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

[wickedwinterwitch]

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?

Bravo IlanaK!

Fantastic idea IlanaK

A vote here for the cards, especially for preschoolers - mine love giving & receiving and so do their friends. .My LOs each have a rubber stamp with their name on which makes the writing out less tedious. Might string them up in their bedrooms this year and agree it does get a bit out of hand. But [smug emoticon] i have just recycled last years into handmade cards to be sold by the PTA, so what goes round comes round.

ahhhh
come on
dd loves making up a few cards or signing her name to shop bought ones - she is 5
they LIKE doing it

dd's preschool used ot send nots home encouraging people to only send to a handful of th echildren there - it seeme dto work

I'm a bah humbug I'm afraid

I juts don't see the point of me writing cards out for my DSs friends from school and nursery. DS1 got one today and said "Oh - I'm not really friends with him...." - not that he doesn't like him but it was obvious that the child ('s mum)had sent them to the whole class, which I think is a bit silly.

If he wants to send some cards, then that's fine but I won't push him in to it nor write them for him

Bah humbug

DS's nursery is giving out class lists and put a posting box near the door. I had a box of cards left over from last year so asked DS (4 next feb) if he wanted to send some. I fill out most of it but he writes his own name which I found a useful way of getting him to practise.
I noticed that the cards he's brought home so far have all been written by parents which may be much quicker but not half as much fun.

That's fab ilanak!

Whilst I do have some concerns about the ethics of card full stop for environmental reasons, providing you used recycled charity cards (got a bargain pack of last years from the Woodland Trust) I think that it IS good for kids to practice writing and its one of the few things they can really get stuck into at Christmas (after all we get to do all the shopping and how wasteful is that!).

DD (6) and DS( 8) can't wait to write theirs and they love getting them too. Good for them.

However I do draw the line when the kids are too young to do it themselves. However I didn't want DD2 (3) to feel left out so I've just spent a few minutes putting together some stickers for her. They say "Merry Christmas love from X" was going in insert names to make them personal but I've lost the list and to be hinest it will make more work for nursery to match them up), and a picture of a reindeer from clip art. I know she will love standing at the door as everyone leaves handing them out.

It's bollocks isn't it?
My two year old is bringing them home from nursery.

Well my dd is too young to do this yet but I used to love giving and receiving cards at school and if dd is the same I'll be happy to accomodate her, even if it does piss off the bah humbug parents.

Stroke of genius Ilana!

That is a clever idea Ilanak, I don't think nursery kids need to send cards to each other!

We had all that crap from M&T last year and was dreading this year now he is at nursery.

However, they have a big poster on the wall and get each child to colour a bit of it in/write their name/greeting/whatever and we donate a few quid that goes to local childrens hospital. Much better I think.

The nursery with the sticker thing sounds good.

Can't abide xmas cards.I send to people I don't see infrequently.
Ds 4 has had loads ,he has no interst in them whatsoever,doesn't even want to open them.
such a wste

Well my DC love getting/sending Christmas cards. DD (5) came home with 3 today and she wants to write her cards this weekend - fine by me. DS (10) also keen on getting his cards done too. They make great Christmas decorations - hang from a ribbon and can be recycled next year when I make mine.

My dd, 5.7, also likes giving/making Christmas cards to her friends - good writing pratice imo!

She's just mad about little stationery sets full stop.

my kids love doing xmas cards, i don't.

My two love sending them and receiving them. Ds is 4 yo and has written his name on all his cards this afternoon. It's the only writing he does without making excuses. Dd is doing hers tomorrow. Any we receive are taken into the Pre-school I work at after Christmas and used for the sticking table . I wouldn't send any if I thought I could get away with it - too much work imho.

Let me clarify my earlier posting: It is only with pre-school children (or any that are two young to write their own or care) that I get annoyed. Hence the nursery thing I came up with. My own ds1 (5.5)spent today making cards for friends who have moved abroad and will write them out himself. If older children can write and make their own and actually chose to send them, then there is nothing wrong with it at all.

Hey the penny has dropped. Why aren't we all just getting our kids to write our cards for us!

My daughter aged 2 and 3/4 had a card from a boy at toddler group - she's not even at preschool yet! Is that a record? It must have been written by an adult though. Should I send one back - or will this make everyone else feel they have to do the same?