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Original poster

Christmas Card recycling

30 replies

Ems · 03/01/2002 08:40

In 2000 under 10% of our Christmas cards got recycled.

This year Tesco and Whsmith have got big bins for us to recycle our cards.

Worth a thought when we start the big clear up this weekend!

OP posts:
SueDonim · 03/01/2002 12:24

And Boots and our local Post Office take them! We're spoilt for choice.

Rhiannon · 03/01/2002 18:03

Ems, we do recycle them, we make next years gift tags. R.

pamina · 03/01/2002 21:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SueDonim · 03/01/2002 21:44

Our council has yet to discover the meaning of the words 'green' and 'recycle' so shops are definitely the best option for us. There is a paper recycling depot about 20 miles away but when I asked where they sent the stuff, they told me it all goes to landfill anyway.

jolene · 03/01/2002 23:56

Call me scrooge ( actually it has little to do with money) but I would like to see and end to sending Christmas cards. If you send them to people you see regularly, what's the point in that? And if you send them to people you only keep in touch with by sending Christmas cards to , what is the point in that?
It is a time issue with me. With two small kiddies, being permanantly knackered and very pregnant, it was just another chore I could do without!
Now I have to think about taking down the tree this weekend, and I am exhausted at the very thought! ( old achey hips...)

IDismyname · 04/01/2002 22:23

Don't get me wrong, but somehow I can't get my head around going to WH Smith, for instance, buying my christmas cards, sending them, then taking the equivalent of the whole damn lot back to be recycled!
Ours'll go in the local recycling bin...

Tinker · 04/01/2002 22:54

Am I odd? I like Christmas cards! For the people I see every day,it's a nice way of saying I like and appreciate you and for those I see hardly ever, I get their main news. I know I hardly ever see them, and maybe never will see them again, but I still don't want to lose touch with them.

SueDonim · 05/01/2002 00:42

I'll join you in being odd, Tinker! I like cards, too, although I keep the local ones to a minimum. We've moved so many times over the years that we have a large network of friends all over the place and I love to hear from them, even just annually. It may be that I'll never see them again, but otoh we may have the chance to meet up one day, who knows? Whatever, I'm glad to have shared part of their lives, and shared mine with them.

With regard to recycling, W H Smith's & Tesco's scheme benefits The Woodland Trust, according to today's papers.

Nance · 07/01/2002 10:58

Jolene, I do agree with you - I find it hypocritical to send a card to someone I last contacted 12 months before with yet another card and not much else!!

Am I really mean? I did not get round to sending any cards this year. I only managed to get the kids to write the ones for their classmates!! Not sure if it was me being environmentally friendly or just sheer laziness!! I did give presents to those who are close!!

tusky · 13/01/2002 19:35

What do you think of round robin letters ? I think they're hideous - sent by smug,look how clever/successful/and generally wonderful we are people ...or am I being too bitter and twisted ? they just wind me up- I'm quite tempted to devise a spoof version of my own to circulate.

Tinker · 13/01/2002 22:31

Tusky - completely agree. Disappointed I didn't get any this year but my mum got one full of stuff that was completely out of proportion with my mum's level of frienship with the sender.

On a similar note, we got a video once from relatives in NZ, all showing off their various talents - guitar playing solos, horse riding, black belts in karate etc. We were going to send a return one showing us playing "There is a happy land" on a broken violin.

SueDonim · 13/01/2002 22:35

I posted a spoof RR from a friend somewhere on Mumsnet, Tusky - maybe the on the thread 'Are you ready for Christmas?' I don't mind RR's at all. Some are indeed smug, while others are warm and friendly - a bit like RL people, in fact!

SueDonim · 13/01/2002 22:47

Found it! Here it is Tusky, Spoof Round Robin

tusky · 13/01/2002 23:07

Sudonim - thanks ! that was great - I have to admit that I do quite enjoy reading them (my mum got several this year - always from the same people ) I'd just feel too embarrassed about writing one (a proper one that is)

bloss · 14/01/2002 10:29

Message withdrawn

tusky · 14/01/2002 11:25

Bloss - don't you fret!!your letters sound fine,not the kind that I meant at all ! the ones I've read are always about how well they've done,never anything about how crap things really are! I usually send homeade cards ( only really because I think I ought to make my own,being an illustrator ) and this year they were of my 4 year old decorating the tree- it occurred to me that people(esp my childless friends) might think I was 'showing off' my precious boy,looking cute by the tree,but then I am proud of him ! can't win really.

tiktok · 14/01/2002 12:09

We get 2 round robins every year, from people we hardly know. I end up knowing far more about them than I want to...and they usually do end up sounding smug. And I do not want to know about their elderly relatives' surgical and medical conditions, really. Sorry. I could easily top these stories if I wanted to, but I choose who I share family problems with!! And does grandmama really want the whole world to know about her goings on with her digestive system - puh-lease, a bit of privacy and dignity!

Simon Hoggart in the Guardian does a round up each New Year of the most horrible specimens sent by readers to him, and he can be hilarious.

Tinker · 14/01/2002 18:05

Bloss - please don't take offence. You're one of the most eloquent posters on here!

robinw · 14/01/2002 19:33

message withdrawn

bloss · 14/01/2002 21:46

Message withdrawn

SID · 15/01/2002 11:01

I've never written a round robin, but every year I think we should as we tend to write something in everyone's card, and it's very time-consuming. I love getting them, don't even care if they're smug. The cards I hate getting the most are the ones that are just signed - I have never understood the point of those.

Willow2 · 15/01/2002 21:51

If you think Round Robins are awful you should have seen the Christmas card my step father was sent by a distant client. On the front were four pictures of the client's family in different situations - 1 of father and son on a boat; 1 of the teenage daughter wearing a blue hat; 1 of them skiing and 1 of them on safari - on the inside were captions along the lines of: Simon and Charles taking Oleander (obviously their own blooming expensive boat)to Cannes; Sarah getting her half blue for Cambridge; Margaret and the children on the slopes at (obviously blooming expensive) Lausanne (or however you bloody spell it); On safari at the base of Mount somewhere or other (obviously somewhere blooming expensive) in Kenya. My mother kept it out on display as neither she,nor the rest of her family and friends, had ever seen anything like it. An absolute classic that had nothing to do with Christmas at all other than prove they were going to have an obviously blooming expensive Christmas. I thought she should send it in to the Guardian as it topped any Round Robin I had ever heard of.

janh · 16/01/2002 20:39

Willow2 - love all the "blooming expensives" - you are SO restrained.
Too late for Simon Hoggart now - pity - see if you can get her to send it in next year!

pamina · 16/01/2002 21:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Janus · 17/01/2002 19:13

Willow2, you've just made me laugh out loud! What a hilarious card to get, it must have made quite a few people laugh round your Mum's house this Xmas. Do people not stop and think how ridiculous this might come across as, but well worth the laugh here anyway!