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Original poster

Is it ever acceptable to use your 8 year old's artwork on a Christmas card?

111 replies

HuntedForest · 03/12/2020 10:18

Have to send cards to the extended family, parents' friends and I usually send a couple to old school friends. Despite my mum telling me to use a picture of the DC, I'm well aware that they are my DC and therefore not interesting to other people nor do they want to be on a card. So, is it acceptable to use a Christmas themed picture my DC8 drew for me?

OP posts:
Shahlalala · 03/12/2020 10:20

I don’t see why it wouldn’t be?!
My DD does a picture and they are printed vi a school pta fund raising thing. Everyone gets one she has drawn. Don’t see how it’s terribly different from a random robin image or whatever.

Shoxfordian · 03/12/2020 10:20

Is it any good? I would probably just buy a packet of cards

DaffodilsAndDandelions · 03/12/2020 10:20

I think so. My 7 and 2 year olds are making Christmas cards for family and friends who will appreciate it. Other people and business clients are getting a generic bought one for a box of 50!

PurpleDaisies · 03/12/2020 10:20

Why wouldn’t it be acceptable?
Christmas cards have all sorts of stuff on them. To be honest, I doubt most people pay much attention to the picture.

GlummyMcGlummerson · 03/12/2020 10:20

It's what we do every hear, we buy them from school, money goes to charity, and it's nice for the kids to see their artwork go out to loved ones

Shahlalala · 03/12/2020 10:21

Agree with not using an image of your child. I can’t stand those and like you say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to kids...

BrieAndChilli · 03/12/2020 10:21

Pretty much every school around the country gets the kids to design a card and you can pay to get it printed. If no-one ever bought them (and then presumably actually gave them to people S cards) then the schools wouldn’t keep doing it!!

curtainsfort · 03/12/2020 10:22

@HuntedForest

Have to send cards to the extended family, parents' friends and I usually send a couple to old school friends. Despite my mum telling me to use a picture of the DC, I'm well aware that they are my DC and therefore not interesting to other people nor do they want to be on a card. So, is it acceptable to use a Christmas themed picture my DC8 drew for me?

It's acceptable but why is the choice between a picture of them and a picture they drew? Can't you send just ordinary cards? Not being nippy but you don't want to do one and you are not sure about the other so normal cards seem quite logical here.

UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername · 03/12/2020 10:22

My kids make all the cards we give people - Christmas, birthdays, get well soon - everything! I love getting cards kids have made for me.

PigsInHeaven · 03/12/2020 10:23

Why ever not? Doesn’t everyone else’s school PTA do the child-designed Christmas cards as a fundraiser? The three schools my eight year old has been rapt have all done this. This year’s effort came home this week — it features an exploding elf and a reindeer that appears to be farting a rainbow. All relatives are getting one. Grin

KittenCalledBob · 03/12/2020 10:23

@BrieAndChilli

Pretty much every school around the country gets the kids to design a card and you can pay to get it printed. If no-one ever bought them (and then presumably actually gave them to people S cards) then the schools wouldn’t keep doing it!!
This
BikeRunSki · 03/12/2020 10:25

I buy school cards every be year and send them to close family.

Simplyunacceptable · 03/12/2020 10:25

I send ones with my DC on to very close relations such as my parents and grandparents who really do appreciate it. They frame them all tbh and my Grandma is a particular fan, she shows them off to her friends at synagogue Grin. So, you know, ones with your DC on aren’t always a miss. It depends who you send them to. I wouldn’t send one of them to my friends but Grandparents love them.

Wejustdontknow · 03/12/2020 10:25

My ds’s school get the kids to make a card which they print and you can buy a pack, it’s a way for them to make a bit of money. Ds7 drew his favourite Pokémon with a small Christmas present in the corner so that’s what we are sending to family this year 😆

Harmarsuperstar · 03/12/2020 10:28

Yes the artwork is fine and the pictures of the child are fine too, imo. I'm still sending Christmas cards from when my dc was 7/8. He's in high school now!

Sn0tnose · 03/12/2020 10:28

So far, my absolute favourite Christmas card is one my friend made with her DS while they were finger painting. Not sure if that’s just because I‘m aunty Sn0tnose and I love him, so I think anything he does is adorable, but you’d have to be quite cold hearted to think a child’s drawing on a card is naff.

LadyFidgetAndHerHandbag · 03/12/2020 10:34

It features an exploding elf and a reindeer that appears to be farting a rainbow. All relatives are getting one.

I would like one of these too please.

Original poster
HuntedForest · 03/12/2020 10:35

Ds7 drew his favourite Pokémon with a small Christmas present in the corner so that’s what we are sending to family this year 😆

Phew, so this counts as an acceptable card Grin

OP posts:
BestOfTimesBlurstOfTimes · 03/12/2020 10:40

@PigsInHeaven

Why ever not? Doesn’t everyone else’s school PTA do the child-designed Christmas cards as a fundraiser? The three schools my eight year old has been rapt have all done this. This year’s effort came home this week — it features an exploding elf and a reindeer that appears to be farting a rainbow. All relatives are getting one. Grin
Can I have one please? They sound awesome! Xmas Wink
crochetmonkey74 · 03/12/2020 10:41

I'm unusual but I hate it!

I love getting the different printed cards - even children dear to me and their artwork leaves me cold- Btw this is something I could never admit in real life as it makes me sound like a Grinch!

PigsInHeaven · 03/12/2020 10:42

@LadyFidgetAndHerHandbag

It features an exploding elf and a reindeer that appears to be farting a rainbow. All relatives are getting one.

I would like one of these too please.

Bear in mind that the farting reindeer has no neck and looks like something out of a horror film, and the Christmas tree is blue and radioactive-looking. Still, it's a change from nativity scenes, snow and robins, right? Grin
ChonkyLamp · 03/12/2020 10:45

YY - kids' artwork makes a good card, usually more fun to receive than a shop-bought card.

Certainly people are more likely to want to have it on their mantelpiece than a photo of the actual child. Sorry, I'm sure your child is gorgeous, but even so. What I do is take a photo of the kids and put a copy inside the card if it's going to an auntie or someone who might genuinely want to see how the kids are growing. That way the interested parties get to see the kids, but don't have to put them up on display in their house (which I think is asking a lit of anyone).

Your mum is a grandma who is quite understandably blinded by the idea that everyone in the world must want to put up photos of her amazing grandchildren. Either that, or she wants revenge for all the photos of other people's grandchildren which she's been forced to display over the years.

TheDogisBarkingAgain · 03/12/2020 10:48

I'd like a card with artwork or a photo of the kids, I don't think either would be unacceptable.

CountFosco · 03/12/2020 10:49

We send the school artwork cards (only 1 child at primary now sadly) AND send photos of the DC, but the photos are only sent to the adoring grandparents / aunts and uncles, not everyone I know. TBH I quite like seeing the photos from everyone, but I'm not on social media and like a round robin.

NoPainNoTartine · 03/12/2020 10:50

I don't know many parents who don't use the PTA cards frankly.

The cards will end up in the bin, and according to MN, some people are throwing a huge strop if they get a generic one. 😂

Use your kid's, it won't get any personal and handmade than that. Or if you want to use a photo, why wouldn't you? If anyone gets offended by a family photo, who the hell cares. It's not normal.

Some people print their own photo or art, some good, some less good. It really does not matter, at least they bother sending a card.