As Denise, Stanley and I looked at the 2016 Thomas Times Christmas newsletter Stanley asked if I had saved copies of my old newsletters, noting that they are a look at our family history! His observation set my creative juices flowing. I would make Christmas Newsletter albums for the grandkids!
I assembled all of the newsletters beginning with 1992. (I’ve done Christmas letters many times through the years but none of these survive.) Some of them were easy to scan, a few I have saved in my laptop so they were also easy to retrieve and a couple, which I had originally formatted on colored cardstock, were a bit more challenging to make good copies.
I chose a loose leaf format so additional years could be easily added (maybe they will bind them in the future?) and purchased 1” binders, a different color for each “grand”, and plastic sheet protectors.
In order to customize them for each kid I used actual mastheads from different years for the album covers. The photos are a mini family tree: Us, Russ & Denise, Gary & Vivian and Kelle & Joe, and the “grands” Jorden, Stanley, Mary and William.
Finally, I slipped a little dedication card into each album:
When I shared a photo of the albums with daughter Kelle she replied “I want one!”
I enjoy receiving Christmas newsletters but Christmas Newsletters as family history? Quite a concept! I wish I had saved my older ones and also those of friends and family!
