It's that time of year once more! It's time for twinkling lights, Christmas carols, and joyous celebrations. It's also time to spread holiday cheer by sending Merry Christmas letters to the people who mean the most to you.
If you aren't the type to include a long letter with your card, you may be looking for short Merry Christmas messages to write in cards to make your holiday greeting seem more personal. If scribbling your name and sealing the envelope isn't your thing, we've got some Merry Christmas letter ideas to help you.
In this article
Part 1. Why Do You Need to Write a Christmas Letter?
Do you remember the excitement, joy, and wonder you felt as a child when you wrote to Santa Claus? Unfortunately, when most adults realize that Santa Claus does not exist, they stop writing those letters, even more so when parents discover that Santa is none other than themselves!
With social media and digital communication literally at our fingertips, there is less of a reason to continue the practice of writing down the year's events. However, here are some reasons why you should send a Christmas letter:
- To reflect on and journal about the previous year
- To serve as a reminder of God's provision
- To keep in touch with friends and family whom you may not see very often
- To make contact with people
- To keep the art of writing love Christmas letters alive
Part 2. Steps To Write a Merry Christmas Letter to Family/Friends
A Christmas letter frequently wishes the recipient a Merry Christmas and informs them of the year's highlights. The letter can be long or short, contain pictures, and be tailored to your personal preferences depending on to whom it is addressed. Take some time to write a letter about the highlights of your past year, include a few fun photos, and mail your letters.
So, if you've ever wondered how to write a Christmas letter, here's how:
1. Creating the Letter's Content
Here are the steps to writing your Christmas letter's content:
Step 1 Begin with a greeting.
Short and sweet greetings that serve as a festive way to address your card recipients should appear at the start of your message.
Step 2 Understand the topic based on your relationship with the recipient.
Personalize your Christmas card sentiments by including information about the person opening the card.
Step 3 Make it personal and pleasant.
If you know the card recipient well, include a touching message. This will demonstrate to your card recipient how much you care about them during the holiday season.
Step 4 Provide a brief update, news, or announcement in your Christmas letter.
To go along with the rest of your greeting, comment on some big news, a special occasion coming up, or a new addition to the family.
Step 5 Include some eye-catching photographs.
Filling one side of your letter with text and the other with photos is a great idea.
Step 6 End with good wishes.
Finish with more best wishes and a festive holiday greeting.
2. Finalizing and Sending the Letter
Here are the steps for finalizing and sending off your Christmas letter:
Step 1 Select a pleasing template.
There are many Christmas-themed papers available at craft and stationery stores. You can also look into templates if you want to download something.
Step 2 Type your letter.
Make your letter readable and presentable. You can also look into apps and companies that provide a PDF template to make writing Christmas letters easier.
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You can use PDFelement to edit the letters. Texts, shapes, and images can be edited and customized in PDFelement to include personalized content, branding, and other elements.
Step 3 Sign your letter.
A Christmas letter with your sign demonstrates that you worked hard on your project. Adding a signature to a digital file, such as a PDF file, can be perplexing. But it would be much easier with PDFelement. PDFelement allows you to create digital signatures in a PDF Christmas letter or sign the letter with an electronic signature.
Step 4 Send your letter.
After finishing your letters, it's time to send it. Apart from the traditional methods of using mail, you can send the e-letter via email, text, iMessage, or other electronic ways.
Part 3. Christmas Letters Templates to Families & Friends
With the Christmas letter PDF template, you can make your Christmas letter more festive and bright. Change the font, colors, and background image, and customize the template to add some extra holiday cheer. Your festive PDF Christmas letters will make anyone happy this Christmas, even the Grinch.
Here are some templates you can use for your Christmas letter:
1. Funny Christmas Letters to Families and Friends
Typically, when writing a Christmas letter, you send them your best wishes, wishing them luck, success, and happiness in the coming year. Also, everyone could use a good laugh during a stressful holiday season. Incorporating a good holiday joke will put your card recipients in a good mood.
Example:
Dear Family & Friends,
Merry Christmas from the household that barely survived 2025! The kids continue their mission to turn our home into a noise-testing facility. This summer we attempted a "relaxing" road trip to Yellowstone, which was only relaxing if you ignored the part where Max fed a chipmunk his entire snack stash.
In school news, Liam discovered soccer, and now practices slide-tackles indoors. Ella joined a choir, so we get daily concerts (usually during Zoom meetings). We're exhausted, happy, and 80% powered by caffeine and leftover Halloween candy.
If you need us, we'll be untangling lights and pretending fruitcake is good.
With love & mild chaos,
The Harpers
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2. Short Christmas Letter Examples
These short Christmas and holiday messages will show your card recipient that you are thinking of them during this special time of year.
Example 1:
Dear Family & Friends,
Hi everyone,
Wishing you all a warm and joyful Christmas season! This year was full—new job for me, a small apartment remodel (which is finally done!), and a much-needed fall getaway to Vancouver where we ate our body weight in pastries.
We're grateful for good health, good friends, and good Wi-Fi. Sending each of you a big virtual hug and hoping your holidays are cozy, bright, and filled with exactly the right amount of cookies.
Merry Christmas!
Love, Jamie & Alex
Example 2:
Hey Everyone!
Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas! This year flew by in a blur of coffee cups and Zoom calls. We finally renovated the kitchen (goodbye, avocado green from the 70s!), took a spontaneous weekend trip to the beach, and discovered we're actually pretty good at making homemade pizza. Who knew?
We're grateful for friends and family like you who make life sweeter. Here's to more laughter, fewer burnt pizzas, and a fantastic 2026!
Cheers, Sarah & Mike
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3. Creative Christmas Family Letters Ideas
The key for a Christmas letter that the recipients will enjoy is: be creative. It's also a good idea to add some creativity to make your letter amazing .
Example 1:
🎄 THE MARTINEZ FAMILY YEAR IN REVIEW 🎄
January-March: Survived winter. Barely. Started the year with ambitious fitness goals. Currently using treadmill as expensive clothes hanger.
April-June: Spring arrived! So did our vegetable garden. Turns out, we're excellent at growing zucchini. TOO excellent. If you need zucchini bread recipes, we have 47.
July-September: Miguel got promoted! We celebrated by taking the family to Disney World, where we learned that "It's a Small World" becomes psychological torture after the fourth ride. Little Sofia insisted. Repeatedly.
October-December: Embraced fall with pumpkin everything. Currently drowning in pumpkin spice. Send help. Or regular coffee.
Here's to a Christmas filled with joy, laughter, and zero zucchini!
Feliz Navidad, The Martinez Crew
Example 2:
Hey all
Season's greetings from the Johnson Family. Here is a quick holiday update because that's the perfect metaphor for my year.
• Got promoted (yay)
• Learned to meal prep (meh)
• Went camping once (never again—raccoons are bold)
• Finally visited Portland, drank coffee that changed our worldview
Anyway, Merry Christmas! Hope your season is cozy, bright, and includes at least one nap a day.
❤️ Sam & Helen
4. Merry Christmas Letter to Parents
You can send thank you notes to your friends, family members, and relatives to show them how much you appreciate them. Another benefit of using this template is that it is not limited to computers; you can easily download it on any electronic device. Select the template that best suits your needs, enter the necessary information, and you're ready to go!
Dear Mom and Dad,
As Christmas lights twinkle around our living room, I can't help but think of all those childhood Christmases you made so magical. Remember when you stayed up until 3 AM assembling that "easy-assembly" bike? Or the year you somehow convinced me that reindeer really did eat those carrots?
Now that I'm a parent myself, I finally understand the exhaustion behind your smiles on Christmas morning—and the love that powered through it. Thank you for every sacrifice, every tradition, and every memory you've given us. This year, Emma (now 5!) asked to make cookies "just like Grandma's." We tried. They were... creative. But the intention was there!
We love you more than all the Christmas cookies in the world (even the burnt ones).
Merry Christmas, Jennifer, Tom & Emma
5. Christmas Greetings Letter with Big Announcement Sample
Before we know it, Christmas will be here! It's time for kids to write Santa letters. These Free Printable Santa Letters will make your job easier. Print them and have your children fill them out with Christmas wishes before mailing them to the North Pole.
Dear Family & Friends,
Merry Christmas from our growing household! This year brought the biggest and sweetest surprise—Baby Nora, who arrived in September and immediately took over as CEO of the family. We've learned that sleep is optional, swaddling is an art form, and baby giggles are the best sound on Earth.
We did squeeze in one "babymoon" trip to San Diego before she arrived, where we enjoyed quiet beach days—something we now remember fondly while warming bottles at 3 a.m.
We're incredibly grateful for your love and support during this new chapter. Wishing each of you a joyful Christmas and a New Year full of happy surprises.
With overflowing hearts,
The Thompsons
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Part 4. Tips for Best Christmas Letters Ever Written
When it comes to writing your holiday letter, it can take time to get started. Finding the words to make your Christmas cards stand out this year with some fun new wording or to give a quick update can take time and effort.
Here are some pointers to help you write the best Christmas letters ever:
- Be positive in your letter.
- Make it shorter but meaningful.
- Observe humbleness in your Christmas letter.
- Have your recipient on your mind.
- Add some highlights that happen throughout the whole year.
- Share some of your plans and future endeavors.
- Tell about yourself and other family members.
- Add some related photos.
- Be casual.
- Make it personalized.
- Use a free Christmas letter template on your letter.
A PDF Christmas template can help you save time and money. Instead of spending money on Christmas cards, use a word template to make your own. You can also create holiday letters using a word Christmas template. This is an excellent method for saving money on postage.
Whether you want to send e-cards or print them to hand out in person, the PDFelement template makes it easy. The template design is already festive, but feel free to customize it — then fill out the attached form to have your Christmas card auto-populated with the name of the person you wish well!
It's a quick and easy way to make personalized Christmas cards for your friends, family, or customers this holiday season. With our simple drag-and-drop PDF Editor, you can add photos of your family or coworkers, change text fonts and colors, and change the background image, among other things.
To summarize, users can use these templates to perform the following operations:
- Any content in the templates can be added, removed, or modified.
- PDF templates can be converted into other file formats.
- Documents can now have electronic signatures.
Conclusion
Christmas card messages are a simple way to reach out and wish friends, family, and loved ones a Merry Christmas. However, there's no denying that sending many cards can be overwhelming, especially when you add them to your already-heavy to-do list this holiday season. The best Christmas wishes are those written from the heart, but even the best of us can run out of ideas!
