when do you start sending xmas cards?

[layla]

Has anyone received a christmas card yet?
Do you sometimes just know that auntie so and so's card will arrive first?
Are you like me and just have to buy charity cards at xmas and for which charity?
Am wondering whether to send mine early and get them out of the way

So when do you start sending,early or last minute?

agree with you cd. I hate that kind of card. It should be personal and all that stuff. I forget most people and mine are always late...sorry if it offends

sorry am cynical old hag and should be ignored.

It was Sir Henry Cole Survivour.

Yes Beety we do agree as I send some to Old ladies I know and old neighbours If on the hunt for goss... but these must number ?8 - am still using up 4 year old cards..

Always buy charity cards (if you buy them from the charity, shop or mail order, they get a large percentage of the price, not just 10p a pack. Don't buy the supermarket "charity" ones) - usually send them far too late - always intend to write a quick update in each one and hardly ever do. When the kids were smaller I used to send a photo (snap or school) to people we don't see. I like sending and getting too, add me to the saddos list.

Oh, sykes, have you never seen a round robin? You are deprived but privileged! They do tend to be from people with something to brag about (not always) and Simon Hoggart's Guardian column has a competition for the braggiest ones every year (people send in ones they've received - eg "Tarquin got the top marks in the country for all his A Levels although he's only 15" CD, save yours to send to him!

Bah. I like round robins. Especially from uni friends who live too far away for us to have got around to seeing as we all have young children. I love hearing what they've been up to, and we usually do one too (as someone else said, there's no way I can otherwise write 30 to 40 personal letters at that time of year). If you don't want to read them or aren't interested you can always put them in the recycling.

I like reading the round robins my mum gets, cos I can laugh at them. But if any of my friends ever thought to write one - they would be off the list. I agree CD, they are generally soooo smug.

i think any time up to mid jan is acceptable

I got a fantastic round robin from a friend who is a comedy scriptwriter who had just had twins. when it fell out of the card we thought "oh lord, he is sending a form letter, I can't believe it" and when we read it it was the most hilarious parody of round robin letters we had ever read. it was all about how one of the twins (who were 4 mths old at the time) had just got a research fellowship at harvard and the other was balancing a busy life as a top supermodel and sought after classic car mechanic, etc etc. Was written in EXACTLY the style of those terrible letters. After the first para I had to read it on the loo as I was pregnant and would otherwise have wet myself!

I wish he'd do it again...

I am aiming to make mine with dd this year but will I really manage to get it done in time for christmas is the question....

Anyone else making theirs this year, and if so how are you going to do it?

I have bought some christmas stampers and ink pads as a starting point!

Sent two yesterday to Australia as its cheaper to send them early from NZ. All the ones to the UK are being sent by my mum on the 17th Dec. when she gets back from NZ.

scoobysnax, an artistic friend of ours makes her own, tends to be just a piece of nice textured paper (don't know what size) folded 4 ways with eg a hand-drawn gold star on the front or a bit of collage. One year she made sachets of mulled wine spices and included one of those, with instructions. I am awed (but still go to Oxfam for mine!).

Dd and I started making cards, Scoobysnax, with some craft stuff I bought when we were in the US. So far, we've constructed eight, which hasn't made a huge dent in the 120 or so cards that I need......

I don't love writing them but I have spent a lot of time living overseas and can't possibly see and chat to people during the year, it is a good way of keeping in touch until the next time you see each other. I try to hand write a summary of the year on both sides of the card as there is no point in paying for an overseas stamp to write Dear...Merry Christmas...Love...I start writing at end of October and send in early December, all together, it takes about that long to write them all. I don't write all the cards although I always write more as I have more family. We love receiving cards with all the news as well. For people who live nearby I only send cards to a few. It is a lot easier to meet up with people years later if you have made that effort to write one letter a year.

I don't send any to teh people I work with, can wish them all a merry Christmas at the time, give a tenner to the hospice instead of doing that. Don't send any to the people at church as we donate a tenner to have our greeting put in the parish magazine. Everyone else gets a nice card from barnado's and we all sign out name individually. Just ask the children to do five or so a night for a week! I only stand the nice ones up (!!) but don't bin any, stick them in a carrier bag and take them to tesco's after Christmas.

SueW, have a look at Cards for Good Causes - apparently the charities get 81p in the £. Website is here . (National Autistic Society is in there!)

I believe the shops like Oxfam, Shelter, Cancer Research, Help the Aged etc contribute a similar amount from the cards they sell - it's only the packs in supermarkets that mostly make a profit for the shop.

Another one

(Combined charities Christmas cards)

This year I've bought Oxfam and the lifeboat ones which my sister laughed at as they have a lovely picture of two men in a big lifeboat on the front,very tasteful.Musn't forget the kids also so bought them some cancer research ones for their pals at school.

My Mum sells charity cards so am fairly obliged to buy them from her.... If I run out I will do as JanH suggests. DS (aged 2) and I are going to make 8 cards for him to send to his grandparents, aunties/uncles etc. We are going to do four snowmen and four christmas trees. When he was 10 months I bought cards and did his handprint onto them. When he was 1 I again bought cards and we drew round his hand and then I put glue inside and he sprinkled glitter on it - total mess but he loved it and of course so did all grandparents.

We're also making our own wrapping paper. This might be an idea for you scoobysnax. I bought brown paper from lakeland (you get loads of large sheets) and a pack of 6 Christmas stamps from ELC and we just stamp all over the paper. DS loves it and its relatively unmessy. Although the ELC "washable ink" stained his skin for a while.

How old is your DD scoobysnax?