Doctors wish you some kind of Christmas

When it comes to indecipherable messages, the handwriting of some doctors looks like they flat-lined in midscribble.

Building on that stereotype, the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University decided to send out nearly 1,000 hilarious Christmas cards as written by a harried physician.

To those receiving the cards, the intent was clear: It was the scrawled holiday message that was more cursed that cursive.

“The idea came from Extra Credit Products, a company out of Grand Rapids we have worked with for the past eight years,” said Geri Kelley, director of communications for the college.

“Most people laughed when they saw the design. Then we showed it to the doctors on our faculty and they thought it was pretty funny, too.”

One thing led to another, and the college decided to post the holiday scrawl on Facebook. It also decided to have a contest to see who could decipher what the message really said.

“We had 115 entries and 52 people read it correctly,” Kelley said. “On Thursday, we had a drawing to determine the winner.”

The winner turned out to be Nichole Wright, practice manager for orthopedic surgery at Allegan General Hospital.

“She told me that they came up with all kinds of interpretations,” Kelley said. “They even had two surgeons trying to figure it out. They told her it made them feel better about their own handwriting.

Wright’s prize was a quartet of Michigan State University glass tumblers.

According to Kelley, the Facebook posting drew in responses from as far away as California.

Here is the translation for those who can’t decipher what was written on the card: “We hope your holiday season is full of wonder, family and good food. And your New Year is happy, healthy & bright.”

TGreenwood@detroitnews.com

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