During the holidays, almost everyone sends out a Christmas letter and a picture of their family to relatives and close friends. Most of the letters say something like, “Merry Christmas, and may you have a great New Year,” but not our letter. Oh no, our Christmas letter describes our whole year! The Christmas letter is famous, and many await its arrival. The people who enjoy the holiday letter are “Daisy fans.” Why Daisy fans, one may ask? Well, they consider themselves Daisy fans because our family letter is written by “Daisy Dog.” Yes, you read correctly; our Christmas letter is written by our puppy dog, Daisy, an English bulldog. A dog’s view of family life is quite different than any human who may write the Christmas letter. Dogs in general, and Daisy in particular, are hard to impress with human activity. Awards, honors, new cars or houses, sport championships, promotions, and vacations don’t matter at all to a dog. What Daisy cares most about are snuggling with her family, a soft bed, lots of belly rubs, a quick game of tug-a-war, wrestling, weekend walks, treats, and not having too many baths.
Daisy does talk a little bit about the family in the Christmas letter, but she has sort of an ironic view of things. She has her own voice when she writes, and doesn’t take many things seriously. Daisy tends to complain about conditions that don’t suit her (like being fenced out of her favorite digging area). In every letter, she writes about ongoing events or happenings that are coming up soon. Daisy also chats about me, Mom, Dad, Seth, her brother doggie, Otis, and sometimes Lucy, the guinea pig (or in Daisy’s mind “snack”). She enjoys doing the Christmas letter every year, and gladly tells people about our lives in her unique way. So while some families have a quick and snappy Christmas letter; Daisy is a dog who believes that a full single-spaced page is a much merrier type of letter.
Next time you read a Christmas letter about the amazing exploits of some family or other, or if you are the person writing your family’s greetings, consider how a topic might be viewed from the perspective of your parrot, dog, or gerbil. Quite possibly, the new point of view will add some humor one might otherwise overlook, and almost for certain the readers will enjoy the interesting and new take on your family’s life.