The holiday letter hit its heyday in the early ‘00s and have been on a steady decline since about 2011, according to North Dakota State University’s Ann Burnett: “Nobody under age 40 writes them anymore,” 

 Ironically, one of the reasons people give for abandoning the holiday letter is that they’re too busy—busyness being the thing letter writers bragged most about.

Some of the blame, of course, can be placed on social media. “But where does that leave historians a hundred years from now who are interested in the lives of everyday propleof today?”  she asks.

Maybe it’ll be fine. The demise of the Christmas card was predicted back in the late 1970s. Last year, the United States Postal Service prepared for a 10% increase in holiday mail. This year, USPS expects to exceed that by an additional 1 billion pieces of mail.

“As long as trees exist, letters will be typed. The Christmas letter is going nowhere except to a local post office near you.”