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Mass-mailed "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" letters have typically been chatty and upbeat. These peppy annual updates on family doings are bringing tidings of a lot less joy this year.
More hard knocks are creeping in as unemployment persists and the economy bumbles along. Laidoff boomer holiday scribes are using the letters in their job hunts. Pink slips, the lousy housing market and tales of forsaken vacations have displaced some of the glad tidings of yesteryear.
On the other hand, this season's letters may be more tolerable than they were in the boom years, when many mailings gloated about lives of conspicuous consumption. Now, some writers are looking for support, prayers or a job offer. "Hi! I hope you have a wonderful holiday," writes Bill Mayhew, a laidoff software manager in Natick, MA. "If there was ever, in our lifetimes, a year when we need a little Christmas, this is surely it...Please keep me in mind if you know of a Boston-area organization that can use entrepreneurial, business management, or technology management skills."
Off the page, he says: "I don't want to overburden the message of the Christmas card, but at this point, we really do need to help each other." His letter, which went to 50 friends, came after he sent out more than 100 resumes. Mr. Mayhew, who is 57, says he is spending down his retirement savings.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, December 18, 2009
