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Christmas

Christmas messages for your coworker: 5 to write or borrow

A christmas message for your coworker should name one real detail, not offer a general wish. Start with a specific thing they are the reliable person for and say why it matters. You can send the 5 examples below as written, but replacing one detail with your own memory will make it personal.

Updated

The opening screen of a Christmas Quest, a lit snow globe on a midnight blue background

Christmas Quest

how it opens

A seasonal card between colleagues is a small thing with a low ceiling and a floor almost nobody bothers to clear.

A colleague message has a constraint the others do not: it will probably be read in front of other people, and it has to survive being read by someone it was not written for.

Christmas messages are written in bulk, and everybody knows it. The reader can tell within one line whether they are receiving a message or a distribution.

5 christmas messages for your coworker

  1. Professional
    Thank you for a year of making this job considerably easier. Merry Christmas.
  2. Warm
    Merry Christmas. Enjoy the break - you have earned it this year.
  3. Short
    Happy Christmas. See you in the new year.
  4. Funny
    Merry Christmas. Try not to think about the inbox. It will still be there.
  5. Professional
    It has been a genuinely good year working alongside you. Merry Christmas.

What actually works in a Christmas message to your coworker

Wishing them a good break is the entire content of most of these. One line about the year you have actually worked through changes it.

Most colleague cards say nothing that could not be said to any colleague. Naming one true professional detail is the entire difference.

Reference the year that has actually happened. A Christmas card that could have been sent in any of the last five years announces itself immediately.

Timing and etiquette for a Christmas message to your coworker

If someone has lost a person this year, their first Christmas without them is the thing to acknowledge.

A Christmas Quest hub on a midnight blue screen titled 'A Winter Night for Maya', with lights waking one by one

A Winter Night for Maya

christmas · winter light trail

Details only you would know about your coworker

A specific thing they are the reliable person for is usually the fastest way in. Swap one general phrase in any message above for one of these and the borrowed line becomes yours - your coworker will recognize it immediately, which is the entire point.

  • A specific thing they are the reliable person for
  • How they behaved during a genuinely bad week at work
  • A habit that quietly makes everyone else's job easier
  • Something they taught you without being asked
  • How they treat people more junior than them
  • The meeting or project where they were noticeably good
  • A standard they hold that others have started copying
  • The thing they do that nobody has ever thanked them for

What goes wrong when people write to coworkers

  • Writing something that fits anyone in the building

    "Great to work with" is a placeholder. One concrete professional observation makes the card worth keeping.

  • Crossing into personal territory

    Comments on appearance, home life or relationship status read differently in a workplace card, especially one passed around an office.

  • Making it about your working relationship only

    If the card is entirely about how they help you, it becomes a note about your own convenience. Name something true about them independent of you.

Common questions

What is the best christmas message for your coworker?
Pick one real detail - a specific thing they are the reliable person for - and build two or three sentences around it. A colleague message has a constraint the others do not: it will probably be read in front of other people, and it has to survive being read by someone it was not written for, which is why a message that could only have been written to your coworker outperforms a longer, more polished one that could go to anyone.
What should you not write to your coworker?
Avoid writing something that fits anyone in the building. "Great to work with" is a placeholder. One concrete professional observation makes the card worth keeping.
How long should a christmas message be?
Two to four sentences, with at least one referring to something that actually happened this year. Seasonal wishes can close it, not carry it.
How do you make a christmas message sound personal rather than copied?
Change one detail to something only you would know. Take any message here and replace its general noun with how they behaved during a genuinely bad week at work. That single substitution is what separates a message that sounds borrowed from one that sounds like you wrote it.

When a Christmas message is not quite enough for your coworker

The break is about to start and the inbox will still be there.

BloomQuest takes the same raw material this page has been asking you for - a specific thing they are the reliable person for, the thing you would never say out loud - and turns it into a small private world your coworker opens from one link. Your words, their memories, and a finale you write yourself.

The Christmas world is built for exactly this. Free to build and preview; you only pay when you share it.

Other messages for your coworker

More christmas messages

All christmas messages · Everything for your coworker

When a Christmas message is not quite enough for your coworker

The break is about to start and the inbox will still be there.

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