To expect Christmas cards?

[mintich]

For the last couple of years, I have received around half the cards I send out to friends. I normally get a text saying "thanks for the card but we aren't sending cards this year" I think it's sad that they aren't sending cards anymore. I get if people can't afford it but I'm pretty sure they can. It seems petty to only send a card if I'll get one back but that's how I feel!

Christmas cards are a waste of trees! I only send them to elderly relatives.

I used to send cards. I don’t as much now. I used to hate writing them, dred it.

Christmas cards are a waste of trees.

Ever heard of recycling?!

I give up.

I'm done on this thread. Too many pedants, too many assumptions (if you send a card, you obviously never see, or speak to that person, and you obviously do not care about them!!) and too many people with poor comprehension skills!

I'm out!

Ever heard of recycling?!

Better to leave the tree standing, surely?

YANBU I love getting cards but I get fewer and fewer every year.

I’m sure all the people on this thread who don’t send cards for environmental reasons don’t drive, go on holiday on airplanes, use disposable nappies etc etc.

I’m 33, I agent for the last 5 years or so, I don’t know many in my generation who do, least not here. I personally can’t sand the clutter, so I’m happy not to receive any. My mother still sends mountains of cards as do my grandparents, but they both only receive a fraction of what they send back.

To be honest, I have 4 kids, with 3 birthdays between now and Christmas, I just don’t have the time to write out 100 cards, I don’t really see the poi t of just writing a card, surely there needs to be some sort of news or point to it and I just don’t have the time. But then over 90% of my contacts are on social media so i just don’t see the point.

I send postcards too!

A good alternative for those that have to send cards are electronic ones, which are much easier to add personal photos. .

I definitely post fewer than I used to. I now send to people we won't see over the festive season. Other than that, I do give cards to people such as family we visit at Christmas, or friends. Like another poster, I have a box of cards from relatives who are no longer here and I enjoy looking at them.

I send about 6. Christmas cards to people who really would miss them! the rest get e cards, I use the Jackie lawson site, you pay a small annual fee, and for that you can send as many birthday, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc etc. as you want they are beautiful cards, loads of designs, with animation and music, people can respond to them as well, which most people do.

I don't really miss all the sent Christmas cards, and certainly don't miss the buying, writing,addressing expensive posting stuff.

We same very few Christmas cards now. We send them to close family such as parents, grandparents, siblings, nieces and nephews. We buy those people slightly more special ones and send them as we don't see them much in the couple of weeks or so before Christmas.

Work we do a charity collection instead of sending cards.

Friends - may send the odd one to those I know it's important too or those we see much less. We get presents for the children of our closest friends and we will see them.

But rest of family and friends - text, social media etc. It's how we normally keep in touch throughout the year and regarding birthdays, so Christmas 'keeping in touch' is the same.

Partly I think I send less and less is because I know that they aren't something I am that bothered about myself. I like the odd nice one to out up on a nice hanger or whatever. But not the dozens and dozens when you've nowhere really to put them. This is often amplified far more when you have children in the house who receive their own from school friends as well. The ones I get via work tend to be stuck up in my classroom rather than brought home, and dh doesn't usually bring his work cards from colleagues and clients home either.

A good alternative for those that have to send cards are electronic ones, which are much easier to add personal photos. .

I disagree. I hate getting those. It's like getting extra work.

I’m sure the charity instead of cards idea is well meant, and of course it’s a good thing when charities benefit from donations.

However, it’s a bit like giving someone a goat instead of a present. To make the donation, you’re giving up the card/gift which someone else would have received, not something of your own.

I send loads of Christmas cards, and enjoy doing so, but don't mind how many I get back - each to their own. I don't pick up the phone to people that often, so I see Xmas as an opportunity to show friends that they still matter. I can understand people thinking cards are a bit of a waste of money and paper, but am surprised that anyone would just discard one without even looking at it. Unless you really think people are sending them from a meaningless sense of duty, surely it must mean something that the thought is there?

I've stopped sending cards. Not for any financial reasons but because I was sick of pointless pieces of paper cluttering up the house. I don't like them on display on the walls, or on windowsills so they are just superfluous mess. Straight in the recycling.

We usually make a charity donation instead which is a far better use of the money.

I hate them (clutter) but DH is obsessed with them and sending them to every relative alive, well he was till I sent them out to post them and it cost him £35 on stamps.
He is less bothered about them now.

NerrSerr I’m sure all the people on this thread who don’t send cards for environmental reasons don’t drive, go on holiday on airplanes, use disposable nappies etc etc
So because they aren’t completely eco-neutral they shouldn’t do anything?
I’ll freely admit I don’t send cards primarily because I hate the process of buying, writing and sending them, but secondary to that is the issue that they are wasteful in the extreme and completely unnecessary. We can send good wishes in other ways now. Cards were 8nvented when that was the only way.

am surprised that anyone would just discard one without even looking at it

I am one of those people. When you have seen one tacky card with 'Merry xmas, from xxx', you have seen them all. And the person sending them doesn't know you put them straight in the recycling, so a win win. Half the time its not even your relative that wrote them but the relatives wife, or even worse a printer. Just a waste of my time opening them.

At least with electronic cards you can have them go straight to your junk mail folder, are deleted automatically and are more environmentally friendly.

My heart sinks a bit when I receive a card. It's a command to get straight to the shops, buy stamps (which I always bloody forget so takes a few shop visits), select cards, text my mother for the address of card-sending relative I haven't seen since I was a nipper, get a mouthful having not already sent a card and why can't I put the address somewhere safe for in future?, put the card in my bag, forget to send it for god knows how long, and repeat.
I know exactly how disorganised that makes me sound but i find it all such an impeaching chore!
It signals that I have to get my shit together and I really resent that 😂

I have no idea where 'impeaching' came from there...:/

To me Christmas cards signal the start of the Christmas season, I love coming in from work, making a coffee (or pouring a glass of wine) and looking through all the cards that are waiting on the mat - most of my friends write a few lines and as we are scattered all over the country it is so lovely to her peoples' news.

As you can tell, I don't use FB so I genuinely enjoy reading cards the old fashioned way.

Cards being lazy is the biggest pile of crap ever!!!

I'm thinking of not doing cards this year, apart from relatives as I don't want to upset them. I just find writing them a huge chore and hate it. I also think they're a waste of trees and they clutter up the house.