Make headlines! Create a family newsletter
Stay in touch with family and friends all over the world
By Alyson Munroe
Sometimes it is hard to get together with family more than once or twice a year. What better way to stay in touch over long distances than with a family newsletter? While a newsletter will never replace face-to-face communication, it’s a fun and easy way to keep family members up-to-date on recent events in your lives.
Microsoft Home Magazine offers some simple ways to get started in creating a family newsletter that will amuse and delight your relatives.
Start with your family stories
Deciding what to write about is the first step. Here are some ideas to kick-start your creativity:
- news of engagements, weddings, births, christenings, birthdays, anniversaries, reunions and graduations
- school and sports updates, stories about your children and their accomplishments
- vacation stories, photos or plans
- new hobbies or home renovations
- recipes in a format that readers can clip for their files
- URLs for family, school or team web sites
- family photos or children’s artwork
Leave out negative news and avoid sarcasm (which rarely comes off as intended), suggests Elaine Floyd, author of Creating Family Newsletters (EFG Inc., 1998).
If they’re old enough, let your children write about themselves. Younger children can also contribute to the family newsletter. Edmonton teacher AnnCherie Korbut suggests writing short descriptions of an event using a child’s own words. Her daughter, Madison, contributes to their newsletter by dictating stories to Mom.
Decide on design ideas
Your newsletter should be easy to read. “People have trouble reading long lines of type — no matter how fun or interesting it is,” warns Floyd. Her book recommends that you use
- one to three columns
- short paragraphs
- no more than three fonts
Use one font for headlines, another for text and a third for your newsletter’s name. They shouldn’t be too light, too small or too fancy.
Family photos, vacation snaps and children’s artwork add life to a newsletter. Do not cram too much into a small space — wide margins and white space make reading a newsletter easier on the eyes.
Korbut buys special paper with seasonal designs for her holiday newsletters. She also has a great idea for getting kids involved. “Madison loves to decorate the envelopes with stickers,” she says. “And she likes to write her name on the back of the envelopes.”
Create a family newsletter template
To design a simple format for your newsletter, all you need is a word-processing program such as Word to help organize your information into columns, link text boxes and insert images.
Add recent photographs to your newsletter by scanning photos or downloading them from a digital camera. Photo-editing programs such as Windows Live Photo Gallery allow you to make touch-ups. Use Clip Art graphics or designs to jazz up your newsletter sections. Check out our simple newsletter template to get started.
Finalize frequency and length
You might want to see how much time your first newsletter takes to make before you decide how often to send out updates. Floyd offers a handy guide for determining the length and format of your newsletter.
Yearly: Publish at the end of the year or a holiday update.
Quarterly: Design a two-page seasonal update.
Monthly: Write a one-page letter-style newsletter.
Weekly: Use an e-mail newsletter.
If you decide to publish monthly, May, for example, might include a section on summer vacation plans, a section on the end of the school year, a favourite spring recipe or family craft that readers can clip, and a list of birthdays or anniversaries you’re celebrating that month.
Add one or two photos to break up the text. If you’re using more than one photo, Floyd suggests varying the sizes and shapes.
One page is ideal for monthly newsletters. Floyd says some of the worst newsletters are too long or take on too much.
Korbut agrees, and sends out one page each Christmas. “People whom you haven’t kept in touch with for a year don’t need to know every intimate detail of your life,” she says. “Our newsletter is just a pleasant ‘Hi from the Korbut family!’”
Determine delivery options
If everyone you want to reach is online you can send your newsletter via e-mail, directly in the message or as an attachment. Remember that not everyone has the same software. Floyd recommends using very few graphics for e-mail. “You might have the latest and greatest software,” she says. “But Grandma in Poughkeepsie won’t.”
Consider the safety issues if you publish your newsletter on a family web site. Remove e-mail and home addresses, phone numbers and the location of your children’s school.
You’ll be sure to reach everyone via regular mail, and you don’t have to worry about file sizes or software. Best of all, you can sign each newsletter personally and add a handwritten note.
