Has the cost of Stamps killed off the Xmas Cards?

[girlfriend44]

I don't send cards anymore anyway, but wondered will they die out with the cost of stamps now?

I think stamps could be free and they would still die out as social media has taken over. Now we all wake up on Xmas day to texts/mails etc from ‘Terry and Rhonda’ where you click a link and they have pasted their faces on elves bodies doing a dance with Santa or some shite with a generic Xmas message that pops up at the end. It’s quicker to make one of these and spam your electronic address list than sitting down and writing out card by card, going to a postbox etc.

I don't know anyone who does. Tbh it's just more stuff to store and keep and is just wasteful.

Same! I’m in my 50s and it’s steeply on the wane in my age group and I think pretty much dead for anyone under 40 because - quite apart from the outrageous expense - with the advent of social media and people being connected all the time, it’s become increasingly meaningless.

I can see the value - especially for older people - in receiving a lovely handwritten note with news etc, but what on earth is the point of just sending pieces of paper to people you see (or interact digitally with) on a regular basis, with nothing but your name and theirs scrawled inside? It’s just a pointless waste of time, money and resources.

I know for some people writing and sending cards is a lovely seasonal ritual, but for me (and clearly plenty of others!) it was always an absolute PITA and one of the few Christmas jobs I actually dreaded, so I just stopped completely about 7 years ago, save for a few aged rellies and friends I rarely see (who get proper letters in theirs).

It does feel like everyone’s simultaneously gone “why on earth am I still doing this?” so now we can all heave a collective sigh of relief and not bother.

For years I've made my own cards but this year I am skipping it. Last year less than half arrived. Some arrived in January and they were all posted in the first week of December. A 50% total fail rate and a further 25 to 30% arriving ridiculously late makes it a complete waste of time.

Yes it was the final straw for me.

The stamps cost more than the cards....
.

Its all brainwashing anyway. You grow up thinking that's what you do.
You then realise you have a choice and you can think for yourselves.

No, the fact that they're a waste of time, effort, money and paper has killed Christmas Cards.

Or probably more accurately, the mobile phone has killed Christmas cards. Whatsapp, Facebook etc. Who needs to send a Christmas card when you can send a quick Whatsapp message on Christmas day.

They're dying out for the same reason that handwritten letters died out when everyone got a phone in the house. Much easier to phone Granny than write her a letter. And much easier to send a Santa gif on Whatsapp than write a Christmas card.

My mum in the 80s used to fill the entire house with misery as she moaned about writing cards to 200 addresses of mostly randoms. She'd then critic each days post for quality of card "oh, M&S must have money to burn", "that's off the market", "no idea, could be from that Swanage break"

I dutifully write cards in the first couple of years of marriage #cosplaywife.
Then I clocked DH sending just three funny meaningful ones to uni friends whilst I slogged through his family, checking addresses and deaths with MIL.
So I stopped completely, my kids have never known the miserable whinge that took a nice thing and twisted out f all recognition to a complicated chore.

My mum still acts surprised I don't go in for it.

In our house we will still be sending out Christmas cards - I love it, it's part of the whole Christmas traditions thing, BUT I agree with everyone else that the cost of stamps just takes the piss these days. Every Autumn I try and squeeze a book of 2nd class stamps in with every weekly online grocery shop so that I've got enough by December. I can't always afford to do that every week though, just depends. But I hate getting e-cards, you can't put them up and although I appreciate the kind intention I find them a bit soulless - but then I am sick of every bloody thing being done via screens and apps, so to me it's just another lovely thing that has been ruined by technology. I'd rather have a proper card any day. When I was a little girl we used to get catalogues through the door for ranges of Christmas cards and gift wrap and I used to spend ages looking through them all and getting excited about Christmas - I guess I never changed as I still love picking out boxes of cards even now.

It’s not just the stamp it’s the prices on the cards as well.

If you are buying not box cards long gone are a nice ish one for £1 from card factory. Can easily spend a good chunk of £100 just getting the nanny&grandad, uncle / aunty / mum&dad, brother, sister cards, cousin cards. All for them to sit on a mantle for a week or two and go in the bin.

Ive actually got birthday cards I haven’t opened from last year 😬😅

I still send them particularly to friends and family who live abroad. I love sitting down to write them, it feels like the start of Christmas to me.

Texts and WhatsApp just don't cut it for me.

Regarding the waste, I always save last year's cards to make gift tags, something we did as children.

The other thing is that I have kept some as treasures, particularly as I have cards for the DC which their grandparents, who have since died, wrote to them.

But then I am a sentimental type. I still have some love letters from my first boyfriend (Year 6) and pen pals from 40 years ago.

I send cards. It’s a nice thing to do, especially for people you don’t see regularly. I think they’re dying out as people move to communicating solely on Facebook etc.

I don’t think it’s completely gone though - they still sell them, so some of us are still bothering!

I don’t think the price of stamps are extortionate but anything you send over Christmas is likely to be late due to demand

I think it will accelerate the trend. The poor service of the Royal Mail and their historic persecution of sub-postmasters when they also ran post offices will contribute too.

Haven't sent any for at least 5 years. I remind everyone in October that I don't send and also not to send me one. Pointless.
I have no older relatives or know anyone older than myself ( mid 60s) who might appreciate one.

Yes, the stamps are costing more than the cards ( if you buy cheap cards or deals on the cards)
I'm not bothering with xmas cards this year ( only three for close family )

The cost of stamps, postal strikes and global warming. They all pretty much killed off the Christmas cards.

The internet has helped people stay in touch , so sending cards isn't seen as vital I suppose ( we would get a letter in side from relatives in Australia at Christmas time and wouldn't be the case these days with FaceTime / book / email and so on

For Christmas, electronic communications are worthless to me. I hardly look at or read them. And on Christmas Day the last place I spend time is reading WhatsApp messages.

For me the value is linked to the personalisation, the effort and the non-digital aspect of posted cards.

Electronic noise is almost zero effort, personalisation and thus means very little to me. It doesn’t stick in my memory or trigger any emotion.

I love cards, and love having a room full of Christmas cards but it's definitely been declining the last few years and the price of stamps is the reason why I'm limiting what I send!

Oh I miss my mum sitting there at the kitchen table, saying things like “I didn’t get one off her last year, she’s off the list!” and aimed at me “where do you think your going, I need you to post these round the estate” then I got handed a carrier bag of cards to post through everyone’s doors. Then putting up cotton with drawing pins to hang them up on the walls and of course that sneaky card being posted by someone on Christmas Eve quite late and my mum saying “bleeding sneaky cow”, quickly writing one in return with a fag hanging out her mouth, muttering away and me again having to treck out to post it!

Actually let’s leave those memories where they belong 😂

I think Royal Mail just want to focus on the parcel side of things at Christmas ( which have a Xmas card tucked into the parcel) That's probably why they raised the cost of stamps to kill off the card side of things .

Yes, christmas just gone I didn't send any and hardly anyone sent any to me. We just couldn't afford it. I can't see the point anyway because all they said inside was to Gettingby from whoever. I'd much rather people sent me an email telling me what they have been up to.

I still send them, though fewer each year, and notice that we receive fewer too. Generally reserved for people that we see infrequently and friends overseas so like a PP, I settle down to write cards in late November and work through my list. It's the start of the Christmas season, along with making the Christmas cake. Followed by marmelade making in January.