Do you like Christmas cards ?

[Frostine]

We have some elderly relatives / neighbours and friends & family that don't live close by and won't be seeing them for Christmas.I

We send those people cards and I guess it's nice to receive back but if I'm being honest I hate having to find space for cards that we are given and expected to reciprocate .
I'm also in a group ( hobby about 10 people ) and we give each other cards. I

We even have someone in our street ( hello Jeff & Mary ) that post one through our door and as well as their name put @ No 9 , so we send one to them as well ,
I wouldn't know them if I walked past them !

So would we be a grinch if we culled down our Christmas card list ?

I'm still receiving & therefore sending cards to people I worked with 10 years ago and never seen since !

I thought of this after my earlier post - but even if you send them & like doing that - do try & write more than just - To: x & y & kids From: a & b & kids.

That really spins my wheels - if youre going to write them out at least send a cheery message or something like whatever has happened in your world since the last card

I love this: "I still think of you, you are not forgotten."

Hate them
I don't send any
My husband does a few for his family we won't see.
Any we receive go in a tall glass vase - not displayed.

I love them but yes they have to have meaning and a short update otherwise what's the point?

I send about 20 a year and not all to elderly people, quite a few friends same age in our 50's.

I

I send to my family and friends, because I don't get to see most of them at Christmas. I don't just sign my name, though - I'll write an actual message.

I love receiving cards from my friends and family too, and always display them (only get somewhere between 8 - 10 so it's no hardship).

I love sending and receiving them. I do cull our list every couple of years to remove people who haven't been in touch

Honestly I'm not too keen. We don't have a huge house so displaying the seemingly endless cards that come back from the kids schools can be a bit chaotic. I think they are lovely for people who you don't see as often as you would like to though. I find the cards at work tedious and clearly others do too. There was one guy I used to work with that would buy a pack over lunch one day and just sign his name in them all. No "To _" or any kind of message. He'd them walk round plonking them on peoples desks. I think if you can't give them out in good cheer just don't bother really.

I love them, but every year a couple might drop off the list. I do still send some to my late husband's colleagues/friends (he died 14 years ago and most of them i last saw at his funeral). I think they want the latest news of his kids, but I cut most of them out a few years ago.
I use cards i receive as part of Christmas decorations- they sit on the piano. But I moved a couple years ago and despite putting my new address on every envelope a few didn't pick that up (snd were redirected from my old address). I think I'll not hear from some this year as I get left off their lists!
I never gave cards to the mums at the coffee mornings - a few would come in and hand some out. I saw them every week but they weren't friends as such.

I really do. It's nice to be thought of.

Since the pandemic it seems Christmas cards are sadly on the wane. I love receiving them but find for various reasons I’m sending less and less. The one I love sending most is to a girl who I worked with in the 80s who lives in a different part of the country and I love receiving hers and look forward to reading her updates about her family and life.

I hate sending and receiving them. I used to buy about 30 relationship type cards, such a ballache - now I just give scratchcards instead!

I used to. But this year only my parents & brother are getting one. Properly nice ones. I can't see the point in shelling out when I can stick a picture of myself on Social Media and the entire family get my good wishes in one go.

I also am an ambivalent sort towards Christmas, altogether. Meh.

@susiedaisy1912 well, it would be less of a 'waste' if you did display them!

how does not displaying them help?

Sorry I've revived a thread that had stopped weeks ago, it was in that STUPID section 'Similar threads' & I got caught out!

but as I've already put it into active 🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️ I feel the need to at least reply!

I LOVE Christmas cards, the choosing, writing, sending! & the receiving. I have a piece of candy cane style cotton thread that goes up each year, the cards hang over it, so they're not standing up on the mantle or what not.

I received fewer this year, but our post is once a week if I'm lucky, so I'm half expecting to still get some in the next month.

I like them

I send about 30, receive around 25. They fill the windowsill of my big bay window, and cause me no bother until I take them down.

I like them! I send a fair few - probably around 50, but that’s down from 80+ fifteen or twenty years ago. I started culling them a few years ago, but actually sent more during the pandemic, just to be in touch with people. I had hardly any in 2022 and last year, but this year suddenly the number is up a lot again, to my surprise. Maybe people are liking sending them again, despite the postage costs.

I never expect to get as many back as I send - lots of them are to DD’s teachers, TAs etc. - and I send a fair few to elderly relatives and friends of the family who I know really appreciate a card at Christmas. I just like choosing and sending them, and like to keep in touch with them each year. We always put them up on the bookcase at Christmas to decorate the room, and after Christmas DD makes the nice ones into gift tags for the next year.

I’ve been making gift tags with mine for years. Only just enough though now card numbers are down.

For those who hate receiving Christmas card and bin them - do you also bin birthday/thank you/other cards on receipt? I feel cards are so few and far between these days, I appreciate those who go to the effort to choose, but, write and post them to me.

Also older relations expect a thank you card from DC for presents so I make mine write them.

@Sommerled if I got them (which I don’t) then yes, open and straight into recycling.

I like receiving them and they do form part of our decorations. I have however trimmed my list down to those people who send a card and note to us each year, plus elderly relatives and family friends who are too old to reciprocate and who we see infrequently (due to distance). I always write a note to the recipient in the ones I send, and I try to make it personal to them.

I really dislike the social media photo of the family with a caption saying ‘Happy Christmas to all our family and friends’ posts. To me that’s just so lazy. It seems to say that they can’t really be bothered to spend any time or effort trying to keep in touch, and they are certainly not thinking about me in particular (not that I expect anyone to!). I never ‘like’ or respond to those posts, I just scroll quickly past them!

Sending cards is out and buying matching pyjamas and North Pole breakfasts is in in a nutshell. To which I would add that year-round Facebook/Insta boasting has taken the place of the Christmas round-robin newsletter (and those people don’t want random cards interrupting their carefully curated Insta-ready interiors).

I don't feel the need to reciprocate cards. Either someone gives because they want to and that is ok. Or they give expecting one in return and knock me off their list for next year, that is ok too.

I must admit I like getting cards, knowing someone has gone to the effort, but when I think of the waste that over rides the previous thought. I don't send any anymore and message/call/meet up instead (I am old enough I unfortunately don't have any older card sending relatives left).