A Wish List of Holiday Greeting Cards
As I get older, not quite willing to own “old” just yet, I realize one of the best feelings of the holiday season is spending time with the ones you love and being remembered by friends near and far away. The power of a simple holiday card to bring joy into our home is remarkable. To those who are brave enough to craft a holiday letter — you are a gem of our human experience. I get some pretty cool cards from cool people, but after seeing President G.W. Bush’s card with one of his paintings and a poignant message about freedom, I thought to myself, how cool would it be to be on holiday-card level friendship with the likes of the Clooneys, The Obamas or the Carters.
Below is what I would imagine the cards or holiday letters would be like from a few famous ”friends.”
Barack and Michelle Obama: Talk about extra postage required — Barack’s Christmas letter would be 52 pages long documenting every detail of 2020. Michelle would write something beautiful in a few short words on the back of his moving but long dissertation.
Ami Vitale: Oh, the colors, the animals, and the stories her cards would tell — I would frame each card over the years and decorate my office with them.
Amal and George Clooney: My expectation/hope would be a picture of Amal using a flowbee on George as he is sitting outside, sipping on some tequila by Lake Como, but on the inside of the card, it would say they made a generous donation to a Clooney Foundation for Justice on your behalf.
Pico Iyer: It would be handwritten on 100% cotton paper with soft edges and a gentle meandering fold with a long but beautiful life-altering sentence about last year and next year.
Neil deGrasse Tyson: I think it would be a picture of him wearing a dual-themed Christmas tie that has Santa on his sled flying through a cosmically correct depiction of our universe. And it would be signed “Wishing you an out-of-this-world holiday season: your atomically connected brother, Neil.
Hannah Gadsby: I would be so excited about this card. I feel it would be a simple-looking card, maybe a picture of her dogs, but the emotion that went into creating, writing, and sending it would be epic.
Tom Hanks: I believe Tom would send a folded-up photocopy of an old-school typewritten holiday letter (in the old-school typewriter font) that I would read it with all the enthusiasm of Woody reading a letter from Andy.
Jacinda Ardern: It would be a family picture, but it would be in one of NZ’s most beautiful locations, and when they sign it with Hugs and Kisses, they would mean it literally, as they have stopped the spread of COVID19 in her country.
The Carters: Need I say more? How cool would it be to get a holiday card from the Carters in matching designer PJs signed J and B, and maybe Blue would draw a bumblebee on it for me as she knows I have an affinity for them.
Jerry Seinfeld: In my mind/heart, it would be a picture of him driving an old, super-rare, rusty-looking Porsche dragging a Christmas tree that reads “Happy Hanukkah or Whatever.”
It’s fun to imagine being friends of these people, but they, too, are humans and what we all need now, more than ever, is understanding, patience, and connections. I hope you all are happy, healthy, safe, and staying connected.
Happy Holidays from the Leathermans
