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?

I've cut back a lot due to postage costs but still send about 30. I like to send a separate letter with each one. haven't one mine yet - need to sit down with a glass of mulled wine, carols playing in the CD players, candles lit, to get me in the Christmas spirit...
Not a big fan of ecards, even the JL ones - they clog up the computer's memory and I'd rather have something I can put on display.

Unfortunately, I think it is. Every year I get less and less cards but I still send mine out because I think it is a nice gesture. I send out photo christmas cards of my family because when I receive photo christmas cards, I really enjoy seeing how my family and friends have grown over the year so I hope others do too!

I can't be bothered with Christmas cards even though I do think it's a nice tradition. I only send them to elderly relatives who I know will enjoy receiving them.

Freedom Why don't you put a letter in with a card or write a precis of your news in the card? Enclose the odd photo.

I will never stop sending cards regardless of how much a stamp costs. I've sent 5 to Australia, New Zealand and Canada and half a dozen to Europe (various countries). As people age, they welcome cards. Last year I didn't get a card from a former cousin-in-law and I thought she must have died or something. This year I have a card from her so I know she isn't.

With ecards I just press delete without reading.

I only send cards to people I can't email or won't see over Christmas. I do think it's important to make the effort with elderly friends and relations, because otherwise they can feel forgotten. However, people my own age, who I am going to see - forget it. Waste of time, money, paper, energy!

I have just done my list and there are about 20 down from 50 a few years ago, I just don't see the point of it anymore. The only ones who still get a card are very close friends and family as we send a really twee photo of the kids on it and it has become a bit of a tradition.

I stopped sending them about three or four years ago, except to a couple of elderly relatives. Not only did the world not stop turning, it was a positive weight off my mind.

I think my mother still sends and receives 100s.

I also delete ecards. Even more pointless than the paper version imo.

Nope, I am sending Christmas cards this year! :)

I expect to be reciprocated. Or next year I'm only sending out 5 and only to the people that sent me one.

Last year I only got 3.

I won't open an e-card. They are prone to viruses.

I still have a number of people I send cards to, but I cut down on my list every year.

As for the poster who throws them away. I hope she tells the sender not to bother sending her any more.

I hope so. Cards are such a waste of time, effort, money and the environment.

We've just decided to only do close family, and that is so much better. Some years I sent around 100! Totally pointless.

I send photo Christmas cards to friends and relatives, I know they are considered tacky but I like to send them.

I don't send cards to my local friends/acquaintances and I feel a bit of a grinch for not doing so but I see them all the time and can wish them a Merry Christmas in person.

I have a friend who sees Christmas cards as a popularity test. She sends out tons of them at the end of November and keeps count of how many she gets back and says 'oh I'm up to 45 cards now. How many have you got'? It's beyond silly

I have kept my cards from the good old days and just put the same ones up each year. I send texts myself with a very few exceptions. I do hand out cards to people I meter along the way and the kids give them out. YANBU it is definitely dying out.

Not meter*, people I meet.

We send cards to family - I know that if we stopped making the effort, then as my mother's generation die the contact will be lost between cousins etc, just the effort of putting a few words on a card wishing people well is enough to keep the lines of kinship connected.

It would be sad to lose that.

I am astounded by the number of people who don't exchange cards. Unless you can't afford to or don't have any friends or family it makes you come across as not only lazy but a bit of a Scrooge too.

Next thing you will be telling me you don't remember the birthdays of friends and family.

I don't think they are pointless at all, the point about the link to the older generation / distant relatives is certainly very valid in my case. It is the main point of contact each year with those that live further away and don't use email / Facebook, and I really like it, all the cards have a little note in them (not a round robin) with the year's news. We don't send them to immediate family, if anything that's the part that seems pointless to me.

I only send to immediate family and usually cards my children have made.
Cost of stamps and lack of time is to blame!!

i think as families move away more from the old practice of living within a few miles of where you were born, with people moving around the country/the world for work, it being much more normal to have lived in 3-4 cities by the time you are in your mid-30s and had lots of different employers rather than a 'job for life' - then cards are more important as a yearly reminder to keep in touch with people who once were a big part of your life and might well be again in the future.

But ironically they seem to be dying out. I think the ease with which people can stay in contact nowadays through much more advanced technology has made cards (for all kinds of occasions) fade into the background a bit.
For the older generation they're still a tradition to be upheld. For our generation it's kept up but to a smaller extent. And for future generations I suspect cards will be a memory not a reality in many cases.
I much prefer to get a real card than an ecard or a text, but unfortunately that seems to be the way things are going.

(I still write proper letters too - my mum loves to receive them)

For the older generation indeed.
The only person I offend if I don't send a card is my mother.
Mum and dad get one and no-one else does.
Any I get I just get the pinking shears and use the picture the next year for tags on pressies.

I don't send any and receive about one through the post from an auntie I barely know.