How do you usually close letters?

For business letters, the lawyers in the firm where I first worked for a few years in the US all seemed to close with "Very truly yours," so that's what I did, but in retrospect it looks a little stupid. After all, what does it really mean?

In recent years I close business letters with "Best regards." If it's more of a threatening letter and I obviously don't wish any best regards for the recipient I might use "Sincerely."

For some people, I suppose "Warm regards" would be a perfect closing for letters to close friends/family, but to me it sounds a little too phony and pretentious. I'm just not a "warm regards" kind of guy I guess.

Not that I'm afraid of intimacy. With all my family, letters are closed with "Love, ___." But, can't use that for female friends, I've learned, lest they get confused and believe it's more than just a word one has to stick at the end of the letter, which is basically all it is in that case.

How about you, how do you close letters?

Letters, as opposed to email?

For formal letters, I only use two: "Yours faithfully" where I have used the correspondent's name at the top (Dear Mr. Chen), and "yours sincerely" where I have used an anonymous form of address (like "Dear Sir/Madam").

Can't be bothered with anything more complicated than that.

EDIT: Um, the above is complete bollocks brought on by lack of caffeine. Please reverse the polarity, press Control Alt Delete and then continue.

I finished my last letter to my lady with "Lotsa Love - Your Big Egg".

Hard to explain - might not be suitable for most letters.

"Your immediate attention is strongly suggested"

Wow, that's great. I love it. Mind if I start using that for my business letters?

As for not being suitable, I suppose some could say the same about Taffy's "Yours faithfully."

Cheers. All the best. Yours.

Omniloquacous often ends with Toodle Pip to which I respond Poodle Poop.

How does 'Pay up or we go court' sound ...

I never write English letters, but a lot of email. I use Best Regards in business context, Sincerely to professors, Take Care, Cheers to friends.

Or



Or



Or



In My holy name,
Jesus

Erm... I thought it was the other way around. Please tell me I haven't been doing it wrong all these years.