An easy way to create Christmas stationery for your annual letter is to add a piece of Christmas clipart as a background watermark. The watermark will appear as a light-colored picture behind your text so recipients will still be able to read your letter. And because the picture appears behind your text instead of around it, you won’t be losing valuable space.

Here’s how to add a watermark to a Word document. These instructions are for Word 2007.

1. From the Page Layout tab, click Watermark in the Page Background box.
2. Click on Custom Watermark and then select Picture Watermark from the pop-up window that appears.
3. Select the picture you want to use and then click Insert.
4. If you want the picture to appear a certain size, select a percentage under Scale.
5. Be sure the Washout check box is checked to lighten the picture and make sure it doesn’t interfere with the ability to read text.
6. That’s it! You’re ready to start typing your Christmas letter.