I talked about Christmas cards in a previous post titled, “So When Do I Send Out My Christmas Cards?” back right after Thanksgiving.  In it I talked about my Mom and her amazing expanding address book.  One thing I didn’t talk about was those obnoxious, completely out of left field Christmas Brag Cards/Letters.

I never was on the receiving end of one of these missives until I married my last wife.  She had a brother-in-law who sent one of these out every Christmas.  Every.  Freaking.  Year.  And they all followed the same formula.  Talk about how wonderful the kids, and wife are, talk about what they have accomplished during the year, what fantastic vacations were taken that year, and how wonderful everyone is.

All of that stuff sounds pretty innocuous on the outside.  But we all know that with a few well placed verbs, and adjectives how that all can go downhill in a second.  A recounting of your sons recital all of a sudden turns into a sold-out performance at Madison Square Gardens.  How the pottery class that your wife takes turns her into the second coming of Picasso.

We all love our kids, and spouses…those of us who have spouses.  That goes without saying.  But if you do have to send out one of these letters in place of talking to your friends and family during the course of the year….don’t make it sound like your family is the only one that has accomplishments.  Because we all have great things that happen to us through the year, and all of our kids do amazing things on a regular basis.

Brag about it when it happens.  Don’t wait.