redglade

I'm in two minds about Christmas cards. Don't get me wrong - I don't mind buying them and I love receiving them, but the postage is just ridiculous (I've just spent over $30 posting cards to the UK which probably won't get there on time anyway), and then they say very little and just get thrown away in the New Year. What do you think - with phone rates so competitive now, is a Christmas phone call (say 10 minutes) a better way to send Christmas greetings? Or should I adopt an American tradition and send a family photo with "Seasons Greetings" printed on it instead of a card?
I used to enclose an annual newsletter and a family photograph in the card, but since Facebook there doesn't seem much point doing that anymore. Have Christmas cards become outdated and pointless or are they still traditional and charming?

Steerpike

I bought and sent precisely 1 - to my over-80s mom, 'cos she likes getting them and I'm not selfish enough to let my views disappoint her. Otherwise, they are a complete waste of time, energy, paper, etc. However, I like 'email Greeting Cards' even less ...

Squirrel

I like them, but I'd rather have none than a cheap & nasty one. I always send really nice personalised with our name ones. I usually get them from Ace Gifts & Cards, £15 for 40 personalised. My pet hate is late cards. What's the point after Christmas is over? Again this year MIL told me 2 days ago that SIL is 'just now doing her cards.' I said 'Well we won't get it now until after Xmas,' and she said 'Oh yes, I suppose not.'

I mean, it's not like birthdays where you have to remember lots of dates FFS! It's the same date every year! 13 years I've been married to DH and still MIL hasn't told SIL it takes a week to mail something from US to UK, longer at Christmas! I post mine on December 1st!

Oh yeah agree the postage is a crime, costs more than the cards easily!

redglade

I get your point (and I'm usually not this late posting my cards - really!) but I do think a period of grace until New Year is allowable...

I just couldn't help thinking as I open yet another card signed with just the senders name, and again when I scribbled my one side of an Xmas card note, and yet again when I forked out for the postage, that there has to be a better way to stay in touch...I know there will always be people who will be offended not to get a card, but a quick phone call or even an email (not an email greeting card- those are horrible) would be much more personal.

jemima55

I have noticed that last year and this, we seem to get less and less. Maybe we`ve just been away too long!

rpjs

We actually got round to buying and sending cards this year, for the first time in well ever really. having moved over I feel the need to stay in contact with friends and family in the UK a bit more, and having the cards in the house inspired us to mail to US f & f too.

Also the USPS saved my bacon the other week. I had lost OH's HMRC tax refund cheque somewhere in Midtown Manhattan when I went to post it to our UK bank. Thankfully it was in an (unstamped) envelope with our return address and some kind soul had dropped it into a mailbox and the USPS returned it as insufficient postage. So I figured at the very least I owed the USPS some business as a thank you...

Squirrel

That was nice. I once left all my cards, all ready addressed to go, on the train. I did alternative cards and sent them but a week later got all the originals back in a big envelope. No address so couldn't even thank the kind samaritan. I had cards all set for the following year then!

Egg and Cress

Okay everybody - reset your gag reflexes for my take on this:

E.mail cards are handy and easy – but a snail-mail type card is tangible proof that someone thought enough of me (us) to send a card, reminding us that the sender is still in our world. Silly, I know, but I have a huge store of Christmas, birthday, anniversary and Valentine cards from past years that have personal messages in them, few of which I’ll look at for many years, but many of which I have found and re-read with love and remembrance. As the years pass, the family members leave us and the number of cards diminish, I’ll have those cards, written in the loved one’s own hand, that I can touch – a piece of that person, if you will.
(This will be saccharin overload to some, I know, but there you go.)

We, too, spent a boat-load of money on cards and postage to go to the UK (not to mention to family and friends in the US), but as many of the people we sent them to either don’t have e.mail or don’t keep up with e.mail correspondence, we feel the cards are at least a yearly way of keeping in touch. I usually write a small (or medium to long) note in each card to say we’re doing well, touching on something going on in their lives (or not), expressing the hope they have a Merry Christmas and a full New Year and will keep in touch with us.

I think my solution to the commercialism and expense(?) next year may be in creating my own home-made cards. Some may think they’re hokey and that they don’t have the polished look of the store-bought cards, but, hopefully, the recipients will see them as intended – that the effort was put forth because we really do wish them a happy whatever-it-is.

Noorah101

I stopped sending out Christmas cards about 15 years ago. I decided it wasn't worth it. The friends and family that I keep in touch with know that I love them and we keep in touch enough in the real world, no need for a card. And the ones I didn't keep in touch much with, I realized getting a card once a year with a "hope all is well with you" isn't worth it, so I just quit sending.

Each year the number of cards I receive gets less and less, and that's fine with me. This year, so far, I've received 3 Christmas cards, all from people I really don't even care to keep in touch with. So there ya go. LOL

Rene

cindyabs

I wish I could have gotten my cards out sooner this year and I remember thinking in November to try to aim for 1 December. Well it didn't happen that way, other things took precedence. But I still want to send out to those who sent to me, and to others that it is my one time of year to be in touch with, who are not on FB, nor do I have their email or phone number. I've been doing my Mom's for the last few years to help her out, so will see if I can sneak a few of those in here at work today instead of twiddling my fingers waiting for people to come by. It'll make the day pass quicker.

Bob

I like them...but there's a lot of pressure to remember everyone or offending people and it just gets silly and expensive.

So far, we've received 3 from family, one was from my mother to the kids and the other 2 were cousins of the missus...then the missus got one from somewhere that she taught a class out...and a couple from other BE members, which was lovely.

We've only sent a couple to family so far...I've a stack ready to be sent, but forget them when going to the post office...so I've a bunch of stamps and now really can't be arsed to trudge out to the post office as I've gone soft and it's a bit nippy up here in Maine...and then the missus lost her address book, so there's another stack that's sitting around :/

joto

We do send out less and less cards each year. We send them to close family and very close friends. Other friends and family get a phone call if we can remember and have time. We would send more, but don't have addresses for some of the family and they don't put return addresses on the back of the envelope that they send to us. We do appreciate the effort they put into it, but please put a return address on the envelope.

Jan Alaska

A very strange thing happened when I moved to the US somehow the post office stopped delivering mail to the US, in an even stranger coincidence the phone lines also magically ceased to work between the UK and the US. I can count the cards I have received since I moved here on one hand. I still send although the family shrinks every year just to let them know the black sheep is alive and well and loving life.

Squirrel

Don't they have post boxes in Maine?

Bob

In this town, no, they don't. There isn't even a traffic light