but sometimes, they can be just a little cringeworthy. They are so generic and then if you write a personal greeting underneath, the two sentiments can rather sit at odds with one another. Why not buy blank cards and write your own message? Here are some longer sample greetings which will work for a range of people such as close family, distant relatives, friends and work colleagues:-
- Christmas is a good excuse to send cards to all my favourite people
- It’s so easy to get caught up in all the business of Christmas but take a moment to read this as I’m wishing you a peaceful Christmas full of the most important things
- May we all show each other the love and patience that we may not deserve this Christmas – that is the true spirit of Christmas
- We hope you are surrounded by beauty and comfort this Christmas season
- May you be blessed with the most important gifts this Christmas. I consider friendship to be a gift and your friendship is one of my most treasured gifts. Merry Christmas
Humour can have a place in Christmas cards – the key is to keep it relevant and tasteful and very specific to the recipient. Here are some cheeky choices:-
- Just think how bright Jesus’ birthday cake would be if he had a candle for each year since his birth. Good thing he recently switched to LED candles!
- The best thing about Christmas is the day after Christmas when you still have almost a year until you have to see your annoying extended family members again
- If I had to choose between you and Santa, I’d choose you – I still think it’s just a bit creepy that a guy comes into my house whilst I’m sleeping
- Christmas is a special time to think about peace, love, joy and goodwill to all men plus weight gain
- Ah yes, the true meaning of Christmas, peace, joy, harmony and passive aggression
Having some sample wordings just seems to get the creative juices flowing for some people and with a template or two to hand; it becomes so much easier to dream up the perfect phrasing if you just have a few hints to get you going. What is perfect for one person will make another truly shudder, so it is ultimately very personal. If you want to get super organised then you can start writing those perfect words in the autumn so they are all ready for your cards in December. Keep a jotter handy so if something ideal springs to mind, you can note it down. If you struggle to capture just the right wording then you are not alone and there are thousands of examples online to help those with writer’s cramp.
