It's that time of year again! When you sit in your backyard on a blanket and force your kids to smile for the camera, promising them cookies and whatever else you can think of to get a decent family photo.
One of my more popular posts last year had to do with how to properly write and address your Christmas cards, so I thought I would revisit that this year complete with photographic aid. I am revisiting this because apparently my post did not change the entire world. I went to HappiNames a few months ago to order a present for my friend Sarah who was getting married. I wanted the bucket to say "The Borlands," and the girl working there asked if I wanted a comma in their name. A comma! That poor girl didn't know she was in for a thirty minute punctuation lesson. So here we go, and once again I apologize for the soapbox I will be standing on and if I insult you and your Christmas card writing and addressing practices.
Let's just make this short and sweet: Nowhere on your Christmas cards should you have an apostrophe. "But Rachel..." Nope. "What if..." Nope. "I think you..." Don't do it. The purpose of an apostrophe (when you're using it with a name) is to indicate that those people own something.
Notice here that I have addressed a letter to my parents. Their last name is English, so to make it plural since there is more than one of them, I added an "es." If I had written "The English's" not only would my father probably rip up the card and then disown me (do you see how I was raised?), but that would be completely incorrect. "The English's" doesn't make sense in any way, shape, or form. Even if I wanted it to write a letter to the dog owned by the Englishes, I would have to pluralize English first: "The Englishes' Dog." And I guarantee you that their dog does not want to read your Christmas cards.
One of my more popular posts last year had to do with how to properly write and address your Christmas cards, so I thought I would revisit that this year complete with photographic aid. I am revisiting this because apparently my post did not change the entire world. I went to HappiNames a few months ago to order a present for my friend Sarah who was getting married. I wanted the bucket to say "The Borlands," and the girl working there asked if I wanted a comma in their name. A comma! That poor girl didn't know she was in for a thirty minute punctuation lesson. So here we go, and once again I apologize for the soapbox I will be standing on and if I insult you and your Christmas card writing and addressing practices.
Let's just make this short and sweet: Nowhere on your Christmas cards should you have an apostrophe. "But Rachel..." Nope. "What if..." Nope. "I think you..." Don't do it. The purpose of an apostrophe (when you're using it with a name) is to indicate that those people own something.
Notice here that I have addressed a letter to my parents. Their last name is English, so to make it plural since there is more than one of them, I added an "es." If I had written "The English's" not only would my father probably rip up the card and then disown me (do you see how I was raised?), but that would be completely incorrect. "The English's" doesn't make sense in any way, shape, or form. Even if I wanted it to write a letter to the dog owned by the Englishes, I would have to pluralize English first: "The Englishes' Dog." And I guarantee you that their dog does not want to read your Christmas cards.
To reiterate the point, in the return address section you can see that I wrote "The Hutsons" not "The Hutson's." This idea applies to the inside of your card as well: "Merry Christmas! Love, The Hutsons." Beautiful.
Of course you can always take the easy way out and just say "The Hutson Family." That is assuming you are sending the Hutsons a Christmas card at all, which I expect you aren't because you don't want to endure my ridiculous scrutiny.
Merry Christmas!
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