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Life history

Christmas letters

Each year (since 2002) I have sent out a Christmas letter to certain friends (especially those whom we don’t see too often) to update them with what’s happened in our lives. I’m aware that this is a controversial move: such letters are often the subject of jokes on TV panel shows where a parody of a Christmas letter is often quoted to demonstrate their crassness. You know the kind of thing I mean; letters that go along these lines.

“We hope this letter finds you well and in good spirits. We are writing to you today to share the many blessings we have received this year. I was promoted to CEO of my company, and my salary has doubled and my wife was named Woman of the Year by her employer. Our children are still straight-A students and the eldest has been accepted into Oxford. Our new house is lovely, but the decorators complained that they would struggle to finish painting the six bedrooms in the time we have set them before we return from our holiday in the Maldives. And finally, we have some sad news; the Inland Revenue are querying our substantial donation to charity, asking whether it is genuinely our own money. We’ll spend Christmas sorting out that mess. We hope that you have a more relaxing holiday than we will.”

I tried to make mine factual, humorous and to avoid boasting. If nothing else, they provided a very useful starting point when I was writing my biography in 2016 since the letters acted as a condensed diary of the years. Each letter will take about ten minutes to read.

Anyway, if you don’t like Christmas letters, skip this bit. 🙂

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2 replies on “Christmas letters”

Happy New Year Bernie…I can’t find the blog you wrote after our trip. Its probably right under my nose ☺ What’s the plans for this year??? Hopefully chat soon, Jo

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