Christmas Cards

Do many people still send them out? Over the years the number of Christmas cards I receive have dwindled so much. And yes, I do still send cards out, but people that used to always send cards to me seem to be getting away from it. I can understand my aunt, who used to faithfully send cards out with notes....she can't really write anymore and also has Alzheimer's. So I called her in November to find out how she was doing. But I just wondered, are Christmas cards going the way of the dynosaur?

I havebeen bad this year and only sent a few with personal letters that I really cared about. My neighborhood has a day each December when we all put cards in each others boxes and skip the postage (a Sunday) and take the cards out before mail delivery the next day. That helps alot.
I can't really say that I recieved les s this year.

I still send out cards. I have tightened the list a little, but I still like sending them. Also enjoy receiving them and displaying them every year.

But I still have windows 98 and dial up, so I am a dinosaur.

Yes! I still send out Christmas cards. Not that I keep in touch with 80% of these people, but they are on my X-Mas card list --which I dutifully check off each year next to the recipients name that I sent them a card--but I really don't know why I keep doing it? Like--41 cents x50 or so cards adds up!

Then there is the "guilt factor"--should I be the first to discontinue sending a card to a particular person? Then I get one from THEM and I have not sent THEM one! AAAAGGGH.....Sometimes I let is slide, other times I hurry up and send them one after I received one from THEM.

I have sent many people the beautiful, animated cards from Jacquie Lawson. These are people NOT on my card list! It IS easier........and almost more sentimental, I just wonder if it "means as much" as a real card???? What do you think?????

I always try to write a small, personal greeting in a card. I NEVER just sign my name! That is like a mass-mailing with NO personal involvement....like a card from your bank.

I have dropped a few names and drop a couple more very year---very hesitantly......I ahve also resumed a few names as they have, all of a sudden, remembered ME!

Then--I am a creature of habit--all the way around.

May I pose an additional question here?
What do YOU do with your old Christmas cards?

I cut all the fronts up as gift tags. All you need is a discerning eye as to where you could fold a section of the picture to still come up with a nice gift tag. It also has to be blank inside! Edges of cards make nice "mini tags". I have a big box-full of these gift tags. Need to find somewhere to donate them. Any ideas???

Gita

There was one place that used to ask for used cards, but that one no longer wants them. Maybe there are others that still would take them. I keep cards with personal notes and letters in them. Sometimes I'll go back and read them. Some I have are from people that are deceased. Those memories....well, I'm not getting any younger myself and almost all the relatives of my parents generation are all gone. Sometimes I think of my own mortality after I hear about the death of someone else that used to send me a card..

I also send cards, but notice that I seem to receive less each year. Some people I know do go the way of an electronic card. They can be nice, but definitely lack that personal touch. Some people that I mail cards to are people that I don't see or talk to as much as I might like to the rest of the year, for various reasons. We no longer live close by, busy families, etc. However, especially at this special time of year, I want them to know that I still think of them, and hold them dear.
I save my cards from the previous year, and enjoy going back at the beginning of the season and re-reading them.

I recycle the cards, meaning I cut them up and paste and make new cards from them.

I remember years ago, well, it was 1960 in fact. I sat with my GM at the table and we took a big stack of old cards and made them into a Christmas scrapbook. We put all the wreathes, trees, bells, candles, families, snowmen, etc, together on pages. She wrote little things on each page and it is a special book I have loved for years.
Some cards had glitter, some had flocking. You could feel the beauty as well as see it.
Nice memory too. I still rememeber GM telling me how to use that rubber tip on the glue, as to not make a mess. I was 5 years old.

Ya'll have some great memories there. We never did Christmas cards when I was a kid, so I couldn't wait to do them when I got married. Ever since I've always loved sitting down with a cup of tea to write out the cards. I've even been known to start writing my Christmas cards on Thanksgiving night after everything is cleaned up and quieted down. I always try to buy my cards at the after Christmas sales, but sometimes they are so picked over that there's nothing good left.

I'm hoping that Christmas cards never go out of style. To me it's one of those things that has been going on for so long....it's more than a tradition though. It's the one time of year that we get to sit down and write a note to all our friends and every one we know just for the fun of it. I'm always disappointed when I don't receive a card from someone. :( I guess I'm like a little kid in that respect, lol. A big reason I send cards out is to let folks know that I'm thinking about them. Most of the folks I mail the cards to I don't get to see over the holidays, and I just want them to know they have been in my thoughts. I don't send cards out of obligation, I decided to quit doing that, it's silly really. I send cards to those who often times I wish I could spend more time with. Yeah, I send about 60 cards out....there's a lot of folks I wish I could spend more time with!! LOL!

However, I'm a housewife. I have a home business. I don't have kids. It's easy for me to do the cards. For some folks there just isn't time....between working, running the kids everywhere, shopping, decorating, and on and on. My DS has never sent out cards because she is too busy. I can understand that. Some older folks don't send cards because of the cost, I can understand that too. But, I think if you have the time and money it's a wonderful way to let someone know you've been thinking of them.

I have not sent out cards for some years now - I do a Xmas letter instead. I hate getting cards with just a name on them and no news from people I only hear from once ayear. So I always wrote a note on cards when I still sent them. But that got rather tiresome so I started doing a letter on Xmas stationary and sending that out instead.
I still get a fair number of cards - this year I seem to have more than usual.
This year I was busy and I am a good procrastinator so was rather late and some went by email instead. Now that is lazy but at least I am keeping in touch.

I have never done "The Letters"--as I have nothing to much write about. No extended family--no grandkids--just little old me.

I don't mind getting them, as long as they are not boastful and full of we did this and we traveled there and Johnny got an award in soccer, and Mary was voted queen of the parade etc.....etc.....I like humble, just letting you know all the good and the bad and how the year has gone for us letters. I DO appreciate those.

Gita

I agree. When I was growing up, my family was poor. There were certain relatives that would send those "brag" cards, often about trips to Europe, their second house at the lake, etc. Never a word about the not-so-great things in their lives. Such one-sided tales just makes you wonder if Junior was ever caught shop-lifting or Dad had some young hot mistress on the side or Mom had a secret addiction to tranquilizers or Sis was a member of some bizarre cult for a few years. And no, I wouldn't judge them if they had a disfunctional family like that. Aren't all families just a little disfunctional in some way?

Gitagal and Linda I agree with you - I got one this year from an old friend/colleague in another country and she talks about a lot of people - presumably her children/grandchldren and I havent a clue who they are. I dont have kids ( at least not ones with ony 2 legs!) and I try to concentrate on one or two things that have happened to us ( 2 dogs/2 cats)thruout the year but I keep it short - all has to fit on one page large type!

admit, only read the first posting.

linda, i to have noticed this art dying out.

i have tried as a newlywed to send out several years now but the in-laws never ever send cards. my relatives do send out cards, some of them. some only send out a card upon receiving a card.

i find i like to read the newsletters and see a family photo.

one family i know only sends out a newsletter and photo and only after the holidays.

given how much i spent on cards, postage, 4x6" professional photos included, mailing only about 20 cards and getting 4 back, i am NOT doing it again. i now post updates about us in an online blog and anyone who cares about us can check there.

With some of my relatives, I'd be very happy with a late card! Especially if they would include a photo and newsletter! For me, the main thing is to keep in touch, and since some don't send letters during the year or otherwise keep in touch, the Christmas card is all I can hope for.

Linda, and everyone you're invited to join us Mid-South and other Texan gardeners to bring in the New Year here.

Kim
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/800364/

I agree that the brag letters can be a bit much. I don't get many of those, but if I did I probably wouldn't even read them, lol.

Just a few weeks ago there was a rerun of "Everybody Loves Raymond" where Debra and Marie sat down to write a Christmas newsletter together in response to one they received. It was hilarious! It was much like noted in the post above....the letter they got made the woman who wrote it and her family sound soooooooooo wonderful and like they didn't have a problem in their lives. Debra and Marie knew better....and there was a remark in the letter about Debra and Marie specifically. Well, they weren't going to stand for that!

Poor Raymond, Robert (poor, poor Robert!) and Frank disagreed with the letter writing, to no avail. Robert showed up with a Christmas letter Marie had written 10 years earlier....an original copy he'd kept for 10 years because it had been such an awful experience!

In the end the men weren't at all happy with what the women wrote about them (it didn't sound boastful enough) so the letter got torn up and Debra and Marie saw the light of day and the error of their ways. Oh, if everything could be like TV!

So, yes, I agree that I'd much rather get a simple card with a simple note that says something like, "Hoping to see you over the Holidays."

Happy New Year everyone!

I have always enjoyed those letters to keep up with others. I never took them as bragging, but enjoyed reading about whatever they wanted to share. I too was raised very poor, so I guess I was just happy for anyone who had a more interesting life.

I only send cards to those few older relatives who don't have email. I try and write them a personal letter and enclose photos. To everyone else I send an ecard. I make it with my own software as opposed to those free ecards. That way I can add my own music and family photos. Everyone seems to like them and some have told me they save them. My aunt who doesn't have email has been known to go to a cousins to watch my card.

I to used to think of them as brag letters but then I became an adult and had my own life and exciting news of my own to share and realized I LOVED and missed those letters from folks. Helps to KIT with old friends.