Our Christmas letter looks a little different this year. Gone are the Dear XXXX salutations and the neat paragraphs outlining the year's events in our family that followed and in their place are a bunch of boxes. Nothing like making the recipients work to get their news...I made a crossword puzzle.
It was one of the ideas put forth by Lain Ehmann in her Fit To Be Scrapped Christmas Letters class at Big Picture Classes. And as soon as I saw it, I was reminded of a Christmas letter in crossword puzzle format I had received several years ago from my cute and creative friends, Beth and Susan Opel. I loved the idea, not just because I'm a crossword puzzle fan but because the interactive nature of it made me, the reader, feel so much more connected to my friends behind it.
Now I have to say, I could have written a delightful letter much faster than creating a crossword puzzle but it wouldn't have been nearly as fun for me and hopefully for those who receive it. And I wouldn't have learned all I learned in the process. I had more than one stop and start anew when things didn't work the way I thought they would but I do love a good challenge.
I started with this online puzzle-making site, although I looked at a number of others as well...just Googled crossword puzzle maker and you'll have plenty of choices. The one I used created a free online puzzle which was perfect for my purposes as I wanted mine to look just like a puzzle you'd find in the newspaper. I did about half of the clues/answers this way and let it format them in puzzle form. I wrote the puzzle format on some graph paper and then fit in the rest of the clues/answers to make it look more like a real crossword and to hopefully make it easier to come up with the answers. After some trial and error with several different programs, I ended up creating the puzzle as a Word table.
Pretty cool, huh? I hope our family and friends enjoy this fun twist on our holiday letter and that it gives them an excuse to sit for a few minutes during this busy season to work out the answers. In addition to family news, there are plenty of clues with Christmas references which not only lend to the holiday feel but also makes it easier to come up with the answers.
If you're like me and willing to work just about any crossword puzzle that comes your way, you can give this one a try. The puzzle is a zipped PDF file and the clues are a Word file. And I've added a link on the left for the answers for those who get stumped or just like to make sure they got them right.
Download Crossword Puzzle
Download Clues
Wonder if they'll all be disappointed if I go back to a traditional letter next year.
Sounds fun! Let us know the feedback you receive.
Posted by: Linda | December 17, 2011 at 06:57 AM