To think Christmas cards are becoming a thing of the past.

[Star4120]

Hi all, bit of a random one.

I have fond memories of my grandmother (she is 80 and still does it now) writing hundreds of Christmas cards for friends, relatives, colleagues (now old colleagues) amongst others. She would literally have piles of them and equally she would have hundreds of cards around her front room at Christmas. She’s always laid them out so neatly but so many 😅

The only cards I seem to have in the house at Christmas are either from older relatives, immediate family and for the kids from the kids friends at school!

I don’t really exchange cards with any of my friends! I write them cards but many of them just don’t do it themselves (which is fine of course!)

So is it becoming more of an old fashioned thing to send cards to everyone you know?

I will be sending out cards to immediate family and a few elderly relatives or family friends as I know they really like it but other than that I probably won’t bother?

Aibu?

Lots of people are saying elderly relatives. I think they are also popular among nursery and primary school kids though a recent development is including chocolate coins.

We are going to make our own Christmas cards this year as part of a craft project so I will be sending Christmas cards for as long as I have children elves to help. But I am trying to prune my list, using FB and sending emails to international friends and old work colleagues.

I don’t like receiving e-cards as I don’t check my emails that often. I’m thinking of using Smile Box as they send direct to mobile phones. Might use them for birthday cards too once my current stash is used up.

I'm only doing cards for DH this year, cba with the waste of money and time

I send over 100. I've already written most of them while watching telly. It's a great way to stay in touch with people - if people don't send a card in response they usually text or email and it starts some lovely conversations. I also love getting cards, which is more likely when you send them.

And with sticker stamps you don't need to lick them - I have a little bowl of water for sealing the envelopes too, so no covid germs.

@FuzzyPuffling

I really don't like the "No cards but a donation to a charity instead". 1.It's possible to do both

1. Why are you giving up something that brings pleasure to someone else? I've never heard people saying they are giving up turkey or wine or presents to make their Christmas charity donation. I'd be far more impressed if they did.

I agree with this

Most people I know could perfectly well afford to give to charity AND send cards. Don't want to bother with cards? Fine, no problem, but please don't bother with the virtue signalling

I love getting and sending cards. Since I had kids I do photo cards. I had one (now deceased) relative tell me she kept every one and loved seeing them grow (she was in a nursing home for years and never met them in real life).
I don't send them to people I see day to day. I send them to friends and relatives who I don't see, mainly due to distance, and especially this year it's a great opportunity to write a catch up. As for waste - I recycle, cards that can't be I cut up to use as gift tags.
So keep sending those cards, write a personal note, and put a smile on someone's face!

cardibach

1. It’s only possible if you have twice the money you would spend on cards and postage spare
Not if you gave up your turkey and booze instead.

I send very few cards. I am nearly 40 but for some reason I get a Christmas card from two different teachers from my Primary School, one who never actually taught me so I have never really figured out why other than she grew sweet pea in the school garden and I used to ask her could I take some home for my Mom as she loved Sweet pea. I normally send a funny card to my best friend and also the local greengrocer (he does a display and there is a prize for the funniest voted). Other than that I will pop them in the letter box of a few elderly neighbours.
My parents still get cards from people they have not spoken to in 30 years plus.

I send cards

About a third are to older relatives and the other two thirds are to friends

If i dont get a card over a year or two from friends I stop giving them a card, I don’t want to put any pressure on anyone

But i also like to decorate the bookcases in the living room with nice Christmas cards and i keep ones I particularly like....i need to make sure ive got enough before everyone i know stops sending them!

My DM made a huge thing about cards when i was growing up. Thank you cards. Birthday cards. Xmas cards. Maybe she enjoyed it, i don't know, but she made it into such a regimented thing that it was something i viewed with hate even as a kid.

It was a military precision thing at xmas with lists made from checking last years cards kept as a guide for who to send to this year. She used to send one to everyone with even the tiniest connection with us - ticking everyone off the list. Sitting down with them all spread out on a table with 'by hand' written on them or 'to post' as if we were landed gentry and the butler was going to deal with them

I left home at 19 and she expected me to then do my own ones for all these bloody tenuous links to us. Auntie this and Uncle that (not actual aunties or uncles) who i hadn't seen ever since i was 4!!!

I gradually slimmed it all down to the basic few and then a few years ago (due to reading threads like this one) i just stopped sending them at all!! Oh the relief and the thrill of being so rebellious at 45

My mother is horrified i don't send xmas cards any more. She receives way less than she sends out nowadays and moans every year about the cost of stamps.

I love sending them. I think it's a nice gesture and I always feel a warm buzz when one comes through the mailbox.

I don't find them a chore and I only send them to people I want to.

For the first time in years I will be sending cards to people I won't get the chance to see. Picked charities that I have a personal connection with and cutting back on presents too.

I’ve sent fewer and fewer over the last decade and receive far fewer now too. However, this year is the year I’m going to do it again!

I think at the end of this dreadful year we’ll all be so glad to see the back of, it is good to remind people that we miss them and think of them fondly even when we’re not in one another’s everyday lives. This year of all years, I want people to know I care about them and remember them.

I do them every year because I have a very far flung and large family. I also write to good friends I rarely see, (even in a non Covid year, due to distance, too many children and time) and love getting them in return. There is so little joy around this year, that a festive card with some snippets of news/catching up is a welcome addition to my doormat, and I hope my recipients too!

I think they're less common but I don't think I'll ever stop sending them.

I haven’t sent cards for about 10 years now. Most of the people I want to keep in touch with I keep in touch with online these days. I don’t even have most peoples addresses anymore!

I think it's sad and hope it doesn't. I know some people in my circle that will say they would rather donate to charity but then don't; they just cant be bothered. Fair enough but I like the tradition.

My parents and grandparents used to send loads, it was a way of keeping in touch that we dont need now.

But I still send them. We have a list of about 8 friends who usually send them, all people we value hugely but dont see as often as we would like as they dont live close by. Plus I will send to my family who all really value them. I don't bother with DH family as they dont bother, except one of his siblings who lives far away whom I know appreciates it. I'm at an age where my parents are my oldest relatives and they are only early 70s, they and peers use email & zoom and whatsapp etc.

I really don't like sending them but get guilted into it by my old fashioned MIL

Also people seem to still send birthday cards

I love sending Christmas cards and I do send them to closest friends (I’m in my 30s).

I don’t do them on the scale my mother does them though. Sometimes she doesn’t know people are dead until she doesn’t get one back. I always thought this was crazy - if you haven’t seen or spoken to someone for 30 years, are they really close enough to send a Christmas card to? But apart from that, it’s a tradition and one I hope doesn’t die out.

This year I'm sending more than I have done in previous years. It's good to keep up communication and I'm totally fed up of Zoom.

We send individual ones to very close family luke dad, mum, husband etc and box ones to more distant family, friends and neighbours but we only post out a small amount now as it has cut right down. At work pre covid there was one woman who never sent one and she stood out as everyone else old and young sent them.

like*

'5) happy COVID Xmas ... here's a card I've licked'

In all fairness by the time the royal mail gets it there given current circumstances it will prob not survive. I suppose you can also tuck envelope in or use tape.

Sending them to all my friends this year cos I haven't seen them.
Making a comeback I reckon