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AIBU?

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Original poster

To recycle Christmas cards as soon as I open

147 replies

lovemenorca · 17/12/2019 18:05

I open them and immediately put them in the recycling bin. I can’t bear the clutter! They make a lovely cosy Christmassy room look like a primary school classroom IMO

Am I alone?

I feel a little guilty, but I always read and enjoy the sentiment, but actually displaying.... no chance

Ps and I send 4 myself (to aged relatives - it really seems important to them hence why I do it, and enclose a photo of the children) , and would take no offence whatsoever to discover they too are recycled!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
MamaWeasel · 17/12/2019 23:44

Is @queenofthree a troll?

MistyCloud · 17/12/2019 23:45

Whoops posted too soon!!!

@Glitterblue

Now I'm wondering if I've wasted my evening writing cards and whether they will just end up in the recycling before even being opened, as one poster does, or opened and recycled straight away. I love receiving cards and hearing from people I don't otherwise hear from!

I agree. But I don't think that many people are so bloody rude that they would chuck away Christmas cards as soon as they got them. That's pretty awful behaviour!

I knew a woman once who I gave a Christmas card to, (along with 10 others in my office,) and an hour later I saw it in the bin - opened - but binned.

I was so fucked off that I never sent her one on the next Christmas. All 10 of the others but not her.

Her face dropped, and she said 'none for me?' I said' (loudly so everyone else could hear,) 'are you kidding me?! You binned mine last year! I saw it in the bin, and I took a photo of it in the bin (which I did,) if you or anyone else wants to see it.'

She went very red and left the office. Nothing was said again, ever.

Horrible behaviour. Horrible woman. She left six months later thankfully.

MistyCloud · 17/12/2019 23:47

@lovemenorca YABU and rude.

If you are so secure in your choice to do this. Tell everyone you know NOT to give you a card, and if they do, you will chuck it in the recycling, without even opening it.

But I am willing to bet that you won't do that. I am also willing to bet that if you were in a group (or an office,) with 8 or 10 people or so, and you were the ONLY one to not be given a card, you would sulk. (Probably because that means you can't get to throw it in the trash, like a spoilt ungrateful brat.)

And it's not just 'the aged' who like cards FGS. My 2 sets of neighbours - both in their late 20s and early 30s like them too. In fact, the 27 y.o in the younger couple MAKES her own Christmas cards.

And I know loads of others who like them, send them, and appreciate them too. (who aren't AGED!)

What a ridiculous generalisation! Hmm

It's the height of bad manners, and arrogance to dump it in the recycling as soon as you get it. What a nasty thing to do. Hmm

Although, like some posters have said, I am questioning the validity of the claims from the OP (and a few other posters) that they bin the cards before opening them. And as for the poster saying they have a 'phobia' of Christmas cards..... Oh PLEASE!!!!!!!!! Hmm I call bullshit on a few comments on here... Wink

LittleReindeer · 17/12/2019 23:51

Are they even recyclable? The foiled and glittered ones aren’t.

anxioussue · 17/12/2019 23:57

I did with one the other day from a close family member who didn't even bother to write our names in the card. They do this each year.

RiftGibbon · 17/12/2019 23:59

I have them in display, and I keep some too. Put away safely I have the last Christmas cards ever received from my parents.

anxioussue · 18/12/2019 00:02

That's lovely to have those last cards. It's my parents who never write our names in the cards they just write Rose and Michael at the bottom.

Beeziekn33ze · 18/12/2019 00:04

You are my DSiL and I claim the prize!

SleighOfSparkliness · 18/12/2019 01:18

My letterbox is directly connected to a paper shredder all year round, just in case.

TwiddleMuff · 18/12/2019 01:21

"Plus it's even more of a huge fucking waste environmentally to not even look at something a tree has been cut down for."

LOL

YANBU, OP. They're your cards, you can do whatever you like with them.

PiggyInTheMiddle19 · 18/12/2019 02:57

I keep ones from my parents etc that are personal. Rest not so much.
I have a metal slot in holder but its on the back of a door that we don't use much so ifs out of the way a bit. I don't over fill.
I hate clutter. Of the cards that are from neighbours, old colleagues etc. It's like they pull a list out each Yr and it's done for the sake of it.

ferrier · 18/12/2019 13:42

Do what you like with your cards. I enjoy receiving them as they remind me of old friends and often have updates on what they're up to.
I have mine on strings on the walls so they don't cause any clutter and make my home Christmassy.

MrsGrindah · 18/12/2019 19:30

RiftGibbonMe too! I cherish it dearly

Lillyhatesjaz · 18/12/2019 20:13

I have a string along the top of the Wall and hang them up like a paper chain I really like getting them especially from old friends I no longer see.

Figmentofmyimagination · 19/12/2019 00:28

I read them, note down any addresses and then cut them up as this year’s gift tags and stick them on the family presents. I think this is Christmassy. I haven’t sent cards for around 20 years - wish I hadn’t let the habit go as it is a really good way of keeping in touch - especially if you move around a lot. I don’t get that many, unsurprisingly.

Growing up in the 70s they were massive. My mum had a mini ‘clothes line’ with tiny coloured pegs she used to use to hang them all up over the doors. And there was even a school ‘postal service’. You could buy pretend ‘stamps’.

Eiffel85 · 19/12/2019 00:44

I hate cards.

When I rule the world they will be banished from the face of this earth.

They’re just so pointless.

GymSloth · 19/12/2019 00:48

What a sad thread. I love Christmas cards!

And I get that they're not great for the environment, but they are hardly the worst thing either. All the online shopping and long haul flights are far worse.

I'd be amazed if all the people professing to hate cards 'because they are so bad for the environment' have also given up holidays, shopping and renounced all plastic...

AwakeAmbs · 19/12/2019 00:48

I display them for a bit, then recycle / save for gift tags and keep a few special ones, from kids etc.

We do get less nowadays and I don’t send hardly any, just 2 this year to be polite. It’s expensive when you could email but I do know some people like the physical card.

Countryescape · 19/12/2019 00:50

Weird.

ineedaholidaynow · 19/12/2019 01:04

Why are there people who don’t open them?

Phobia??

If you hate them so much why don’t you tell people you don’t want them? If you enjoy them and display them then at least you are getting something out of them. If you can’t be bothered to read them what a waste of time, money and resources.

Mothership4two · 19/12/2019 01:10

OP why don't you tell people that you don't 'do' Christmas cards to minimise the waste? Several of my friends and relatives are non-carders.

Wingedharpy · 19/12/2019 01:34

I hate cards too.
It's all the clashing colours that set my teeth on edge.
Now if all the folk I know got together and decided on a colour scheme and all sent me colour co-ordinated cards, I'd display them.😊
I don't do cards and have told friends and relatives this for years but, I suspect my name is just on some old list they have hanging about so, we continue to receive the odd few.
I freely admit that I belong to the bah-humbug school of thought regarding Christmas though.
It's turned into a celebration of excess over the years and I think there is something a bit immoral about the whole thing now.

dayslikethese1 · 19/12/2019 01:44

This thread makes me sad. I've just written mine (about 10) and I display the ones I receive until 12th night, after which I cut them up for gift tags. How many cards are people getting that its such an issue? I only ever get about 5 so not exactly much clutter.

Honeybee85 · 19/12/2019 01:49

I would feel sad if the Christmas card that I choose carefully for you, thinking about what kind of design you’d like and writing a personal message in it for you, would be binned the minute you opened it. I’m happy that the friends and family that I send Christmas cards to always seem happy to receive one from me.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 19/12/2019 02:00

If people immediately recycle them, I would imagine they don't send them either? In which case they'd fall foul of my "three strikes and you're out" policy and I wouldn't be sending one anyway (unless they're over 80 or have another extenuating circumstance, I'm not a monster).

Mine all go in a bowl until the week before Christmas when I sort them into sizes then lay them out on the floor in the pattern for the walls. It means I can avoid two donkeys next to each other, or lots of similar colours on the same string. It's the job that makes me feel that Christmas is really close. Xmas Smile

(And, when the strings come down, the walls look really clean and bare. It's nice to shake up the look of a room sometimes!)