Christmas cards - are they now prehistoric?

[shovetheholly]

(Light-hearted, not really an AIBU)

I just finished writing my Christmas cards last night. I'm wondering if sending them makes me a dinosaur, because fewer and fewer people seem to be doing this? Are you writing physical cards this year? If you're not, are you just ignoring it or sending ecards instead?

(All of this is a roundabout way of asking: Do I need to bother next year? )

ALSO

Do you give cards to family you are going to see? My family only send to people they aren't going to be see over the festive break. DH's family give them to one another in person on Christmas day.

I announced 3 years ago that I wasn't sending cards anymore. There was such a family uproar that I sent them again last year and this time I seem to have written more than I ever have! Don't seem to get very many back though.

I have written some but far fewer than I used to. Mainly just to older family who'd get upset if they didn't get one. What annoys me is having to get a special card for my mother, I can't just give her one out of the box because otherwise she'd be upset. It has to have Mum or Mother on!

I don't really have any pleasure in receiving them either. What's the point of just saying to x and y love from a and b? If people actually wrote you a mini-letter it would be a bit more interesting.

My ds said nobody was exchanging cards in his year 9 school class this year - it looks like the tradition is really dying out. I won't miss it.

Just wrote a huge pile and we seem to get more and more

I send them. And I like getting them in return. Definitely don't get as many now though, even compared to say 5 years ago. Yes, I give them to family I'll see as well.

We still spend them and we get loads 🎄

I do still send them although tends to be more for the older relatives and people I don't see very often, not so much for friends I see all the time. I do find it a bit ridic that I get a card through the post from my parents, who I'm going to see on Christmas Day anyway, and post them one in return.

I think it is slowly dying out (price of stamps must be partly to blame!) but will probably take another decade or two to vanish completely. I find the whole thing harmless but vaguely pointless ...

We send cards to family, close friends, neighbours and maybe general places like my nail salon. However so far this year we have not received so much as 1 card from anyone, except the cards to each other. My mum is usually quite organised with cards and we usually exchange at the beginning of December, but this year we haven't had any yet (they've had theirs)

I've still got to write mine 😁

I don't see the point of writing cards

• to people I see/talk to/email all the time so can exchange greetings with
• to people who I never see
• which only say "To X from Y" - what on earth is the point of that?

Which wiped out most of our list leaving us only with

• a couple of neighbours who we don't really talk to much but want to stay on good terms with
• MIL who gets upset if we don't (but DH does that one)

I've even noticed this year that primary age DD who used to get bucketloads of cards has got hardly any - definitely dying out.

I am hoping to make this my last year of sending them. Have sent them to a select group of family and friends this year including ones we will see. We also seems to be getting less and less which is just as well as the shelves are groaning under the weight of DC's cards from school!

I generally don't send cards & never have done (I'm 41) - with a few exceptions.

I always took my grandmother a card when I visited her at Christmas. She liked putting them up & as she outlived most of her peers she had fewer every year. She died recently so not this year.

I send my brother and his family one because for various reasons we don't often see them. It has become a competition/bit of a tradition for us to exchange the most outlandish cards! I give one to one particular friend - because I know she really likes Christmas cards

So that's three (now two) cards in total & only one sent. I don't know if dh does them for anyone. I usually get a handful - I think we've had about 10 this year - I put a couple up but most are read & recycled.

I always send them and think I will until the cost of stamps cripples me. I just think they're lovely, esp for friends and family over away foreign that I won't see over Christmas.
Our first one this year was from the local Indian takeaway and others have been homemade by my crafty friends and I love having them up. I am possibly part elf though based on my height and Christmas enthusiasm so I may be biased

They are just clutter and the sooner the tradition becomes practically non extinct the better IMO.

Finally, an outlet for me to scream I HATE CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!!

Well, I don't but I do:

I like choosing them
I hate writing them
I hate the cost of the stamps
I like seeing the different ones we receive
I like that these people are still talking to us, we made it another year
I hate finding somewhere to put them! They are messy, ends curl up with heating on so they fall over. If you spread them out then the place then it looks SO bare in Jan when you take them down.
I hate the end bit, when it's over, they are so wasteful, even if you donate/recycle etc.

So in all, I could happily live without them....but too scared to stop incase it upsets people

Kids have moved out now,so no, if we had older relatives then I still would. Its a generational thing now.

I love giving and receiving them don't like writing them though!

This year it's family only. No-one I'm in regular contact with, either IRL or online, including old school friends, because we all know each other's news via FB. If I find my address book I'll write letters to friends I don't see but like to keep in occasional touch with. But I'm really cutting back, and have little enthusiasm in the evenings after work. DH will send some to his family and friends.

We've done footprint ones as it's our ds first Christmas. If we hadn't done these ones I'd have probably forgotten!

I've changed my mind. If this 19th century one is reprinted, I'd buy and send them!
It was on Twitter and I so hope it's real 😂

I loves getting and sending a few in the post throughout Dec from far-flung family - they're usually from animal rescue centres who make their own cards and keep 100% of the profit.

I think if you're going to see people in person on xmas day then cards are redundant. DH's family drive me barmy by handing over cards to every. single. individual. family. member before xmas lunch, By that point there's nowhere left to put all the cards!

I have scaled back over the last couple of years.

For those who like their cards dark.

I write them to people I won't see and therefore a card by post is still relevant. I posted 9. and a couple of others for parents and siblings; that's it. The children do not do cards to the whole class either; we knocked that on the head a few years back. :-)

rugger and whisky - those are BRILLIANT!

Kel - yes, I've noticed we are receiving fewer of them too! I seem to get more corporate ones, though.

bacon - glad I'm not the only one who wonders about giving someone a card when you're sitting opposite them. I just DON'T GET IT! You're right there! It's like ringing them on the phone from the other side of the table to talk to them instead of just, you know, talking.