to stop Christmas cards next year?

[CharlieDimmock]

I'm thinking of stopping sending Christmas cards from next year. They're a bloody pain in the arse and a waste of money and paper.

I'm thinking that this year in my cards I might put a little message saying I'm going to stop cards from next year and give the money to a charity.

Anyone else stopped cards? Would you be miffed if you received a card this year saying you won't get one next year?

Some of the people I send cards to I haven't seen in over 15 years, we have a weird relationship. If I stop cards it's likely I'll never be in contact with them again. I'm not bothered by this. I don't know why I'm telling you really!!

YANBU. I haven't done them for 3 years now. Instead, I make a donation to the local food bank and animal rescue.

I do still send one to both mt grans though!

Fluffnuts I'd still send one to PILs

And my mum

katiegg I only send about 10 cards a year but most to people I haven't seen in years, don't really know and (if I'm being really brutally honest) don't really care about.

YANBU - do what you like - we make sure we just buy charity cards though, to mitigate the waste. I do like getting pretty cards and lovely handwritten messages, personally.

The children do cards for classmates and make cards for Grandparents/Aunties and Uncles but we give £50 to the special care baby unit that saved my Daughter instead of cards-all our friends and family prefer that anyway!

haven't sent cards for years tbh, got fed up with the cost, the faff and the 'do we send them one they don't send to us normally' crap. it's so liberating.. sigh.. but them we haven't celebrated christmas for the last 10 odd years either !

YANBU. We only send them to very close relatives so about 10 in total. The dc send them to their school friends & they make pictures for our neighbours that send us cards.

Some friends of ours have done this for a long time, and also asked us not to send them a card either, but to donate the money we would have spent to charity as well. Fine by me. We send them FB message instead.

Yanbu to be feeling that you dont want to do christmas cards in future. I agree with your view of the downsides.

But it might not be ideal to send an uplifting greeting that contains a message which could be depressing, iyswim.

You could send cards this year as normal, let people enjoy them, then send cards in the future at any time to say hello to those you love, orthose who sent you a card....

In two years time, you might be back into christmas cards, so leave the door open...? Or get into New Year cards, which are much less exhausting to write once the family chaos is out of the way.

I still send to my older aunts and uncles but that's all. Make a donation to charity instead - at least the money goes to the charity instead of 10p or something from a box of charity cards. Most of my friends do the same.

Kids still do them though.

I now only send cards to people who I won't see or have social media contact with. That limits it to elderly relations and one old friend). I have cut back from 120 cards to about 12. No-one seems to have noticed or cared.

One exception is for two families I know who were bereaved this year. I will be sending them a card and a letter nearer the time.

I send loads, and give to charity too. It's CCCCHHHRRRIIISSTMMMASSSS

I just send Jacquie Lawson ecards. Kitsch I know but much less trouble than the real things, plus three posted to uncomputerised relatives.

uncomputerised relatives

I stopped 11 years ago. I make a phone call instead.
I got sick of opening cards that said...merry Christmas love sally or wha. Not a word about what sally had done all year. I used to put little updates in mine . This was to people I didn't see.
Gradually they've got the messy and I hardly get any now.

I'm giving my donation to medical detection dogs charity based in Milton Keynes. The work these dogs do is fantastic. They can sniff one drop of cancer causing substance in an Olympic sized swimming pool. Or sniffwhen their owner is going to have a fit or go into a coma and alert them . They've saved many lives.

When a card is cheaper than the stamp and phone calls come as part of a package.....well it's a no brainier.

We have had a really tough year and there are things we don't want to reveal to acquaintances or distant relatives, so I am thinking of just dropping cards this year. Or I will be the one who just writes Love from Larry, Bob and family.Maybe this is the year to quietly forget to send cards.

One of my uncles sends me ecards. I tend not to open them because my dad and my uncle have form for forwarding all sorts of dross. I then get phonecalls because I haven't opened them (must be some kind of weird online tracker).

I send cards to aged relatives on my side. Some years ago I pointed out to my husband that he should be handling any cards for his relatives (because I found myself writing cards to people I wouldn't recognise in the street and realised this was ridiculous, and the functioning adult I was married to could do this). He tends not to send them. His parents think this is somehow my failing.

When I sent more I did tend to just put 'from/love from...' Dowser. It took me long enough to write the cards and envelopes, I don't think I could have coped with having to write personalised updates in them all. I do for my godmother.

I send cards to aged relatives on my side. Some years ago I pointed out to my husband that he should be handling any cards for his relatives (because I found myself writing cards to people I wouldn't recognise in the street and realised this was ridiculous, and the functioning adult I was married to could do this). He tends not to send them. His parents think this is somehow my failing

I've never done cards for DH's family. I write one for PILs and I don't mind that. But none for random aunts and uncles. I do sort out the birthday cards for his family (brother, sister, nieces and nephews) which pisses me off immensely. My NY resolution is to stop this. I'm happy to write them because my DH has awful handwriting but I'm not remembering the dates and I'm not buying the cards.

When DS1 got married he told me one of the reasons for having a wife was that she would do all the Christmas/birthday cards. I HOPE he was joking!

I've never understood the whole 'women handle cards/presents/visiting etc.; thing. I'm happy to help DH if he says 'I need to get a present for X, any ideas', but the responsibility for remembering X needs a present and the practicalities of sending it are his. He'd been living independently for a decade when we married, so he must have worked out how to maintain relationships with those he cares about.

I think you should just stop, no note or anything about stopping or Charity, I like sending cards and would feel put out by a note like that I think. I don't send them to receive, I send them because it reminds me of my mum doing cards at Christmas and I enjoy it. Each to his own, the note might sound preaching?

shake I'm not being goady but why would a note make you feel a bit put out? I'm concerned that if I don't put a note people will be expecting a card next year (understandably) and then worry/wonder if I don't send one. Am I over-thinking it?

I wouldn't make the note preachy! I hope!