Christmas Cards 2012

As I prepare to dust off the visions of sugar plums that will soon be dancing in my head, I find myself beginning my Christmas card address list and looking around on various websites at the Christmas cards they have to offer.  Doing this reminded me of something I've been meaning say since last Christmas.

Before you order your Christmas cards this year, please hear me out.  On this blog, I usually focus on crafts or cooking or Lila, but one of my other passions (and I don't use that word lightly) is teaching English.  I blame it on being corrected on my grammar at the kitchen table throughout my childhood up to this very day.  And because of this, one thing that makes me cringe at Christmas time, and it's getting worse every year, is the excessive use of apostrophes in Christmas letters.  I do not want to be offensive, and please forgive me if you are someone who does this and I am offending you, but do consider it an intervention rather than an insult.

Incorrect Christmas Greeting:

Merry Christmas! 

Love,

The Hutson's

This would be incorrect.  In this situation, the Hutson family does not own anything.  All we are doing here is making "Hutson," our family's name, plural because there are multiple Hutsons (Johnny, Rachel, Lila) wishing you a Merry Christmas.  You would not say, "Look at those blimp's!" or "I love sale's!" Ehhhhhh...sends chills down my spine.  Now if, say, your dog were to send out a Christmas card, you could use an apostrophe, but it would be on the other side of the "s" because multiple Hutsons own the dog.  Like so:

Merry Christmas!

Love,

The Hutsons' Dog

We will never have a dog, by the way, and even if we do, it will not send out Christmas cards.  Now if your family and not your dog are the ones sending out the Christmas card, this would be a proper way to do it.

Correct Christmas Greeting:

Merry Christmas! 

Love,

The Hutsons

Ah, an appropriate way to greet people during the Christmas season.  Only seventy-one shopping days left!