Create a personalised New Year card

New Year messages are the most forwarded of the year and the least read. They arrive in volume around midnight, they all say roughly the same thing, and they are cleared in one scroll the next morning.

Writing one properly is unusual enough that it registers. A page with their name on it, a few honest lines, and somewhere to reply reads as a message rather than a broadcast.

Writing something they will actually read

• Look back before you look forward. One line about the year that just happened grounds everything after it.
• Wish them something specific. A good year is what everyone says. Naming the thing they are actually working towards is what gets remembered.
• Send it on the second, not at midnight. Nothing sent at midnight gets read. A day later, yours is the only one there.
• Do not include resolutions. Nobody wants a target in a greeting.