Cost of sending Christmas cards becoming prohibitive?

[bakedpotatoforlunch]

We've always sent Christmas cards to family and friends and appreciated receiving them in return including updates of their news etc. We've always thought it's a great way to stay in touch with old friends we'd otherwise probably lose contact with. I know e-Christmas cards have been around for years now but we've still stuck with actual cards partly to support various charities that produce them and partly because it just feels a bit more personal actually to write something with an actual pen (something I don't do very often these days apart from the shopping list!).

For the first time we are thinking, because of the cost of stamps, alongside everything else at Christmas, heating bills, food etc. we really maybe can't afford it. Not sending cards is not something we'd ever considered before. Anyone else in the same boat?

I used to always send a pile of cards out on 1st December and enjoyed sending/receiving them. But the last few years I just send them to people I receive them from. I actually feel the reverse to you - I can’t be bothered sending/receiving cards to/from people we don’t see from one years end to the other.

I agree, this year for the first time I thought it was too expensive. The cost of 2nd class stamps is crazy! Costs more than the cards themselves.

Stopped sending them except to older members of the family (50 and up). Otherwise I have a box of cards for the children to give to friends.

We've reduced right down in recent years and only really send to older relatives and good friends who live far away now. For most people our age (40s) we realised no-one else was sending and we'd get a hurried one back after Christmas 😂 so we've stopped.

The first of stamps does seem insane now. In my head they're still 27p 🤦

I’m in my 30s and have a big family spread all over the UK so I like to send a card at Christmas. I think it’s a nice tradition, I enjoy sitting down to write them.

However, this year I’ve decided not to send any. It’s so expensive now, I can’t justify £50 on cards that will be binned in a week or two (unless you post them in November like Pamela in Gavin and Stacey!).

I still send cards, about 50 a year. I love getting them, though moved two years ago and many people seem to have missed the return address label I put on each or are cutting down themselves (my mail is still being redirected). And I love displaying them - they are part of my decorations!
I used to not send one to people I saw only as part of a larger group (like school mums) and was always slightly amused when a few would arrive laden with with cards to hand out - I am more likely to send to people I don't see often with some catch up news and people I genuinely care about.
But cost of post is shocking, especially last year when we only got one delivery a week if that (SW London) and I got some Xmas cards in late January! But e-cards just aren't the same.

I send a nice one to my mum ….she likes them….she’s 87….. if I’m given/ sent them , I put then in a pile …l.never put them up…think they look tacky

We send e-cards or a self-designed one via email and that's it.

It's not only the postage price, it's the fact that they will end in the rubbish very soon after. I just don't like the idea to spend money for that.

I am the same with birthday cards, outside my mum and DD's friends who invite her to a party I don't buy cards.

The only cards I buy are when someone dies and I send condolences.

Love cards. In my heyday I'd send around 80 but that was covering a local sports team I ran. Now it's 30. Gives me a chance to scribble latest news to relatives and friends - I used to write a short and ironic round robin about all the family's failings but have cut that out. My DC send them still and enjoy them. Even hand delivering local ones and ecarding abroad, the cost is still monstrous. In our old town the scouts/guides used to charge 30p a "stamp" in the local supermarkets/shops with a cut off of Dec 15 and then hand deliver them. Great idea .....

I love xmas cards and always buy about 80 stamps before they go up in anticipation of sending cards as it is exoensive. I do keep a record of who sends cards & dont send them to people who dont send to me. I'd be really sad if cards die out - they are a good source of income and marketing for charities and museums and galleries too

My friends and family send lovely cards! I think of them as christmas decorations.

I still enjoy getting Christmas cards and sending them too but have reduced how many I send down to about 25. It is a shame stamps are much more expensive now but at the same time I do think it’s great how for under £1 you can send something to the other end of the country in just a couple of days.

We send about 15 by post and maybe 20 more hand delivered. That's down a lot on 5 or 10 years ago.

I'm really sad about the demise of Christmas and birthday cards. They will die out soon, I suppose . I was sending 20 or 30 per year in the post until fairly recently. This year it will be 10 at most. As my older relatives die, that will be the end of it. I blame Royal Mail, the money-grabbing arseholes.

I secretly lol at people who don't put their cards up because they make the house "untidy" - these are the same people who take their tree down on Boxing Day and have a good hoover. How uptight can you be.

That's me! I bloody hate Christmas cards cluttering up the place. I've decided not to send any this year. I do, however, leave the tree up to news year day.

I think it's a nice tradition.

If you can offset the cost by hand delivering as many as you can and just posting the ones who aren't local, it would be nice to continue.

In saying that, I don't actually know the cost of a stamp these days?

@tuttifuckinfruity £1.10 First Class. 75p Second Class.

Putting Christmas cards up looks 'tacky?' FFS there's always one. 🙄

I suppose you think Christmas lights outside peoples houses are tacky too.

And as @LindorDoubleChoc said, I bet you take your Christmas tree and your few 'incredibly classy and expensive' decorations down at 10am on Boxing day morning too.

Actually, it's £1.25 for a stamp - for a first class letter! Second class letter is 75p though yeah.

Royal Mail prices | Royal Mail

As @SnapdragonToadflax said, in my head they are still 27p! I am always shocked at the price when I ask for a stamp/try to post a letter at the post office. I rarely do thankfully, but when I do I'm like

This is so true - we are paying more and more for a service which is getting worse and worse.

I can afford cards but not the postage so I only give to those I can deliver/ distribute myself now
I always send birthday cards instead

I'm only sending cards to elderly relatives/ family friends this year as I know it means something to them (well some of them!) It's not just the cost, more the pointlessness of it - sending cards to our friends in their 30s feels like throwing money in the bin tbh.

Postal strikes last year meant most cards wouldn't have been delivered before Xmas so a lot of people didn't do it.

Only cards I send via the post are to the older relatives. I've written 8 this year. When I started 10 years ago I had a list of 12. Sadly as the older relatives die off my list gets shorter and shorter. I imagine in 10 years time I won't be posting cards at all. I hand deliver cards to my family. I send all my friends a message. I'm early 30s.

Interestingly I've noticed MIL and my mum sending less and less cards these past few years where the price of stamps has gone up. My mum now only sends people one who send her one and makes an effort to hand deliver quite a few. MIL culled her list last year to people she has spoken to since Covid. She managed to go from 2 boxes to only needing the 1 box.

Still send them to TRUE friends - what's a pound odd?

Just cut back on unnecessary ones 🙄 surely you don't send that many?