Tucked inside holiday cards from friends and family are the holiday "wrap-up" letters; those one or two page brag-filled missives chronicling all the events from the year.
Sometimes the letters are funny. Sometimes they're depressing. Sometimes they're written "from" the family dog. But almost always, they're the thing we love to hate about the holidays.
They're also an unexpected source of clues to interpersonal dynamics and current events.
Dr. Ann Burnett, director of Women and Gender Studies at North Dakota State University, Fargo studied approximately 1,200 such letters from the past decade and found they ranged from creative to downright weird.
In the collection of holiday letters, Burnett notes the most common format is the one-person-per-paragraph approach. Others look like newspapers, while still others embark on what the authors believe are creative approaches, such as using the 12 days of Christmas and adapting it to fit their families.
According to Burnett, the letters seem to follow some general themes.
"There are lots of reports about what each family member has done. Lots of talk about travel or big projects. And lots of discussion about sicknesses and ailments -- sometimes with more detail than necessary!"
Others use it as an opportunity to gush about intelligent or talented children or their own achievements.
Burnett's work with holiday letters produced a study last year with co-authors Becky DeGreeff and Dennis Cooley, "Communicating and Philosophizing about Authenticity and Inauthenticity in a Fast-Paced World."
They examined how people talk about time in holiday letters, categorizing letters as "authentic," "in-authentic" or "in-between."
An authentic holiday letter would be one that reflected on the impact of certain events during the year such as births, marriages or deaths -- as a way to acknowledge how fleeting life is.
An in-between letter might acknowledge important events, but fail to acknowledge their impact on the letter writer.
Inauthentic letters might include a bullet list of happenings, without any explanation.
They found 5 percent of the letters to be authentic and 83 percent to be inauthentic. (Something to consider when reading about a friend's seemingly perfect year...)
In reviewing letters from 2009, Burnett notes that a few talk about the tough economic times, but even more talk about the expensive trips and home renovations they've done.
The letters also provide a way to track current events as people comment on elections or the Iraq war.
And many letters give us an unfortunate glimpse into what our friends or family members think is funny.
One memorable letter in Burnett's collection is written from the vantage point of deceased family pets who are now stuffed, residing in the den, and reflecting upon their family's current activities.
Another of Burnett's favorites highlights the current breakneck pace of family life:
"We start every day at 4:45 a.m., launch ourselves through the day at breakneck speed (the experience is much like sticking your head in a blender), only to land in a crumpled heap at 8:30 p.m., looking something like the Halloween witches impaled spread-eagle on front doors, wondering how we made it through the day. And the scary part is that our lives are no more hectic and stressful than yours are."
Burnett says the holiday letters shed light on what people think is important, even in the era of social media where most people share their every experience and opinion on a daily, if not hourly, basis.
Even in this electronic age, why do we still get holiday letters? Burnett thinks it might have to do with sentimentality.
"Perhaps people feel traditional tugs at the holiday season, so they go back to old traditions," she said.
Despite tradition, printed holiday letters could go the way of the Walkman and the DVD as people continue to embrace new technology.
Burnett says many people are now choosing to send their holiday wrap-up letters via email, which cuts down on work and money.
Currently, Burnett is using her stash of holiday letters to analyze how people cope with hectic family lives and how motherhood is portrayed in such letters.
And while she focuses on researching holiday letters, don't expect to receive one from Burnett any time soon. "I can't bring myself to write a Christmas letter anymore," she said.
