The Team Holiday Card Line That Lands Wrong (and What to Write Instead)

Every guide to writing a team holiday card gives the same inclusion advice: say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." Fair enough. Do that.

But it fixes the smaller problem. The bigger one is the line almost everyone writes right after it: "Enjoy a restful break and lots of time with your loved ones."

For most people that line is fine. In the American Psychiatric Association's November 2025 Healthy Minds Poll, seeing family and friends was what adults looked forward to most (61%). But the same poll found that 48% of US adults were worried about missing someone or grief over the holidays, and 31% about being lonely. Both things are true at once, often for the same person. On a team of twenty, several people will read "time with your family" and think of who won't be at the table.

Nobody writes that line to hurt anyone. It's just the default. And in a group card, the default doesn't appear once. It appears fifteen times, signed by fifteen different coworkers.

Write about the year you shared, not the December you're guessing at

You don't know what someone's holidays look like. You do know what their year at work looked like, because you were there.

That's the fix. Point every message at the shared year instead of the private break:

• Instead of "Enjoy the holidays with your family!" → "Thanks for being the calm one during the September launch. That week would have gone very differently without you."
• Instead of "Wishing you peace and joy this season" → "Best thing about this year: the Friday demos you started. Please keep them going in January."
• Instead of "Have a wonderful Christmas!" → "You answered more of my questions this year than Google did. Thank you."

None of these assume a religion, a family, a trip or a mood. They work for the person hosting twelve relatives and for the person spending the 25th alone. They also happen to be more interesting to read.

Give signers one prompt

If you share a blank card, you'll get "Happy Holidays! 🎄" twenty times. When you send the link, add one line:

"Write one moment from this year with this team that you'd want to remember."

For a card going to one person (a manager, an assistant, someone who carried the team), adjust it to "one thing they did this year that made your work easier."

Then a short closing wish is fine, and it's safer if it's about the break itself, not who they spend it with:

• "Hope the next two weeks are as quiet or as loud as you want them to be."
• "Hope you get some real time off, whatever that looks like for you."
• "See you in January. Rested, ideally."

If you're the manager

Your line carries more weight, so skip the summary of the company's year and write about this team. Name one thing they did that nobody outside the team saw: the weekend nobody asked for, the handover that made a hard month easy, the customer they kept. One specific sentence reads as attention. A paragraph of adjectives reads as a template.

And if someone on the team lost a person this year and you know it, don't single them out in a card the whole team can read. A short private note does that job better.

Timing is part of being inclusive

Christmas falls on Friday, December 25, 2026 in both Canada and the US. Hanukkah runs from sundown on Friday, December 4 to nightfall on Saturday, December 12 (2026 dates). So a "Happy Holidays" card sent in the last week before Christmas arrives after one of the holidays it's meant to include has already ended.

A practical schedule:

1. Open the card for signatures around December 1. People write better messages when they're not rushing before a deadline.
2. Close signatures on Wednesday, December 16.
3. Deliver on Friday, December 18, the last full working day before Christmas for most teams, while people are still online. If your team includes people who celebrate Hanukkah, consider sending in the first week of December instead, or sending them a short separate note.

Making it easy to sign

The "one moment from this year" format only works if signing takes a minute. With GG² Cards you pick a winter cover (or describe the team and get one made), share one link, and people sign from their phone without creating an account. You schedule delivery for the 18th and don't have to chase stragglers on the last day.

The short version

• "Happy Holidays" over "Merry Christmas": yes, but that's the easy part.
• Skip "time with your loved ones." Write about the year you actually shared.
• Give signers one concrete prompt.
• Send it by December 18, earlier if Hanukkah matters to your team.

Create a holiday card your team can sign →