Thoughts on Christmas Cards

Family and Friends -- I am calling you out!!

So here's my thoughts about Christmas Cards....

[Begin Rant]

Back in the "old days" when my mother sent Christmas cards, it was a simple greeting card, signed by my mom, on behalf of the family. Sometimes, she would write a short note in it to the recipients. In the early years of my marriage, my own Christmas card list was derived from the wedding invitation list, albeit edited to a do-able number that we could afford to buy and send in those days.

Then, Christmas cards (ours included) soon began to include a newsletter from the family regarding their year's activities and achievements. The best ones also had photographs tucked into them. That evolved into printing photos ON the newsletters, and making the letters oh-so-cute and clever.

My newsletters were never as clever as I wanted them to be, but we did go through a phase when we sent three-dimensional pop-out "cards". They were rubber-band triggered, and when you pulled them out of the envelope, they would instantly pop out to their design. They looked something like this, but different designs. We stopped sending them when the price went up and beyond our budget one year. Maybe some of you blog readers remember those.

Some people love to send homemade Christmas cards. If you're one of those -- kudos to you! I'm pretty sure my life would have to slow down a LOT in order for me to do homemade cards. Alas, it's store-bought for me!

The next evolvement (is that a word?) was that people would send a 1-part family Christmas photo-cards, which also had an included newsletter. I've never been organized enough to do that. An organized family photo, with a holiday theme, two months ahead of time? NOT!! But newsletters began to be filled with proud notations of childrens' honor roll status, outstanding sports achievements, amazing talents, and exotic vacations taken by the family. It was getting to be rather trying to read some peoples' accounts of their all-too-amazing lives. I dislike the one-upmanship that was happening with a simple thing like Christmas newsletters. To that end, I tried to keep our letters less of a brag report and stuck to more basic news of the year.

There is one more evolvement that brings us to current times, and it takes various forms. All of them make me sad. Some people send their greeting via email, with an attached file version of their newsletter. Some people have just turned to only social media, posting their family photo and holiday greeting there.  And some people simply seem to have given up, and they apologize and don't send anything at all as a Christmas greeting. Sadness!!

One of the things that I look forward to is cards and letters from loved ones. I would hope that if they aren't sending anything during the rest of the year, that I could plan on something for Christmas. So it does make me sad when I don't get many cards in my mailbox.

For those that send their greetings in an email, I do have a soft spot for those who are living out of the country. Mail for them is not practical on a large scale, so I do understand sending an email back to the States. I get that, and I understand. But if you live in-country, and have the monetary means to send snail mail cards, I'd prefer those any day of the week. I know..... I'm old-fashioned, bordering on troglodyte.

Posting a family photo on Facebook -- while I'm not a big fan of that as your only greeting, I will say that it's better than nothing. And giving up entirely --- makes me saddest. It makes me want to run to their houses and see if they're ok. Check up on them! Maybe they've fallen, and they can't get up?  So sad!!

And I am no shining beacon of Christmas Card Perfection, by any stretch of the imagination. This year, I was completing my letter on the Friday afternoon before Christmas. Todd (thank you, sweetheart!) dashed down to the post office to drop our cards off at the absolute end-of-day on the Friday before Christmas. He couldn't go to the nearest drop box, because it was over-filled. I hope they arrived before Christmas, but I can't be sure.

I still do the newsletter thing -- mostly because many on my card list don't see me all the time, if ever. I haven't done photo-cards. In a weird way, I kind of wonder if that's the latest version of the bragging newsletter: how cool can your Christmas photo be? How professional does it look? And the thing that nags at me is that it almost seems like a narcissistic way of putting oneself before Christ. And after all, isn't He the real meaning of Christmas?

To that end, my cards in recent years have become more religious than secular in tone, with this year's card being the three kings. I kind of have a thing for the three kings -- almost enough to start collecting them, but I'm pretty sure Todd would faint if he thought I was starting yet another collection of something!!

Anyway.

I will continue to send Christmas cards. I will continue to watch my mailbox for cards from my friends and my family. If you send the kind that I've ranted about here, don't let it stop you from sending to me: I really want your card!! And if you're one that didn't send any this year -- that's ok. But do me a favor, and make it happen next year, please? My mailbox is lonely.

[End Rant]

love you guys!