To wonder if sending Christmas cards is a dying tradition

[Fallingovercliffs]

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?

Thanks FaFoutis I will stock up after Christmas then.

Postage is simply too expensive.
It is a shame.

I love them, if they are nice ones, and send maybe 20. I just love getting them, and yes, hanging them up on a string! Some Xmas cards are beautiful, and stamps are not that much compared to some of the other crap people buy at Xmas.

Agree that e cards are dreadful, sorry!

We hardly send any these days, I just can't justify the cost of postage. I send a few to family members who would be upset not to get one. I do give a few out locally but tbh it does seem a waste really. I do like getting them but can live without them. DCs like to give them out at school though :)

I send about 4 to aging relatives.
Dont display any I get..

I stopped sending 6 years ago after my Dad died. I decided the money I spent was better in the hospice that sent nurses out to help me than in bits of sparkly card that would go in the bin. I explained to friends and family that my donation was going there instead.
I send a total of 4, and those are to elderly neighbours.

I display the odd one, but they are mostly taken down by Boxing Day as well.

Our bungalow gets festooned with them on red ribbons up and down every wall. Lovely.
When I was teaching, I always made a huge cardboard 'postbox' for the entire school. It was put in the entrance hall and twice a day a selection of pupils emptied it and delivered the cards to the classrooms. They absolutely loved doing this. I used to get massive boxes of small, very inexpensive cards for children, to give to every child I taught, my class and all my groups as well.
I do so love Christmas. (big baby!)

I plan to make a Power Point of photos, upload it to YouTube and send it out via FB and email.

I love them and still send them. Must send about 40 or so? It's very much something for long distance/infrequent meeting people though, I can't see the point of handing them out at work or school to people you see every day and could wish Happy Xmas in person.

Btw, last year there was a lovely thread on MN where posters sent each other Christmas cards. Look out for it again in December, if anyone on here would like a card. It was quite heart warming.

I put glittery shit in mine

Waste of trees and waste of money for stamps plus waste of time to write dear so and so merry Christmas love annnonmouse clan.
Not one for round robins though love reading others.
We don't get any Christmas cards from people our age.

We send a lot, but DH has lived in 2 other countries, and we live the other end of the country to the bulk of my family, so while we do regular posts on Facebook, or Facebook chat these friends and family, it's a nice yearly excuse to make us stay in touch. It's a little "still thinking of you" for these people.

I do still send quite a few, but it's only 30 at max and mainly to the older generation, nothing like it used to be for my parents, so yes I think to some extent it's dying. I don't like getting or receiving cards that just say Happy Xmas from Jim so I write some basic news in every one. Makes it a huge arsepain tbh but I am held up by a sense of virtue. I probably will stop bothering once my aunts and uncles have died ds has grown up.

I still send about 25-30. All of my family and extended family are scattered worldwide so I rarely see them. A quick Christmas card is a good way to just 'wave' at them and send some Xmas love. Same with old friends I hardly ever see.

Facebook is handy, but I like a card.

I give cards to close family and probably send about half a dozen to other people in the post (who I've sent cards to for years).

I think the death-knell work-wise was moving to a massive open plan office. Although I worked in a smallish team, it was part of a much larger team and there were people in some of the other teams who I had worked with previously and was friendly with so I'd want to get them a card but then I also knew the other people on that team so wouldn't want to exclude them, then you have to send cards to people who have sent you a card, even if they don't fit into either of those categories. Basically, it's a social minefield. You have to either send cards to about 80 people, try to draw some kind of a vague line on who to send to and probably offend/snub someone accidentally or just not bother. I opted for the latter.

I for one will be sending cards. I love sending them and getting them. Adds to the xmas feel!
Though the price of stamps does shock!!

I send about 80 and hand another 40 or so out.

Get about the same amount back. It's expensive, yes, it's a huge time waster, yes. But there's nothing else quite like it for keeping in touch with certain people, I find.

A couple of years ago after my mum died I decided not to send cards. I can't believe the aggro it caused with DH's family and his mother. I just said I personally am not sending cards. Christmas came and I was so cross when she gave her other grandchildren Christmas cards but not our daughter! Aaargh. Then they made a huge issue over the fact I hadn't sent cards to their family.

So last year I returned to writing cards to a family I never see and DH's two brothers we see twice a year. It just seemed pointless. I have bought a pack but I don't see the point really. The ones I really want to send to are a couple of great aunts and I'd rather send a special photocard.

DD's school announced they are giving money to charity and not doing a postbox which is a bit sad for the kids. But I think DD will give little token pressies to close friends instead.

I like Christmas cards... they help me keep in contact with people I never or only rarely see (and not everyone is on Facebook or email)

DrSeuss, you said, 'I plan to make a Power Point of photos'. If you do that, PLEASE do lots of captions: every bloody year we get a printed sheet of photos from a family we know, who we haven't seen in years. I used to look after their kids, so I'd like to know how they're doing, but the blether of photos is almost caption free. I think his father has died, and I noticed that their DD2 had married, but I have no clue to whom, or where they're living. At least in my card I shove in a few lines so they know what we're doing.

That sounds lovely, Back2Two.

I still send 30-40 cards as we've a lot of extended family who we don't see much, & the older ones in particular appreciate cards. I've started to dread it as a chore to be got through over the past couple of years, though, TBH. I just find it boring to do, & the cost of the stamps is crazy.

We do get a similar number of cards back, but I know a lot of people from my own generation - early '40s - who don't do it any more. We've pruned our "list" quite a lot over the past few years too.

When I was first married MIL kept taking me aside & telling me about people I should send cards to, as they were apparently "so interested" in DH & me. They were usually people he hadn't seen since he was about 10 - PILs' friends, really, not relatives. I actually did this for a while, but it seemed so pointless - I've still never met some of the people who were on the list, 14 years on! I'm much more aware of the "wifework" aspect of the whole business, too, & DH now writes the cards to his side of the family.

It's a difficult one. I do think it would be sad not to get any cards through the post in December, & I don't really like e-cards either. But with the time & cost involved, it's not surprising that it's a dying custom.

I enjoy doing them, I like picking out a beautiful design and just wishing a few friends a happy festive season.

I send them to my abroad relatives/friends but thats it. Everyone else I usually see in the days beforehand/after or get a text. I do enjoy writing them and recieving them but quite frankly I forget to give them out and it costs a bloody bomb!! don't tell my manager i sell christmas cards for a living

I send about 30, to friends who I mostly don't see very often. It's good to keep in touch and I like hanging up the ones we receive. I do mine in time to use 2nd class stamps. DH always leaves his too late then grumbles about the cost of 1st class.

Don't miss the tiny ones from school, though. A meercat in a Santa hat or some such oddity.