Christmas Letters Over the Years

Christmas 1954

Once again it is time to send our Christmas greetings. With time at a premium, we are trying an experiment with some sort of a copying machine, which first requires typing...

...when we went to New Hampshire for the summer, the livestock was carried as follows: all baby chicks in one cage, roosters in another, and the hens in a third, all cages piled carefully on the back seat of the car: the 2 rabbits in a basket on the floor; the ten turkeys in a cage in the trunk...

...the highlight of the summer was a visit to the Ginger and Pickles Store and Doll Museum run by Tasha Tudor and her husband. The kids and their dolls were invited back for a doll teaparty...


...I think these are the highlights of the year except for the skunk who ate one of our bantams, and whose tail is still tacked to our shed up country...

...and so the stories about pets, broken arms, children, teas with Tasha Tudor, hanging with Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and then stories of grandchildren and great grandchildren go all the way until 2001 when the letters end and my dear Grandmother passed away.

I know that some people find Christmas letters impersonal, but I have a deep love of them because of this collection from my Grandmother Missy. My family history is right in this notebook of Christmas letters and it is one of my most treasured possessions. N and I began writing Christmas letters the first year we were married. While Missy was a little verbose, we've tried to keep our letter down to a page. I wonder if Missy's approach is better in the long run. Perhaps this year, we'll get into a few more details. While my old college friends might groan, I think our children and grandchildren will thank us.