Oh, those holiday letters!

Holiday letters are one of those topics about which there seems to be no middle ground. Either you love 'em or you hate 'em.

I used to hate them, but as I got older and busier I recognized their place. Friends move away and you don't get to visit with them the way you once did. Life gets busier. One Christmas, not wanting to develop writer's cramp trying to share how my year had gone for each name on my Christmas card list, I broke down and wrote a holiday letter.

People responded to it so well that I did it again the next year...and the year after that. I've been doing it now for more than 15 years.

But holiday letters are tricky. One old schoolmate who received a holiday letter several years ago told me "Congratulations on being so successful" in a tone that belied her words. I guess she thought I was bragging, when all I meant to do was share what had happened in the past year.

I think holiday letters should have a hearty helping of humor in them, though some years it can be more challenging to inject smiles than others - such as 2006 when my dad died and even this year, with so many people facing layoffs and other challenges.

I don't know. Maybe I'm one of those rare souls who falls in the middle on holiday letters. If you want to send one, great. If you don't, that's fine, too. But I'll always read it, because I care about the people who sent it.