No Christmas cards to people with an internet connection?

[FrostyMoanyWind]

Just receiving the first round of Christmas cards. Mine will be going out Friday. Haven't printed them yet and having an internal debate between what is generally accepted as the "polite thing to do" and what is environmentally responsible. Or is it just that considered a cop out?

Sending cards to elderly relatives who don't have computers and who would be upset not to hear from us. Ok.

But to people who we usually receive cards from and have always sent cards to but are in computer contact throughout the rest of the year?

The friends of my parents who send my DC birthday presents. Rude not to send a card?

My godparents who have email/facebook but to whom we have always sent cards and who send us cards?

@GrabEmByThePatriarchy soy gets flown in here from thousands of miles away and yet "it's the environmental option"... Apparently. 😒

Adding few vehicles to mail service for a month isn't going to kill us.

I think it is just a lovely gesture and it can cheer someone who needs it up. And over Christmas time lots of people need cheering up.

Why do some people say they only send cards to elderly people? Everybody I know (alright - bar one, a nearly blind 91 year old) is on the internet. An awful lot of these people are in their 80s. Technology isn't just the province of the under 45s, to pick a totally random age.
I still send proper cards, but as you get older, people die off, so the list gets shorter every year.

we need to do away with the whole tradition TBH

When you’ve stopped flying, driving, buying shite from China, are only buying locally grown food, locally made clothes and everything else, get back to me and I’ll reconsider. Until then, you decide what YOU will do away with and leave us card senders to do the same.

Ed

You said Any we do get go straight into the recycling. Why would you do that?

I haven't sent any for about six years either and have slowly received less which I'm glad of. There is so much consumption at Christmas, so i can see there is some environmental benefit to not sending them that at least balances out all the other waste a bit. To most people (me included) they were a burden and an unnecessary chore. Any remaining elderly relatives I did send them to are dead now!

I think a charity donation in lieu is a nice idea. I'm sure the charities aren't complaining about virtue signaling and promoting their causes.

WE make about 20 for immediate family, close family and the dc’s teachers. We enjoy choosing a different design each year and have fun making them.

I don't send any real cards at all.
What do you mean by 'haven't printed them'? Do you make your own and print them???

"Everybody I know (alright - bar one, a nearly blind 91 year old) is on the internet. An awful lot of these people are in their 80s. "

This is not true for everyone. My DM is in her 60s and has no clue about computers. I know other people much younger than their 80s who never learned as well.

So long as the cards are recyclable (no glitter, not plastic-laminated) then it's not massively environmentally irresponsible. Less than the amount of cardboard we recycle in a normal week from cereal and other food boxes, parcel boxes etc to just recycle 100 Christmas cards.

Meanwhile I think they are a really important part of my Christmas decorations. I may have my tree with all its lights and baubles, but much more meaningful are the strings of colourful cards with love and good wishes expressed from people I care about all over the world. The message in an email wouldn't substitute for me, your contribution to "decking the hall" with festive cheer is genuinely important for me.

Plus it helps keep royal mail afloat, which is also a good thing.

Surely there's no soy in cards though hamgry?

And ed, presumably they go straight into recycling because the poster doesn't want them. I mean, what else are you going to do if you don't find any meaning or value in them and nor do you consider them attractive enough to put up? The few we get end up in a pile before one of us tidies them into the recycling. Not at all uncommon.

In real life, most people are still sending cards.

I love to receive a well chosen card or something handmade, but not some generic piece of tat from what’s left in a value selection pack so I try to apply that principle to my own card sending. If the recipient doesn’t warrant a decent card then I don’t bother. Sending out hundreds of indiscriminatory ecards and clogging up people’s inboxes is a pointless substitute. Something else to trawl through at work is not the same as an envelope on the doormat when you come in. Cut back on card sending by all means, but don’t replace pointless cards with pointless emails.

Sending emails also uses energy, on computer servers. I don't know what the comparative carbon footprints are though.

An email would be lower, but you're quite right that the energy output from those isn't zero either.

Another singleton here with no kids and very little family. Christmas is a very lonely time and getting cards really does help as you feel someone is thinking about you a bit over the time when the majority are with someone or with family etc.

I only send cards that are made from recycles card and mine always go for recycling after. And I only by charity cards so they are doing some good as well, even if not a huge amount.

I make a photo card every year for very close relatives who appreciate seeing the DC growing up but that is it. I’ve never sent them out to colleagues, friends or extended family. I buy my DC a pack of cheap cards to give out to their class because it makes them happy, that’s as far as my Christmas card giving ever goes. They’re a waste and always end up in the recycling bin.

I do maybe one or two cards a year. Most other people I know get presents so I dont bother with the card.

"In real life, most people are still sending cards."

Unless you can cite some evidence, I'm not going to believe that.

Well, the fact that there are shops full of them, I receive about 40 or 50 (one or two people have decided not to bother, but I still get lots), there are dedicated christmas card recycling programs and lots of parents ordered packs of cards cards from my school that the children designed, points to evidence in my world that people are still sending cards out there!

I love sending and receiving cards at Christmas. This year, I’ve been able to buy cards highlighting the rare condition my DS got this year, so explaining to people what happened to him, raising awareness and providing funds to the charity.

I often cut up cards I’ve received in January and reuse as gift tags.

I agree the virtue signalling of most people I know stocks in my craw a bit, as I very much doubt they have given to charity in lieu of sending cards, and don’t seem to have an environmentally friendly way of living the rest of the year.

I work in a charity shop and my heart sank when we received boxes and boxes of cards to sell in August, we have now practically sold out, so yes, I do believe that a lot of people still send cards.

I only send a few cards to close relatives who I don't see at Christmas plus a couple of old family friends. I send recyclable charity cards and I recycle any I get after Christmas (I cut them up and turn them into labels for next year's presents). I don't really see what's so bad about that, I think it's nice gesture and I enjoy writing them with a glass of mulled wine and a Christmas film on. I don't have a car or kids so I think a few cards are allowed!

I do agree there's no point sending millions of cards to everyone you know though