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Original poster

What is it with small children giving each other Christmas cards fhs?

47 replies

wickedwinterwitch · 06/12/2006 20:34

Ds has had about 10 already. I'm not sending cards this year, I'm donating to charity instead and I don't feel terribly inclined to go and spend effort and money buying bits of cardboard for small children.

So, do you buy them for your children to send? Are you one of the parents who doled cards out yesterday? And if so, what is the point? Social etiquette at NINE years old?

OP posts:
hatwoman · 06/12/2006 20:37

not sure. dd1 got her first 2 today and, has to be said, grump that I am, my heart sank. tbh I'm really grumpy about it mainly because of the sheer bloody effort - buying the sodding things, sitting round the kitchen table getting her to write them, and choosing between clearing up the inevitable mess from use of glitter glue or riding out the sulk if I say no. It's not like I haven't got enough to do.

HuwEdwards · 06/12/2006 20:38

DD1 (6) has told me she needs to send cards to her mates - she's not recived any herself. Have let her have them.

DD2 (3 last Xmas) must've received 15. I refused to write even 1.

hulababy · 06/12/2006 20:40

DD is 4 and just started school this year, and is sending and receiving Christmas cards. It's actually been great for writing practise. She has written all her own cards - I wrote the child's name on each envelope, for her to copy and then to add To, From and her name. She was really excited about sending them out to her friends (so excited she wrote them all in one evening), and really excited to recieve cards of her own too. I didn't spend a lot of her cards.

CountTo10LordsaLeaping · 06/12/2006 20:41

Bought some mini charity cards for ds to send to his buddies

Have also bought some reindeer sparkly food in support of cystic fibrosis too so if you see some buy it as its a very good cause

Stockingsofdinosaurs · 06/12/2006 20:42

I gave DD (3) squares of Shreddies box, a pritt stick and some sparklies and wrote the kids' names on the results. Very little effort (and people keep saying they can't even be bothered to do that! Surely all that envelope licking...), point made about the absurdity of non-reading kids doing cards plus an eco stance taken.

paulaplumpbottom · 06/12/2006 20:42

I do send them for my daughters friends, although she has to do all the coloring herself. I address and stamp them. I guess I do it, because I know how much small children like getting mail. However I wouldn't be offended if nobody sent one back.

scatterbrain · 06/12/2006 20:42

Oh you lot - the "bah humbugs of mumsnet" - they LOVE giving each other cards - my dd (6) had about 30 last year from school - they had a special post box and helped deliver them and she was THRILLED to get a few from the big girls !

She has already chosen her cute little kitty and bunny ones from Next and is going to write them all this weekend ! Last year I put a choc decoration in each card - but probably won't this year as it was too expensive !

She loves it !

Glitterygookwithchocsonthetree · 06/12/2006 20:43

Oh God, I nearly posted this earlier on! Ours have started coming through too.

As if I've got time to write bloody tiny cards for little kids who couldn't care less. I don't even send my own (started that last year and got some looks of horror when I told people in the playground this morning!!)

I need help to stand strong though as feel a bit sorry for my kids if I don't let them do cards! Ds1 could write his own but ds2 couldn't.

shepherdswatchedtheirfLOCKETS · 06/12/2006 20:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

pedilia · 06/12/2006 20:43

I am having to send for DS1 whi is 5 and DS2 has started reciving them and he is 2 FFS, can't even read !!

handlemecarefully · 06/12/2006 20:44

Dd hasn't received a Christmas card yet but I anticipate when she does she will be hugely enthusiastic / chuffed to bits...

So it's a bit of a pigging effort, but then - it's kind of nice. Makes the lo's (or some of them) feel quite important and 'grown up' getting mail of their own.

CountTo10LordsaLeaping · 06/12/2006 20:45

I give all the xmas cards I don't keep to a girl at work who either recycles them into new cards or just recycles them so they don't go to waste.

Original poster
wickedwinterwitch · 06/12/2006 20:45

Can we have a bah humbug emoticon please?

OP posts:
Glitterygookwithchocsonthetree · 06/12/2006 20:45

THe cards I get I don't put up - they look messy and are just a pain in the arse when they fall down. They stay in a big pile on top of the stereo in the kitchen

Humbug!

handlemecarefully · 06/12/2006 20:45

Scatterbrain - a woman after my own heart!

ptmum · 06/12/2006 20:46

At the school I teach in we have a post box for cards and the delivery time is the highlight of the kids day. They love receiveing, giving, opening and sharing the cards ( and they get sooooooo many) if your really anti cards you could always send one to the whole class, plenty of the kids do that.

nutcracker · 06/12/2006 20:47

We have enough for a whole line on the wall already LOL.

Mine love to send and recieve them and so I give them the boxes of cards and let them get on with it.

hatwoman · 06/12/2006 20:48

just you and me then www?

paulaplumpbottom · 06/12/2006 20:48

agreed scatterbrain, lots of Christmasgrumps

Glitterygookwithchocsonthetree · 06/12/2006 20:49

If they did it all themselves then fine but I'm not doing them for ds2 in nursery as it would just be another job for me and quite frankly, I've got enough to do!

scatterbrain · 06/12/2006 20:52

Oh you've got to put them up !!!

I pin pretty ribbons to the top of my doors, with the ribbon hanging down the length of the door - two parallel ribbons per door - and I have these little gold pegs from Lakeland which we use to peg each card to the ribbon. DD spends ages looking at her cards and telling people about who sent her which one.

She just LOVES it all ! How could I deprive her ??

Mind you last year she was very sad that certain friends didn't give her cards - I guess they had bah humbug mummies !!!

handlemecarefully · 06/12/2006 20:55

Gdg - what do you mean you've got enough to do? You've only got 3 small children and work from home!!

I agree - Cards for pre schoolers is OTT

scatterbrain · 06/12/2006 20:56

Oh yes pre-schoolers are too young - although I think dd did give her best friends cards even then ! But then she is always making cards and letters for her friends anyway !

JollyOldSaintNikkielas · 06/12/2006 20:59

It has inspired my dd2 to write so I'm not complaining , she has never wrote without being told to and she sat down on Sat and started writing them by herself (dd1 told her how to write love) and has wrote about 50 all on her own so I am

all ours get made into gift tags for the next year and the other bits get recycled!

IlanaK · 06/12/2006 21:02

I own a nursery and this is such a pet peeve of mine. Each year I have tried encouraging the staff and parents NOT to send cards to all the children. But it has never worked. So this year we have come up with a totally different idea that so far (touch wood) is working.....

I wrote to all the parents and asked them not to send cards from the children to the children. We are an environemntally conscious nursery and have won an environmental award. INstead, all the children have a paper plate decoration with their picture and name on it. I specially ordered some seasonal stickers that say Merry Christmas From and have space for their name (in 7 different designs so they can choose). We have put a box of these out and asked the parents to take what they need, add their child's name and then let their child put a sticker on their friends' plate. At the end of the month, they will take their plate home instead of hundreds of christmas cards. It will be a longer lasting momento of the season, of their friends, and much more environmentally friendly. Children of preschool age (and younger) enjoy stickers so much and will get much more involved in this than in giving cards.

We are aiming to be 100% card free this year and hopefully it will work.