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President-elect Donald Trump decided Friday to let the world read his Christmas letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The note, sent on Dec. 15 and addressed to "his excellency," included some warm holiday wishes from the Kremlin and a glimpse into Putin's hopes for a "new level" of "collaboration" between the U.S. and Russia:

Trump made his response to Putin's letter public, too. In a statement attached to the letter — which Trump called "very nice" — the president-elect said Putin's "thoughts are so correct." "I hope both sides are able to live up to these thoughts, and we do not have to travel an alternate path," Trump said in the statement.

Their holiday exchange follows assessments from the U.S. intelligence community that concluded Russia interfered in the U.S. political election to help Trump, a claim both Trump and Putin have denied.