Send a Little Something

(I'm going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in two weeks and I'm a litttttttttle excited!)

When I was younger, my mom would make me send letter to relatives pretty regularly. I hated doing it with a passion. I felt like I had nothing to say. When we cleaned out my grandparents' home after their passings, I saw my grandmother had saved each letter I'd sent. One actually included something along the lines of "well, I have nothing to say, so I'm just taking up space". I was a tactful child. But now that I'm a little older, I really enjoy sending and receiving mail. It's nice to look in the mailbox and see something other than bills. I know I'm not the only one to feel this way.
One of the relatives I used to mail was my cousin. She's just a few months older than I am and we both loved Lisa Frank, so a lot of our correspondence happened on Lisa Frank stationery.

Oh the memories. When I packed up to move I found some left over Lisa Frank stationery and decided to bring it with me, because you never know when you might need something so ridiculous. I recently sent a letter (on my Lisa Frank letterhead) to my cousin reminding her of our old penpal days and to my delight, she mailed me back a letter covered in Lisa Frank stickers! So glad I'm not the only one holding on to remnants of the childhood obsession.

Letter writing is a lost art. Mail has been reduced to wedding invitiations and graduation annoucements. Everything else is sent via email, and even legitimate, non-spam emails are hard to come by these days. Throwing a party? A quick mass text message has become the standard.

I have gathered some guidelines, suggestions and ideas for letter writing. Considering many of us have paper, envelopes and stamps around the house, this is not a big investment, but it will bring such joy to the recipient.

Reasons to Write a Letter
There are several reasons to send personal mail. (Business mail is a completely different story.)
- Apologies
- Thank yous
- Congratulations
- Invitations
- Condolences
- Just to say hi
Some are easier to write than others. Thank yous and congratulations are two of the easiest. Condolences are possibly the hardest.

Thank you notes are some of the most common letters sent. We are supposed to sent thank yous when given gifts or money, hosted at someone's home, or in appreciation of a favor. I say 'supposed to' because this has unfortunately become an overlooked nicety. The best thank you notes include the giver's name, the name of the gift or favor, a mention of the thoughtfulness of the gift and how you plan to use it, if appropriate, and a restating of your sincere thanks. While these notes should be sent out as soon as possible, better late than never definitely applies here.

Invitations are another sadly overlooked piece of mail. It seems that after about the 10th birthday and until a wedding, we forget the importance of invitations. It's certainly not that we stop having parties, we just stop sending invites. Invites set the tone for a gathering and build anticipation long before the event happens. Take a look at these two Christmas party invites. Without even reading the words, you get an idea of the feel of the party.

Pictures say a thousand words and these invites say a lot more about what to expect from a party than a mass text.

Condolences are probably the hardest letters to write, but the most crucial. They remind our family and friends that we're thinking of them in some of the hardest times of their lives. While signing your name to a sympathy card that Hallmark wrote certainly gets the idea across, a well written note is much more personal. There are several main guidelines that can help ease the difficulty of writing one of the these letters.
- Refer to the deceased by name, acknowledge the loss and express your sympathy.
- Mention any special qualities of the deceased that you can recall and include a favorite memory.
- Remind the friend or relative of their own personal strengths, the support of their friends and family or the strength of their religion.
- Offer a specific help. Rather than prompting to call if needed, which often times goes unanswered, offer a specific task or favor, such as making dinner, running errands, babysitting children or something equally appropriate in times of need.
- Close the letter with a thoughtful word or phrase. 'Sincerely' isn't as personal or relevant as 'Wishing you God's peace' or 'My thoughts are with you'.

Other Personal Letters
There are a million other reasons to send personal notes or letters. The most common is just to say hi and fill them in on your life. These are my favorite kind of mail. They seem to say that there's nothing more important to me right now than writing you this note to remind you of our friendship. Maybe I'm just a romantic though.

Every once in a while I want to send a more unique letter. Something the recipient will enjoy on several levels. I've gathered some of those ideas too.

Trying a small change like writing with white ink on black paper, or black ink on green paper. A little change can create a big impact.

Write out your letter ransom-style. (Just don't actually kidnap a dog...)

Write the letter backwards so the person has to read it using a mirror. This one would take some planning, but the recipient would certainly get a kick out of the old school secret code.

Write the letter using pictures for words. Rebuses are popular kids' games but with a little planning they'd make for great adult letters too.

Write the letter on a typewriter, or using a typewriter font. Even better, write it as if you were in the past. Use appropriate terms and phrases from the era. "They dun had a little girl child on the 11th of January. She's 'bout the sweetest thing if you don't mind my saying so."

Personalized stationery can make letter writing and receiving a treat. I'm not necessarily saying go get a set of notecards with your name or monogram on them, but there are plenty of places to get inexpensive, unique cards.

I got these notecards from the dollar bin at Michael's. 8 cards and envelopes for a dollar! They look knitted. So perfect for me. I send them out when I mail my knitting to people.

Race car stationery? Perfect for little boys.

Oh, you love owl stationery too? HOOOOOO knew!? (Haha. I really couldn't help myself.)

Or maybe you have a Scottie who wants to be represented in your correspondence?
(I do not. I have a beagle who is offended I didn't look for beagle cards.)

...Watson wanted to make an appearance.

I hope I've given you some ideas for when and why and how to write letters. Now go write some! :)