Megan Stielstra's Blog

I used to write Holiday Letters, like “Dear Friends and Family, I’ve been doing this and that for the past year.”

Then:

I read David Sederis’ “Season’s Greetings to Our Friends and Family,” which I thought was the greatest thing in the universe and never could I even come close (probably because, at the time, I didn’t have a family that I lived with and, therefore, the requisite hilarity that comes about when people who are bound together yet perhaps ill-suited for one another are all living under one roof. Nor was I having the sorts of experiences that you’d want to put an exclamation point after, which is an absolute necessity to the Holiday Letter FORM. Nor was I with anyone special in the sense that we might have serious long-term potential, and as the years went by the recipients of my Holiday Letter would immediately write back saying, “Yes, it’s all well and good that you’re writing and teaching college and all that, but are you DATING anyone?” [please read “Good For You” in Elizabeth Crane’s collection When the Messenger is Hot] and then I’d feel dark and lonely and not at all filled with the Christmas Spirit so, I just figured, fuck the Holiday Letters). It’s from his book Barrel Fever, or else you can download Natalie West’s reading of it for Stories on Stage.

And then:

I started dating Christopher, which means all sorts of things, the following of which are relevant to this conversation:

1. I suddenly had lots of things to write about in a Holiday Letter!
2. We moved to Prague!
3. I had MORE things to write about in a Holiday Letter!
4. Christopher is a graphic designer (re: tech savvy/computer geeky) and suggested that instead of writing Holiday Letters, we make Holiday VIDEOS! So our Friends and Family could see what Prague looks like! It would be fun and we could set it to music! And include a quick little slideshow of still photos, as well! It would be great!

Which it was—we had a blast making the thing, and our Friends and Family really appreciated it and sent me back very nice thank-you cards that said, “You’re writing and teaching college? That’s so GREAT!” and I felt all light and joyful and filled with the Christmas Spirit.

Then:

This year, we made another Holiday video! Happy Holidays from Chicago by the people who brought you Happy Holidays from Prague, which primarily involves

A. Us dancing in front of
1. Chicago-type things!
2. Christmas-type things!
B. The dog!

I wasn’t planning on posting it here (probably because I’ve been known to post videos of people acting really silly, and the thought of a video of me out there somewhere acting really silly seemed hypocritical, like when I was in junior high and really liked Jagged Little Pill ‘cause it was so raw and angry and everything, and then everybody started liking Jagged Little Pill so I couldn’t like it anymore and had to, instead, go back to listening to cool, Non-Listened to by Everybody raw and angry female vocalists like Ani DiFranco, at least until A. everybody started listening to Ani DiFranco or B. I got old enough not to give a shit anymore) but then Betsy (one of my Friends and Family who receives Holiday Video Cards from us) posted it on her blog, so, I figured, what the hell: Happy Holidays to Our Friends and Family!