Guide
How to write a Christmas love letter, and send it so it feels like a gift
A Christmas card gets two lines and a signature. A Christmas love letter is the longer thing you actually mean, and it is one of the few presents that gets read again in February. The writing is the hard part, so most of this guide is about that.
Then there is how it arrives. On Longlove the letter can come inside Flowers: they tap open a bouquet, flowers bloom out across the screen, and underneath is a sealed envelope that opens in place, a line at a time, with your voice under the signature if you add it.
Start with a moment from this year, not with 'Merry Christmas'
The opening line decides whether a letter feels like a card or like a letter. Instead of 'Merry Christmas, my love', start with something from this year that only the two of you were there for: 'I keep thinking about the night the power went out in March.' It tells them immediately that this was written for them, and it gives you somewhere to go next.
Say three things, and keep it under 250 words
A good Christmas love letter does three things. It thanks them for something specific from this year. It tells them one thing you noticed about them that they probably have not noticed about themselves. And it says what you want for next year, together. That is about 150 to 250 words, which reads well on a phone. Short paragraphs, the words you would actually say, and nothing you would not say to their face.
Lines to start from
If you are stuck, borrow a first line and make it yours. 'Of everything I could have wrapped this year, this is the one I wanted to make myself.' 'This was the year I stopped counting how long we've been together and started counting on it.' 'The best part of this Christmas is that I get to spend the next one with you too.' 'I don't need anything this year. I already have the thing I would have asked for.' Then replace every general word with a detail: a place, a date, something they said.
Send it sealed, so it opens on the day
In Flowers, the letter waits in a sealed envelope under the bouquet and unfolds when they tap it, with your photos below as polaroids. After you send it you can set the moment it opens, so the link can arrive on Christmas Eve and show only a countdown until midnight. You get an email when they open it, and the last part of the page is a box where they can write back.
Read the last line out loud, then record it
If there is one line in the letter you would want them to hear rather than read, add it as a voice recording: up to thirty seconds, recorded in the editor. It plays under the signature when they press play. Even people who would never read a letter out loud manage thirty seconds.
Questions
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