Stopping the flow of Christmas cards

[NainAGP]

Does anyone have a polite but effective way of saying "please take me off your Christmas card list"? I don't do anything at Christmas any more, no meal or decorations at home etc. I haven't sent cards for many years and have told the senders this but they still send them. Seems such a waste, I don't display them and they're all from people I'm in touch with during the year.

Thanks for all the responses, I hadn't realised the charity line came across as cringeworthy since for me it's true. Taking all on board.

What a misery guts. It’s Christmas and people have made the effort to think of you and send you a festive greeting. If you’re worried about waste put them in the recycling when you’re done with fhem.

I doubt they would care enough to complain or even notice.

It's strange how you expect your neighbours to thank you for a Christmas card. Its just a generic bit of card with a picture on put through their door. You didn't clean their windows. Finding a sense of perspective may help you here.

It annoys me when I receive cards from people I barely know or with whom I have lost contact for decades! I never bother with those people but for some strange reason they feel it's imperative to send me a card. To my way of thinking, they should have long ago gotten the message that I don't want their cards (since I never send one to them and we haven't seen or spoken in over 10-15 years or more). If they want to waste the postage and ink then so be it. I just rip the cards up and put them in recycling the moment I get them.

Another misery guts

I hate cards because of the clutter. They’re messy! I haven’t sent them for years and have had a grand total of 3 this year, so it seems to be working!

The 3 are out for now (in case the senders visit) but will be going on the fire very shortly.

I’ve just counted the cards we have received so far - 14. I love them, they are on the window sill and very much part of our Christmas decorations. They will go to card recycling run by a local health care charity in January.

OP, you can’t stop people sending them to you unless you spell it out to them that you can’t stand cards. Is it worth upsetting these people over?

^This. Unless it’s because of some trauma or loss, it’s pretty Scroogeworthy to be complaining that other people have sent you a nice greeting at their own expense, just to let you know they’ve been thinking of you. If you have to be such a misery, stick them in the recycling and suck it up. Honestly! If this is a major annoyance to you you’re bloody lucky in life.

But that is you not sending them. You need another message saying please don't send me cards, I really don't like them. Not doing Christmas any more. Hope you have a a good one if you celebrate.

I guess someone became upset at my post. People should stop taking these silly message boards or whatever they are so seriously, and really stop the name calling when they don't like someone else's post. No one here knows anyone else so what difference does it make if people want to send cards, not send them, receive them, etc.? It doesn't. Repeating, if people want to send me cards and use postage and ink, so be it. I recycle them immediately. I guess though, for some here, that's offensive. Everything is offensive today to someone or other. You can't please everyone. Impossible. Just do what you think is best and stop worrying what everyone else does. Is this really all that important? And please stop sniping and name calling.

Stop name calling. It's Christmas. Seriously, you are no better than those who you call names.

I love sending cards but the last few years I’ve kept track of who have sent them to me, as a number were to people I just don’t see anymore. I have decided to cut a couple people off only for them to send a card and I think should I or would they be happy if I stopped? I had a couple cards left over so sent them…
It’s now £3.40 to send a card abroad so have cut down on those.

I agree. Talk about first world problems!!! People seem to get stranger by the year.

My DM (aged 84 and a half) starts mid November writing cards. It’s an integral part of her Christmas. She loves, reads and cherishes every card that comes through her front door, sets them aside and they get displayed.

I got divorced during COVID, and my Christmas card list decreased by about 90%. Result!

I don’t like them either and like some previous posters, I don’t reciprocate so receive far fewer. I have to be honest, I find they clutter the place, I have no sideboard type space for them and hate sticking things up so I read them (they don’t say much) and then add them on a pile in the kitchen because throwing them away (which I want to do) seems harsh. Some of them are from DH’s relatives that me and the kids have never met (DD is almost 20…) so seems like a waste of time and money to me - but they seem to have the time to do it and are from a different generation I suppose. But I feel your pain!

Meh. Just put them straight in to the recycling and forget about them. Christmas cards will very soon be extinct.

Like pretty much everyone we know, we stopped sending or giving Christmas cards a few years ago. The number we have received has thankfully dwindled steadily since. I think we’ve had about 3 this year. We open them and immediately bin them.

As has been said, I find it baffling that people continue to send cards to people they've had nothing to do with for a decade or more.

We (DH and I and the DC) continued to receive a Christmas card from a guy DH worked with back in the mid 1990s. He worked with him from 1994 to 1998 when the guy (Andy) left...

Even by 2008 the cards were still coming to our house from him and his wife, and he hadn't seen the bloke since 1998. (He got married in 1996,) Always 'Merry Christmas Zov, Mr Zov, and the kids, from Andy and Diane.' DH saw Andy with 5 or 6 other blokes from the workplace about 6 times over the first year for a drink down the pub, but then by mid 1999 there was no contact. Nothing bad, just sorta drifted...

So he had lost touch by 1999, and we didn't know their address, so couldn't send a Christmas card back! (No social media then!)

We left the home we had lived in since the mid 1990s in 2008/2009, and the Christmas cards from them kept coming right up to when we left, even though we hadn't given them one in an entire decade - because we didn't know their address! Even now in 2025 it wouldn't surprise me if they were still sending them to that old addrerss that we left one and a half decades ago!!

My mom sends (and receives) cards from people they haven't been in ci tact for decades. She says that at the moment she is writing the card, she thinks about that person and whatever has been thei connection. She says it makes her feel nice that someone from her past thinks about her for a second and she thinks about them.