BloomQuest: Celebrate app iconBloomQuest: Celebrate

Christmas

Christmas messages for your friend: 9 to write or borrow

A christmas message for your friend should name one real detail, not offer a general wish. Start with the point at which you stopped being acquaintances and say why it matters. You can send the 9 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

Christmas cards are written in bulk and everybody knows it, which means the reader can tell within one line whether they have received a message or a distribution.

Friendship is the only close relationship with no formal obligation behind it. Nobody has to keep showing up, which means every year it continues is a choice that was actively made.

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.

9 christmas messages for your friend

  1. Warm
    Another year where you turned up for things you did not have to turn up for. Happy Christmas, and thank you.
  2. Warm
    This year had some genuinely rough patches and you were reliably around for them. Merry Christmas.
  3. Short
    Merry Christmas. Glad you are mine.
  4. Short
    Happy Christmas to my favorite bad influence.
  5. Funny
    Merry Christmas. I have bought you something you will pretend to like and quietly return in January.
  6. Heartfelt
    It has been a strange year and you made it considerably better. Happy Christmas.
  7. Warm
    Here is to another year of the same nonsense. Merry Christmas.
  8. Short
    Happy Christmas. See you for the traditional argument about the film.
  9. Heartfelt
    Thank you for a year of showing up. Merry Christmas.

What actually works in a Christmas message to your friend

A card that could have been sent in any of the last five years announces itself immediately. One reference to the actual year fixes it.

Naming the choice is what separates a friendship message from a pleasantry.

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 friend

For people you only contact once a year, the card is the entire relationship that year. It is worth a real sentence.

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 friend

The point at which you stopped being acquaintances 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 friend will recognize it immediately, which is the entire point.

  • The point at which you stopped being acquaintances
  • A period when they were reliable and it cost them something
  • A joke that has survived far past its expiry date
  • Something they are good at that they undersell
  • A habit of theirs you have picked up
  • The thing you always do together, however small
  • A time they told you something you did not want to hear
  • How they have changed since you met, and how they have not

What goes wrong when people write to friends

  • Describing fun instead of loyalty

    "We always have a laugh" is true of many people. What distinguishes this friendship is usually something more specific and less flattering to say out loud.

  • Making it entirely nostalgic

    A message made only of old material implies the friendship's best part is behind it. Include something from this year.

  • Undercutting every sincere line

    Friend messages often deflect with a joke immediately after anything true. Let one sincere sentence stand without rescue.

Common questions

What is the best christmas message for your friend?
Pick one real detail - the point at which you stopped being acquaintances - and build two or three sentences around it. Friendship is the only close relationship with no formal obligation behind it, which is why a message that could only have been written to your friend outperforms a longer, more polished one that could go to anyone.
What should you not write to your friend?
Avoid describing fun instead of loyalty. "We always have a laugh" is true of many people. What distinguishes this friendship is usually something more specific and less flattering to say out loud.
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 a period when they were reliable and it cost them something. 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 friend

For a friend you only properly contact once a year, this card is the entire relationship that year.

BloomQuest takes the same raw material this page has been asking you for - the point at which you stopped being acquaintances, the thing you would never say out loud - and turns it into a small private world your friend 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 friend

More christmas messages

All christmas messages · Everything for your friend

When a Christmas message is not quite enough for your friend

For a friend you only properly contact once a year, this card is the entire relationship that year.

Get BloomQuest: Celebrate