Christmas-cardless-Christmases
It’s December 18 and, thus far, I have only received two Christmas cards. One card is from my grandmother. She never misses a year. Deeply religious, her cards always contain a hand written reminder of the true reason for the season, “May the joy of the season be yours as you celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ our Saviour.” (She’s Canadian so she adds extra u’s in some words). And the other is a truly awesome family portrait photo card from my friends—complete with two cats and a dog. Oh yeah, they’re also newlyweds.
An Emerging Trend
My own belief is that my extreme decline in the number of Christmas cards received has nothing to do with my popularity among my friends and family, but rather an emerging trend of Christmas-cardless-Christmases. Christmas card giving and receiving is sort of reflective. The more you send out the more you get and vise versa. It’s been years since I’ve sent out cards so it would be only natural that I would get a relative few. Or maybe I’m just trying to minimize my own guilt feelings or trying to justify my obvious holiday inadequacy.
Tiresome Virtuosity
Truthfully, sending Christmas cards is totally annoying. You know what I mean. It’s a major commitment and a huge production. First you have to clean up your address book. Then seek out the addresses of your family and friends that you don’t have. (And don’t be obvious about it! You wouldn’t want them to reciprocate out of obligation.) Buy the cards. They must be perfect: adorable, inclusive, and non-offensive. Finally, sign, address, stamp and mail them all. This is usually followed by a brief moment of horror when you realize you have now crossed the Christmas-card-sending-line and will now have this card-giving process to look forward to for the years to come. (I wasn’t kidding when I said commitment.)
Refusing to fulfill any real or imagined expectations of others, I have only embarked on this virtuous display of holiday cheer twice. One year it was because I was experiencing a business slump, so I sent out Christmas cards to past clients—hoping the reminder of my existence might entice them to hire me for future projects. The other time Christmas immediately followed my wedding so why not send out cards? It would be so easy. I already had everyone’s address from the wedding invitations and it would be our first Christmas card sent together. Plus won’t everyone be so impressed by domestic proficiency? I sent out fifty Christmas cards that year. Not surprising, the following year I received more Christmas cards than I ever have before or since.
Consclusion
All this musing has caused me to conclude that there are only a few kinds of people who send Christmas cards anymore. They are:
- Newlyweds
- Struggling business people
- Type A people, do-gooders, Pollyannas (aka lonely perfectionists)
- Old people
And, since I am none of the above, I will not be sending out any cards this year. But if you qualify I have compiled a very small list of resources to assist you in your virtuous display of holiday cheer.
Christmas Photo Cards
Traditional (probably too late for these)
eCard
5 Comments to “Christmas-cardless-Christmases”
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You nailed it. But, I must admit, i couldn’t help but notice Paco Fabulous is absent from your card. I’m offended.
Oh OK Fran Florez.
It’s also that people want to share a part of their lives. It’s really popular these days, you know, web 2.0, social media… blogging etc.
I think most people on any given list are family and close friends. Of course there are always some you send to out of obligation, but that’s okay too.
Anyway you should go back to sending out photo cards. It goes hand-in-hand with your blogging and twittering. Face it, you love attention, and you’ll get more of it when people receive your tiny gift in the mail.
Just got two more Christmas cards in the mail today: my bank and newlyweds.
So, true story: I wrote in a card and addressed it to you (before Christmas, too). Then I realized I didn’t have your address – postal addresses are so ___ (couldn’t think of an appropriate word). Anyway, next time I see you, I’ll hand deliver your Christmas card.