about Christmas card etiquette?

[boschy]

We have only had 3 cards so far this year. None were charity (tho one was M&S, which has some blurb about recycling and the Forestry Commission).

One had a computer generated label - ok, I can live with that, just about. But inside was printed "Merry Christmas and lots of love from The Smith-Jones" (pseudonym). Our names were handwritten, but no other signature etc.

Now, in my book, cards MUST be charity, and should be brought from a proper charity, eg a charity shop or stall or via mail order, not those boxes you get in WHS which say "20p of this £4.99 will go to 200 different charities".

And you should also write a personal signature and preferably message. Round robins are a whole other subject...

AIBU?!

[cardibach]

YABU. If you want to help a charity, donate the money you wuld have spent on Christmas cards and postage to it and don;t send any cards. Let people know this is what you are doing so they can choose, if they wish, not to send a card to you.
Or are you sending cards to show how caring you are?

[Beaverfeaver]

I oy sent cards this year because I never got round to sending thank you notes after our wedding earlier this year.

So it was only a handful and only sent to people I won't see or havnt seen since.

All get a personal message but other than that, I am not too bothered.

It's the only year I will ever bother with cards

[silvercup]

YABU that "cards MUST be charity, bought from a proper charity".

DH and I have both given an awful lot of time over the years to charity by way of volunteering...but we're also pretty skint, so the cards we send are not of the expensive charity variety.

Thankfully the people on our christmas card list know what we do in terms of volunteering (that's how we met) so I very much doubt any of them would be as judgemental as you.

[PuffPants]

I feel a bit sad when I get a card from an old friend and they have merely written our names and their names in it. What's the point? They may as well not bother. All it tells me is that they are still alive. I'm not expecting a letter but a couple of sentences would be nice. And nobody expects you to write a note in each one - just to the people you don't see all year and for whom a Christmas card is the only communication you have left.