Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
Original poster
Fallingovercliffs · 27/11/2014 18:06

Normally I like the older Christmas traditions, but card sending is always one I've hated. Trying to find addresses, wondering if someone will be offended because you forgot to send them one, worrying that someone is trying to tell you something by not sending you one anymore etc etc

I probably overthink it!!

OP posts:
Mehitabel6 · 27/11/2014 18:08

I love Christmas cards-one of the best things about Christmas -but they are dying out. I have been changing them for phone calls and online for the last 2 years and hope to do more this year. The postage is just ridiculous.
My children -all over 23yrs don't send them at all. DS refused at primary school-he said he couldn't see the point of writing 'to Josh from Dan' for them to write 'to Dan from Josh' and I could see his point!
It is sad though-but inevitable.

calmexterior · 27/11/2014 18:09

I love sending and receiving cards - maybe they end up in the bin though....

I don't bother opening ecards half the time

whathaveiforgottentoday · 27/11/2014 18:10

I hope so. I send to close friends who I don't get to see often as they live a distance away but don't see the point in giving them out at work or to family I see regularly. I may send the Jackie Lawson ones this year too as they are lovely.

Impatientwino · 27/11/2014 18:11

My MIL sends over 200 Confused she has a big spreadsheet, buys the cards for the following year at Christmas and then starts writing them in October!

They are at least always charity ones!!!

NoelleHawthorne · 27/11/2014 18:11

i gave up in 1999.
I still have friends ( and oddly still get sent the annoying fuckers)

NoelleHawthorne · 27/11/2014 18:12

and as for kdis sending them WTAF is that

Nancy66 · 27/11/2014 18:12

We stopped sending them two years ago.

nothing to do with environment or postage, I just can't be arsed.

Original poster
Fallingovercliffs · 27/11/2014 18:13

200??? Wow! Is that a sign that she's very popular or that she sends out cards to all and sundry.
My mum got a couple of cards last year addressed to her and dad. My father died in 2012. It does seem a bit strange to be exchanging Christmas cards with people that you have so little contact with you don't even know when they're dead.

OP posts:
WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 27/11/2014 18:13

It does need a bit of organising, but I am strict about putting any changes of address / names of new children and partners in my address book so it's all there, and I keep a book with a list of cards and gifts sent, it's all in a box with stamps, envelopes, cheque book and my best fountain pen, to make it nice and easy.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 27/11/2014 18:14

My mum does about 200 too.

Bartlebee · 27/11/2014 18:17

We, like many we know, stopped sending them 3 or 4 years ago.

Definitely dying out imo.

Any cards we do get are put straight into recycling!

bigTillyMint · 27/11/2014 18:18

I am now only sending to the oldies/people who I know will be upset if I don't - environment and postage being the reasons.
I do love getting them thoughBlush

dailygrowl · 27/11/2014 18:19

I like Christmas cards too. I wouldn't send them to people I dislike or acquaintances "just because it's the custom" but I do make an effort for good friends, family, colleagues who have been great and helpful, teachers, good neighbours, and anyone who's done me a favour that year.

Hate e-cards: when I get them from people who can more than afford the postage and card price (when they receive real cards from others) it's like "I think so little of you that I can't even be bothered to do a real card, but I'm going to send you an e-card to convince myself I've got manners and replied". E-cards use up a lot of memory on your computer, especially when you receive tons of them. I would rather receive a sincere, nicely written email about what they've been up to, asking after you. I don't open any of my e-cards, although I do email the sender back.

PS E-cards aren't that much better for the environment - they use up electricity in the time it takes to download them and then for the little jingle or moving pictures to play. Fossil fuels are just as costly - if not more so - than paper.

By the way, lots of cards are now printed on recycled paper, and many companies support tree-planting schemes.

I think it was with the advent of Facebook and texting that I saw the number of cards being sent going down, as people can communicate more quickly that way. They are still going strong among school children and we get a respectable number from good friends and close relations.

CleanLinesSharpEdges · 27/11/2014 18:21

When we lived in our last house, every year for the 6 years we were there a card arrived addressed to the previous owner, a card to 'my wonderful brother and SIL'. Not having a forwarding address, we felt obliged to open it to check if there was money in it for a return address to let her know her wonderful brother had moved years ago and obviously not told her, but sadly there never was.

NoelleHawthorne · 27/11/2014 18:22

it as when it became ' woman work" i jacked it in

Andrewofgg · 27/11/2014 18:23

A few years ago when the UCW was threatening to hold the Christmas post to ransom I decided: Sod that. I gave the money to the charity I used to buy them from, and used email and the phone to keep in touch. I have not sent them since. We get a few and I phone or email in reply.

It's like post generally, isn't it? There is less need for it than there used to be. RM's hopeless industrial relations have only helped the process along but it would be in decline in any case.

PuppyMonkey · 27/11/2014 18:26

I haven't sent any Xmas cards since 2005 - just thought I'd stop one year to see if the world stopped turning or I got struck down by lightning - it was fine. Grin

I think the stamps thing will kill it off eventually. But also, it's a communication thing that was useful in days gone by when we didn't all have phones and email and twitter and Facebook to keep in touch.

To me it just seems daft to send a card saying "happy Christmas." Just as it would seen silly me sending a card saying "did you watch Corrie last night?"

I tend to not send birthday cards and will just post a message on Facebook these days too. Blush

MimsyBorogroves · 27/11/2014 18:30

I wish it was. I think they're a waste of paper, money (and stamps, and thus more money).

Unfortunately DH remains committed to the idea of sending them, so we continue to do so on his side of the family, and we do for DS at school.

Topseyt · 27/11/2014 18:32

I think they are a slowly dying tradition, and I won't be sorry to see them go. The postage costs several times as much as the cards themselves anyway, even if you use second class where possible. Waste of time and money.

I pruned our Christmas card list a lot last year. This year I shall send to my parents and sister, who live some distance away and who I see far less of than I would like. There will be a handful for my husband's side of the family which we will really need to send, but beyond that I am not going to budge.

Poolomoomon · 27/11/2014 18:33

My mum and nan get about 200 each too. I get four or five cards from them two and a couple of other older relatives, no one else bothers and I only give them cards because they give us one.

The last time I gave out cards to everyone I knew was in school. Just can't be arsed now, it's a waste of money and good trees. It's dying out mostly because writing with a pen is also dying out. I think we'll get to a stage in perhaps 20 or so years where children won't be taught to write with a pen because it'll be a pointless skill to have, everything will be typed.

Hatespiders · 27/11/2014 18:34

I've just written over 50 cards. About ten of them will go in the Post, and the others are for village friends and my old friends in Norwich. These will be handed to each person. I think people like to have a card, and for those a bit far away you can write a brief update or good wishes for better health etc.

I love choosing, writing and sending these cards. I also get Santa or snowmen stickers to make the envelopes attractive.

What a pity that the younger folk don't enjoy this. I suppose with emails and social media they don't see the point.

Here in Norfolk I would say that cards are still very popular. All the stores near us have them in their thousands.
It isn't BU but just a bit sad, to me.

ShakeYourTailFeathers · 27/11/2014 18:36

I only send about 20 - it's $1.90 per stamp for me to send them back to the UK. Yikes!

LineRunner · 27/11/2014 18:38

I used to love the Christmas stamps when they were unveiled on Blue Peter. Then we used to collect the used ones for charity.

Bakeoffcakes · 27/11/2014 18:44

When DDs were at school they sent loads of cards but they are now 24 and 20 and don't send any- apart from about 6 to very close family. So yes I do think it will die out.