The 2023 Swap was a huge success.
You can check out some of this year's letters here!
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Every December, a plague befalls the mailboxes of America. Envelopes full of humblebragging, oversharing, and convenient omissions find their way into our homes. There may be nothing more obnoxious than The Family Holiday Newsletter. Seriously, nobody is dying to hear that your clan finally went to Disneyland, courtesy of Jim's promotion. Your niece got that bunion on her foot taken care of? Wonderful. And, honestly, who gives a crap about how your Yorkshire Terrier is doing, ever? So what can we do about this? Unfortunately, there is no way to stop the flow of these missives. However, we can have fun with the format, make each other laugh, and receive some truly interesting mail. |
What Is This?
The Christmas Letter Swap is a writing project that aims to poke harmless fun at the questionable tradition of sending out holiday form letters. It is an opportunity to do a little creative writing and receive some weird, fun holiday mail. In 2013, we had 40+ participants from all over the US, in 2015 hit six continents, and in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 returned with successful swaps of 40+. (Read some past entries!)
How Does it Work?
Participants will pen a letter on behalf of a fictional family of their creation and mail copies of it to five anonymous addresses provided to them. In return, they will receive letters from five fictional families, written by other participants in the project. Be creative! Anything goes, except, of course, for hate speech. The swap is free and open to anyone, but we ask that you honor your commitment if you decide to sign up.
*"Christmas letter swap" is just an easy catch all. Your letter can be themed on any Decemberish holiday, or none at all. Be you Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Wiccan, Muslim, Agnostic, Atheist, or anything else, we love and respect you, and would be thrilled for you to join this fun project.*
*"Christmas letter swap" is just an easy catch all. Your letter can be themed on any Decemberish holiday, or none at all. Be you Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Wiccan, Muslim, Agnostic, Atheist, or anything else, we love and respect you, and would be thrilled for you to join this fun project.*
And Then What?
After the project ends, we will display on the website this year's letters so that everyone can share in the fun (only with your permission and anonymously if you'd prefer). We will randomly draw a $50 prize winner from the pool of participants who honored the commitment and followed the instructions. We will also add to the Hall of Shame those losers who signed up for the project, but did not honor the commitment.