Family celebrates single daughter in hilarious Christmas card
— -- The Seawright family from Whittier, California, has a long history with over-the-top Christmas cards, but never expected to go viral with their most basic yet hilarious one yet.
“We never expected the media frenzy that our daughter has put us in,” mom Diane Seawright, 51, told ABC News of all the attention surrounding their witty card celebrating their single daughter, Emily.
Emily Seawright posted the family photo, taken in their backyard after enjoying their Thanksgiving meal, on Twitter, where it’s gotten nearly 285,000 likes and 46,000 retweets in just two days.
“My daughter came up with it and we thought it’d be funny,” said Diane Seawright. “We have so much going on our lives as you can tell by our signs that we were just too busy to think of something else. Reluctantly, we all took part in the signs and here we are.”
She said her family is all “very happy” and Emily in particular is “happy being single.”
“She just has a great sense of humor,” said the mom. “I don’t want people to think we’re this cold family that threw our daughter on the side.”
Diane Seawright said their immediate family has done crazy Christmas cards for more than 30 years before they had their first daughter.
“My husband is in the film industry. He’s a first cameraman so we’ve been a lot of places,” she said of the exotic locations they’ve shot their cards in the past, like South Africa, New Orleans and Lake Arrowhead.
But the Christmas card tradition goes back generations to her husband’s grandfather, Roy Seawright, a Hollywood special effects technician.
“He used to hand-draw them,” Diane Seawright said of the vintage Christmas cards. “They always had amazing Christmas cards. When I married my husband, the first thing his grandma said is, ‘What kind of Christmas card are you going to do?’ I said, ‘I’m not sure. I haven’t had time to go shopping yet.’ She said, ‘Oh no dear, the Seawrights don’t buy store-bought cards.’ This goes way back.”
Despite the family getting attention for a card they aren’t the most proud of, Diane Seawright said she’s thrilled to have a memento to mark this exciting time in her family.
“We are so blessed beyond belief with our family and our girls and our grandbabies,” she said. “Luckily we’re young enough to enjoy it and we’re loving all of it.”
