Why do you send Christmas cards?
I used to send well over a hundred Christmas cards. Gradually the number has dropped. A few years ago after I'd been in NZ for a couple of years I decided to drop them altogether. Sending Christmas cards is not a Big Thing in NZ. However that never quite materialised and this year the number has risen again to somewhere around 40. I still like sending them as a way of keeping in touch and letting people know that I'm thinking of them but I don't see the ones sent to Scotland until May (although Pat opens them and emails me the details) but they have dropped off each year (in fact I may not have any this year). All the cards I send go overseas. I don't know of anyone in NZ who sends cards apart from the occasional one to overseas relatives. The thing is that the number of cards I've received has dropped significantly. I'm sure one reason is that we keep in touch a lot more by other means: emails, texts, Skype, Facetime, Facebook and all these means of communication mean that if we want to keep in touch we generally do. If the only communication is a card at Christmas I think one has to ask 'what's the point?'.
This year, for the first time, I received a significant number of ecards (I'm going to call them ecards and not e-cards to keep them on a par with emails): Jacquie Lawson cards. I've always wondered about them. You look at them and then what? I'm not sure that you can keep them but then why would you want to? Mind you I have Christmas cards from some people going back to the year dot but then I'm a sentimental creature underneath this bluff exterior.
Anyway it seems that ecards are now acceptable to quite a lot of my friends.
Of course Christmas cards are not the only cards. There are birthday cards too and all sorts of other cards although an ecard might be pointless to many people in hospital and I really can't see anyone sending an ecard for a bereavement.
Another problem I foresee in relation to Christmas cards is a problem someone sending me a card doesn't have. I am me and only me. What about couples and families? Is the person who opens the email going to call everyone over to view it?
So do you still send Christmas cards (and if so do you send ecards) and what would you think if you received an ecard?
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Oh that would be horrible to receive an eCard for a bereavement ~ perish the thought ~ never thought about it, but I am sure someone has, and now that you have put it out there in the ether I bet someone will be marketing them Graham.
ReplyDeleteNo I don't send or receive Christmas cards ~ but I remember the excitement of Mum getting them and stringing them up around the place. I noticed in the shops that there was less floor space this year for Christmas cards.
You just reminded me, there was a guy on the radio this week who said that eCards have been a marketing failure.
DeleteCarol because I'm out of touch with Christmas in the UK I find it hard to make comparisons with times gone by but ecards for Christmas were unheard of by me a few years ago although I remember getting individually printed cards by mail from Moonpig quite a few years ago. I have mixed feelings about ecards but I can well understand that they will take a long time to catch on (if they ever do) and am not surprised that they have not yet been a marketing success.
DeleteI like the JL cards - and enjoy getting them, but you are right - they don't work for couples/family so well.
ReplyDeleteI don't send any type at all these days - if I want to contact them I write an email or message them on fb or a blog or somewhere similar.
Most of the ones I have this year are from businesses!
Oh and a lovely one from my birth Mum - and actually, thinking about it I sent her one - so they do still have "a place"!
One thing I am glad to see the back of is the generic letter that went out with the cards!
I think, Fiona, that the couples thing is a major stumbling block. Special cards from special people will always have their place I think.
DeleteI still send cards and enjoy receiving them, but I too have cut down the number that I send. I have three cousins who send letters along with the cards. They mostly tell the highlights of their year, one quite creatively (which I enjoy and tell them so, so that the letters continue). I've been known to send the Jacquie ecards, but I'd never consider sending a sympathy card in that way, too crass!
ReplyDeleteSounds, Norma, as if you are of a similar mind to me on the subject at the moment..
DeleteGreat topic for this time of year. I think we sent about 6 cards this year. We write a letter and email it to about thirty people. I don't like the Jacquie Lawson cards at all. It's hard to tell where we're going with cards. Less snail mail for sure.
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting, Red, to hear differing points of view on this one.
DeleteThanks for the link. I think these cards are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI had to buy a pack of ten cards this year. If I can remember what I did with them then they should last three years.
Adrian I agree that the J L cards themselves are very well done. It's beginning to sound as though I'm still in the minority with regard to sending cards.
DeleteThere's both for me, ecards and paper ones. Most of the cards I receive and write are coming from and going to my Yorkshire family, and I love looking at the cards displayed on my sideboard and thinking of them and of the closeness I feel with them, which has only increased since Steve's death.
ReplyDeleteHere in Ludwigsburg, of course I see my family for Christmas anyway, so we do not send each other cards. But we do send each other ecards for our birthdays, funny and silly ones, just out of fun, although we always see each other on our birthdays, too.
With some of my friends and acquaintances, we exchange ecards; I value them nearly as much as paper cards because they show someone has thought of me and taken the time to choose a card for me. More time and effort are involved with sending paper cards, so I guess these rank a little higher in "value".
I keep those Christmas cards I like best and use them the following year as decoration, putting them underneath the glass pane on the desk in the Third Room.
This year, I received and sent about 15 cards, more or less the same as over the past 5 years or so.
The thing is Meike that I really enjoy sending and receiving the cards themselves especially when it's from and too people whom I want to know are in my thoughts. I find the whole thing a dilemma.
DeleteI totally agree with you, GB. Doing the annual cards is a chore, and we too have cut down. The most irritating scenario of all is the one where a kind friend or colleague brings along a handful of cards, and dishes them out. Why can't he or she just say "happy Christmas everyone" and be done with it?
ReplyDeleteThat, Frances, is just silly isn't it? I don't know anyone now who gives a card to people they see frequently.
DeleteI think sending cards to people you don't see is a good idea for keeping in touch - but I can't understand the mentality of sending cards to all and sundry. I know I was stunned when I first came to England from NZ and children give cards to every child in the class! What is that all about? We never allowed our boys to do that - seems a wanton waste of resources, time and effort to me - I mean especially if you don't like half the kids in a class! Same with adults - why give cards to people you see every day, or near enough? Seems a waste. As for ecards, to me they seem completely pointless...I would rather have an email that has at least been written personally. So we still only send cards to a handful of people - mostly to those overseas.
ReplyDeleteSerenata, if every child in a class of 30 gave to each of the others and it was a 7 year school then that's over 6000 cards. That's just plain silly. I'm sitting on the fence about ecards at the moment although I do have reservations as you will have gathered. I think the main thing is that people should know that you are thinking of them and it doesn't have to be Christmas for that so far as I am concerned.
DeleteIndeed, and I quite agree, we should make an effort to keep in contact with people more often through letters or what not. Sadly it seems the art of letter writing has almost been lost!
DeleteI still use my trusty fountain pens to write my letters Serenata.
DeleteNothing beats writing letters with a fountain pen! There is something special about them I think and I too use one, although sadly find writing letters more difficult now due to ongoing pain issues. A fountain pen does make it easier though I think as the pen glides.
Deleteja misschien ouderwets maar ik vind kerstkaarten toch wel wat hebben.
ReplyDeleteIk denk niet dat het is ouderwets. Ik vind het leuk.
DeleteI use both formats for sending cards for special occasions. The paper cards if I can get it mailed to arrive in time in most cases. However, I do send ecards for other occasions and just to say hello.
ReplyDeleteI would never send an ecard for a bereavement though....who does that??
The cost of postage has risen so high here, that it's sometimes prohibitive to send a lot of Christmas cards overseas like I used to.
This year I think I mailed 3 cards, no ecards, and hand delivered some to my doctor, dentist and vet's offices.
Yes, Virginia, the cost isn't really something I'd thought about but the cards I sent this year cost over £55 (GBP) in postage and that's likely to rise substantially. I think that I'm more likely to send an ecard for an overseas birthday but who knows what the future will bring?
DeleteI like sending and receiving Christmas cards. In Sweden it seems to still be quite an important part of the Christmas traditions for many people - me included. I too have cut down my list a bit compared to, say, 20 years ago (or whatever), but I do still send and get quite a lot of physical cards. With some it does happen that I wonder why, considering that it's been the only contact we've had in years. But then one can also turn it around and think: Well, at least by sending this once-a-year greeting, we're still keeping track of each other. If nothing else, a Christmas card says: I still remember you, and I want you to know I'm still "here" (whereever that is). (And quite a few of the old friends I've picked up contact with on Facebook in later years are those same people that I kept on exchanging Christmas cards with.)
ReplyDeleteThis year I haven't received any Christmas e-cards. There are a few friends who prefer to send their greetings via email though. That's okay by me - especially since I know that for some the cost may be an issue, as well as physical problems.
One thing in your post makes me curious: Why would friends keep sending Christmas greetings to your house in Lewis? Don't they know by now that you spend that time of year in New Zealand??
Your point, Monica, about friends sending cards to Scotland is one that has puzzled me too because I got cards in Scotland from people who knew I was in NZ. I haven't heard from Pat (I must ask her) if there were any cards this year so I'm assuming that there were not. Which means that for the first time this year I've sent more than I've received.
DeleteAs you know we still send and receive cards, but I do have concerns regarding all the trees required. The reason I still send cards is that whilst my generation seem perfectly happy not to send cards or even ecards to each other (preferring to keep in touch via facebook and twitter etc) it is one of very few ways in which we remain in touch with the older generation and also a large proportion of family members whom we hardly ever see. So whilst I am more than happy to receive an e-card or no card at all (in fact I'd prefer it from an environmental perspective) I feel obligated to send cards to certain people, especially those who will see very few people over the Christmas period.
ReplyDeleteOddly Helen my ecards all came from people of my generation but I think your points are very much the situation now. I notice that Facebook and Twitter (the last of which I frankly only use for news and not for personal communication) are the preferred medium for birthday greetings and even for announcing (in one recent case to her parents) pregnancies, marriages and even separations. At first that seemed a bit odd and impersonal to me but it's quite clear that communication methods are changing and I suppose announcing a pregnancy via Facebook just means that people who might have expected to have received a letter or a phone call are now sharing the immediacy of the news with everyone else: the concept of individual communication is lessening (though obviously not disappearing).
DeleteThe snail mail Christmas cards can be a dilemma, I know. I still send quite a few -- I consider them a PR gesture to people I don't often see. And we've gotten some lovely handmade ones this year from various friends and family. Those are the ones I treasure.
ReplyDeleteBut times change and perhaps it's time to trim my list. Especially since my daughter told me in confidence that one of her long-time friends to whom I'd sent a Christmas card this year, checks her mail, and bins the ones she recognizes as Christmas cards without even opening them!! And her husband is the youth minister at a large Catholic church. So I definitely think Mrs. WS is NOT going to be on my Christmas card list next year. I still wish her well, but why should I waste the cost of a card and a stamp? I'll continue to exchange cards with people that I know seem to enjoy them though.
Love to you and yours, and wishes for a very Happy New Year, xoxo Carol
Thank you for your wishes Carol. I wish you and yours a very Happy New Year too.
DeleteI can't imagine anyone actually throwing them away without opening them. I'm swithering between cutting them out altogether and carrying on (and using ecards I suppose) but I suspect that it'll be a bit of a compromise for me at the end of the day.
I know. Curiosity would get the best of me, and I would have to at least open the cards before I tossed them, even if they came from someone I disliked! But then, I guess we all see these things differently.
DeleteTo distinguish myself from other Carols, maybe I should sign myself C3 as I do with one of my nieces. This could stand for Canadian Chickadee Carol, which is three C's. xoxo
I rather like initials Carol - hence the fact that I am actually known as GB or Geeb as well as Graham (or by those who know me from childhood, as Barry) and my brother is known as CJ (he likes initials too). However CCC is the moniker that Crazy Cookie Caroline uses (a daughter of one of my closest friends who doesn't comment on my blog). She refers to me as CUG (Crazy Uncle Graham). So if you sign yourself CCC or C3 I will know who you are. It's a strange world is it not?
DeleteBefore our stupid government privatised Royal Mail, the cost of a second class stamp had risen to 50p. That in itself is enough reason for sending ecards. We have lived in this house for twenty five years and every Christmas we receive a Christmas cars for Mr & Mrs N. Cooper - the previous occupants. What a great relationship they must have with the sender! But I still like Christmas cards. We sent or hand delivered about sixty this year.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting YP. I had the same experience receiving a card year after year for the previous occupants of my house. I was just getting fed up with forwarding it when it stopped. Hand delivering a card suggests that you see those people. I've long ago given giving cards to people I see regularly unless there are special circumstances. Certainly sending cards is not an inexpensive thing to do. Don't get me started on the privatisation of the Royal Mail! It may well have very serious consequences for the peripheral areas of the UK. Many private companies already use the Royal Mail and Parcelforce to deliver their parcels to Lewis (and presumably other peripheral areas)..
DeleteI seem to be one of the last of the snail mailers amongst my friends. Even the two I write to regularly (from Australia) in the UK and USA send email letters in reply. I don't write proper letters though. I need the prompt of images so have my photos made into postcards on the Redbubble website, and send little packets of postcards.
ReplyDeleteI saw research suggesting that we can keep our spirits up by surrounding ourselves with things that remind us of people, places, animals. Activities that matter to us. I like tangible photos and cards - others might use screen savers.
There are so many forms of communication now that we each develop preferred subsets. I try to respond in kind - Christmas cards to those who send to me, Instagrams, texts, emails to others. But I really don't like the phone, ecards or writing group Christmas letters myself. Jean
There are not too many snailmailers left Jean. I only write occasional letters now although I do send birthday and fairly frequent 'thinking about you' cards. I think your idea of responding in kind is a rather good one. I shall consider taking that on board. Thank you.
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