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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder if sending Christmas cards is a dying tradition

157 replies

Fallingovercliffs · 27/11/2014 17:45

A few colleagues were just discussing this and a good few of them said they only send out a handful of cards nowadays and prefer to text or email most people. I have noticed that the number of cards I get, or that I see in people's houses when I visit over Christmas, seem to be a lot less than our parents' generation. My mother always ran out of places to put cards!

Just wondering if, generation by generation, this is becoming a dying tradition and AIBU to secretly think it would be great to not have to bother anymore? Blush

OP posts:
TwoInTheMourning · 27/11/2014 17:48

Have you noticed the price of the stamps lately? They are becoming prohibitive for a lot of people.

LadyLuck10 · 27/11/2014 17:50

Yanbu it most definitely is.

chrome100 · 27/11/2014 17:50

I haven't sent a Christmas card since I was about 17. I'm 33 now. Really don't see the point of them. If I receive any I just chuck them in the bin Blush

Fluffyears · 27/11/2014 17:51

Too expensive for a waste of card. I would rather donate the cost to charity.

ThatBloodyWoman · 27/11/2014 17:52

I wish it was.
Every year I think I won't bother,then come up with at least 20 people who would be deeply offended if I didn't.

FaFoutis · 27/11/2014 17:53

YANBU, for adults. I hardly get any now, only from elderly relations.

At primary school it is still going strong. We had about 100 tiny cards last year.

HugeFurryKnittingBalls · 27/11/2014 17:54

I've stopped sending them and I'm definitely getting fewer too. The price of 30+ stamps is blimmin' ridiculous on top of the presents. I really don't think that the receipt of a card denotes how loved you are. I don't know a single person who enjoyed doing it in the first place.

Latara · 27/11/2014 17:54

Well i like to send xmas cards to my close family and friends. I don't bother giving them out at work though.

I usually buy special cards for my immediate family with pictures i know they will like.

AnyFucker · 27/11/2014 17:55

I really, really hope so

Utterly pointless PITA

RubyGoat · 27/11/2014 17:57

I only give cards to people I can hand deliver to. Stamps are ridiculously expensive now.

If I am sending a present, the card goes in with that.

JuniperTisane · 27/11/2014 17:58

I haven't sent a card in years. DH's family still like to exchange cards (immediate family) and he always sends some to regular customers of his but other than that we don't bother.

DS1 starts school next september. Does that mean I have to get him some to give out?

freedom2011 · 27/11/2014 17:58

I'm only sending one to my mum and dad and brother as it makes them happy. Everyone else will get a letter. If I'm paying for a stamp I might as well write some news.

mymummademelistentoshitmusic · 27/11/2014 18:00

Haven't sent one for over 30 years. Waste of time, money and trees. As pp said, any I get go straight in the bin. I do mention if it comes up that I don't want any.

FaFoutis · 27/11/2014 18:00

I would Juniper. Very small ones are the done thing, and cheaper.

madamginger · 27/11/2014 18:00

I send 1 to my grandmother and that's it! Complete waste of paper and stamps cost a fortune. I've had the same box of cards in the decoration box for 9 years Blush
The kids send them to their school friends though

BalloonSlayer · 27/11/2014 18:02

Aww I love getting Christmas cards! I even quite like writing them, it makes me feel Christmassy.

You miserable lot.

26Point2Miles · 27/11/2014 18:02

my dd'd and their friends don't bother....they are 20 and 18,so I guess it will die out through the next generation

wasteful all around....but then,so is most of the Christmas tat

EndoplasmicReticulum · 27/11/2014 18:03

My mother is of the card sending generation. However she gets fewer every year as people die. I send cards to people older than me, otherwise don't bother.

My children give a few out at school, they start with good intentions then can't be bothered to write too many.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 27/11/2014 18:03

I still send and receive as many as ever, I like them. Probably send about 30 by post and the same by hand, plus the DCs do a lot of their own.

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 27/11/2014 18:03

The price of stamps has stopped me from posting them now and I don't even give that many out to folk I see regularly. Think they are a waste of money as well considering they just get chucked away.

thatsn0tmyname · 27/11/2014 18:03

I only send them to people I don't see but, inetivably, give them in return to people I frequently see so always keep a stash handy.

GenerationX2 · 27/11/2014 18:03

God I hope so - I hate dealing with cards - but if I don't my DM lays the massive guilt trip. To make it worse I'm not in the UK and to send a card costs the equivalent of 90p

BaldricksWife · 27/11/2014 18:04

I use the Jacquie Lawson e cards, they are just delightful and show I care without endangering defenceless treesGrin

CleanLinesSharpEdges · 27/11/2014 18:05

I bin most cards as soon as I get them, except the ones from anyone that is likely to visit us over Christmas so they can see their card on display.

I send cards to the family oldies who would be naffed off at not receiving one, everyone else gets a text or FB message and seem happy enough with that.

The ones from DS classmates, those little tiny ones, are a proper PITA.

Shesparkles · 27/11/2014 18:06

It's the price of stamps which puts me off these days. I massively trimmed my posted list last year, and from the number we received, so did a lot of other people who we received cards from in previous years.
Our local Scouts do semi local deliveries for something like 25p a card, so I use them, it raises money for their funds and saves a fortune in postage so win/win