Donating to charity instead of sending Christmas cards

[Askingforafriendtoday]

Probably get slammed but why do people need to excuse ( as I see it) not sending Christmas cards by saying they are donating to charity? If you cannot be bothered/are too busy/cannot afford to send Christmas cards don't send them and explain why if you wish. If you want to/can afford to donate to charity do, if you don't/can't, don't. I find the justification really annoying. I love receiving Christmas cards, they help decorate the house beautifully, glittery, golden bits catching the light, and I'm interested in people's news if I'm not in regular contact with them. Charity Christmas cards are a good idea too, all chariyies only get a percentage of donations as it is.

Cards are a strange thing - really quite wasteful and so many people don’t put them up. By giving to charity instead it’s trying to get back to the spirit of Christmas- less cheap disposable tat and more true care for others

Of course, but it doesn’t make them a sanctimonious person for adding the extra sentence. This says more about the judgy person receiving the text than anything.

Yes, you are right.
I can no longer be bothered by sending Christmas cards. To be honest, I always found it mostly pointless, as I don't care much about the recipients!

Yeah - try explaining to people you think Christmas cards are a waste of time and resources when they like sending them - heads up - it doesn’t go down well.

I suppose it depends on what you consider significant?

It's just a polite way of saying 'I'm not doing cards anymore, please please do not give me one.'

If i was to donate to charity instead of sending Christmas cards the charity would be approximately 97p better off

It's still Christmas believe it or not

I agree with OP. I hate it when people at work send email to all staff saying "I won't be sending individual cards as I have donated the money to charity instead". Great that you are donating to charity but you don't need to pay for postage to send cards at work (just pop them into tray) and a pack of Christmas cards can be bought quite cheaply. I also think it is nice to send cards to distant relatives who you may not see very often but it shows that you are thinking of them and you wish them a Happy Christmas.

Agree, don't send cards fine, give to a charity fine too but what the hell do those decisions have to do with each other?

Yeah but not everyone wants to give and receive literal rubbish from people at work, it doesn’t matter that the cards are cheap.

I do this in honour of my mum every year. She died of a cancer that is often late diagnosed and doesn’t have good outcomes.

I give £100 and I post something to the effect of “As usually I’m not sending Xmas cards - I’m donating as per usual to x cancer charity in memory of mum. Please be aware of xyz symptoms as this is a silent killer.

Miss you mum.”

if you don’t like it, unfollow me.

Not "literal rubbish" if you take time to send a nice message in a card !!

I give lots (in money and time/skill) to charity. Never felt the need to post about it on FB etc

I love getting cards and always make sure I send them to older relatives etc

Who’s writing nice messages in all their Christmas cards to colleagues? They are a folded piece of cheap card that go in the recycling shortly after being sent. That’s rubbish in my opinion so why would I send that out to people when I don’t want to?

Started this years ago in the office - we put a large paper christmas tree outline on the wall for people to add a card or just write a message and invited donations. Ended the nonsense of exchanging 20+ cards with people we saw everyday and raised over £100 the first year. Never looked back.

This year I have sent minimal cards and donated cost of cards and postage to charity. With first class letter post now £1.70 it added up to a decent sum. Given the ease of keeping in touch with friends and family worldwide at christmas, cards seem a bit superfluous really.

I donate to a work charity thing, but not instead of sending cards.

I don't send or like to receive them.

I have told family, friends and colleagues not to send me cards. I never put them up as I think they make the place look scruffy. They're a waste of money if sending to me. I also feel the same way about birthday cards and don't like to receive them. Although I do buy cards for peoples birthdays if I know they like to receive them, such as my family.

What’s Facebook got to do with it? You are however one of the many mumsnet posters that pops up on these threads to say ‘well IIIII donate to charity and don’t feel the need to announce it’ like that someone makes you superior because you’ve done it quietly. The charity benefits wether you announce it or not.

I prefer to send cards. It's a tradition I'll continue with. Some of my family have stopped sending them, but I'm not aware if they donate to charity instead.

"Who's writing nice messages . . . ." Not you then 🙄

I hate Christmas cards by the way. My mum was diagnosed on 24th December.

I hate Christmas too. I do the motions for my grandchildren. But. Somehow. It’s not the same. It’s tainted.

I see my donation and post with reminder re symptoms as something good coming from her death.

Well obviously. Christmas card to colleague would say ‘happy Christmas, from me’. Bah humbug 🙄

I havent sent cards for 10 years. Hate them.
I buy good gin instead and also give to charity...which i do every month anyway

As a family, we have not sent Christmas Cards for a few years and have made a donation to charity instead; we've always been upfront about this and have mentioned the donation to a specific charity as a way of raising awareness of the charity, as it might be one that people haven't heard of. This year, we donated to Breast Cancer Now, not a charity I'd heard of until being diagnosed with Breast Cancer in October.

Announcing that we've donated to charity rather than send Christmas cards isn't about declaring something from the rooftops, for us it's about raising awareness of that particular charity and also as a sense of accountability that we have done what we said we would do.