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Original poster

Probably been done before but...Christmas cards that annoy me

66 replies

Tommy · 13/12/2004 11:04

I know I should be grateful that people send me christmas cards and I should stop being such a humbug but it really annoys me when I get a card that doesn't have "To Tommy, DH, DS1 and DS2" and just says "from whoever....." So they've just spent the whole evening signing their names in cards and not think about the person they're sending them to at all. Angry
Why bother sending cards of you can't be bothered putting the person's name in it?

Sorry....rant over Blush

OP posts:
MariNativityPlay · 13/12/2004 11:28

Maybe it's time to resurrect our Round Robins best contributions sent/received thread from previous years...there were some corkers on that. We had a fabulous one last year but I hesitated to share in case she was a Mumsnetter. It was quite surreal.
I like getting them but only so I can laugh my head off at them Blush

Socci · 13/12/2004 11:32

Oh yes round robins - my pet hate, particularly the ones which go into all the details of every month. I would never presume that anyone would actually give a sh*t what I've been doing all year! And have you noticed how they are always full of glowing reports of their wonderful lives.....bah humbug!!

whitepixmas · 13/12/2004 15:15

I've never received a round robin. I obviously don't move in the right circles!

ThomCatsAreNotJustForXmas · 13/12/2004 15:24

I've written personal messages in all mine and I signed them from me and DD and DP signed his own name. Otherwise why boither sending a card?

bonniej · 13/12/2004 15:33

Can't stand christmas cards. Got loads so far from people we haven't even spoke to during the year. A hypocritical waste of money I reckon. I'm very naughty but tend to chuck loads in the bin! only keep them from people that matter.

snowdonim · 13/12/2004 15:45

Well, I like cards and the round robins (I enjoy people's news and get a good laff out of the pretentious onesWink) but how do I drop people off my Xmas card list? I keep receiving cards from people I'll never have any other contact with again but I still get cards every bloomin' year. I feel sooo guilty if I don't send them cards in return (usually postmarked 24th Dec!!) and in any case that doesn't seem to stem the flow.

Re signing cards - my bro appears to have forgotten my family's names but, more worryingly, he also seems to have forgotten his own family members!!! But he's a skinflint and I suspect he thinks he's saving ink if he keeps it brief. Mean git.Angry

MiaouyChristmas · 13/12/2004 15:58

Um... I quite like round robins. I'd prefer to receive one rather than not know at all what's been going on in their lives, particularly relatives we don't see from one year end to the next. Handwriting some news in the card is lovely, particularly if you have time to do it, but you get to hear a lot more from a printed letter. Perhaps I just have nice family/friends who don't boast about their kids' achievements!

DO hate the cards with just From so and so in them, not your own names - very impersonal. One couple (dh's side Grin) sends a card with a computer printed label for the address, AND a computer printed label with "From Ethel and Fred" on it - nothing else! We wonder why they bother!

And re the To so and so and family - I do my best to put in kids names where I know them, but some people only sign their cards "& family" so you can't even make a note for the following year!

moondog · 13/12/2004 16:20

I hate ones to 'Mr and Mrs' using HIS name only. For a start I don't use dh's surname and even if I did still think it is bloody rude (although Debretts would beg to differ..)
How would blokes take to being called Mr Jane Smith or something similar?
One area which I feel the whole 'women's movement' has never even addressed.
Tempted to send them back with 'addressee unknown' scrawled over the front but then again even I am not that mean!! Grin

Flumberrysauce · 13/12/2004 16:30

Oh I like getting letters which say Mr & Mrs His first and last name. I think its sweet and old fashioned. Probably because we are not actually married yet.

But when we are I also plan immediately to have some cream cards printed saying:

Mrs Rafferty Bobsleigh
at home

in embossed ink. Obviously thats not the actual name but you get the picture. My future MIL sends them when she has lunches and I think its terribly posh and smacks of the idle upper classes. I'm gonna send em to my pals when I invite them round for a proper booze up!! Wey hey

Flumberrysauce · 13/12/2004 16:32

Needless to say I am obviously marrying above myself - hee hee , and am a dreadful social climber [tongue in cheek emoticon]

spacedonkey · 13/12/2004 16:32

I think you should change your name by deed poll to Mrs Rafferty Bobsleigh - great name!

moondog · 13/12/2004 16:34

flum, that's hilarious (mil stuff) don't know anyone who still does that!!!

Flumberrysauce · 13/12/2004 16:35

Well actually it will be my real name but it is so mad I didn't think anyone would believe me. Wink

Flumberrysauce · 13/12/2004 16:39

Well since hooking up with my dp I have learnt that:

One should write Mr & Mrs Him, his surname
One should eat soup backwards
One should say 'one' not 'you'
One should send a thank you not if someone so much as smiles at you in the street.
One should really know how to play bridge.

Oh yeah and that 'equible' is a reasonable adjective to use to describe a 10 month old baby!

All joking aside, they are a smashing family with no actual airs and graces at all. They were just brought up like that. Just slightly more upper middle than most of my rabble.

Flumberrysauce · 13/12/2004 16:39

Thank you note - of course

BRANdybutter · 13/12/2004 16:42

I didn't realise that people actually read Christmas cards - I only ever look at the back of the envelope to see who it's from. I'm appalling at sending them too, most of my cards arrive in January, and if I write anything at all on the inside it's "to x and family". Good thing none of you are on my list Wink.

motherinfestivemood · 13/12/2004 16:46

OH god. I fail on all counts. I do usually write the name of the person I'm sending it to, but below I scrawl 'from MI et al'. I actually don't want to sign DP's and the inferiorettes' names to old mates who've known me forever - I want them to be MY friends not watch me disappear into Family Anonymity. The ones that do go to joint friends get DP's separate pawprint, if we happen to be in the same house and on speaking terms while I do them.

That's my story anyway and I'm sticking to it.

Flumberrysauce · 13/12/2004 16:56

MI thats a good point. It's weird when people sign for little children who I've never met, and who can't write anyway.

Spose we should be grateful just to get the cards really and not winge about how they are written.

Hulababy · 13/12/2004 17:10

Eeek - I have written the envelopes for my cards (worte cards the other night and got bored!) this afternoon and I have gone for traditional Mr & Mrs . But I do know that all our family and friends do use the same married surname socially. And the husband's initial is the traditional/more formal way to adress something isn't it?

Where unmarried I have just put to Miss x and Mr x .

I just can't get worked up about stuff like that anyway - I'm too lazy!

fruitful · 13/12/2004 17:30

Well, we're planning on sending an email saying we can't be bothered to write Christmas cards and have spent the money on a goat instead (that would be a goat for someone who wants a goat in some African country whose name I can't spell). Merry Christmas and if you want to know how we're doing, you have our phone number and email! Love from Me, DH, DD and Bump.

Which probably takes the biscuit for a) laziness, b) addressing people wrongly, and c) signing for people who can't sign for themselves! I like the idea of people that we haven't told yet doing a double take when they get to the "& Bump" part though.

The few people we know who don't have email are going to get a highly personalised card made by dd this week. She is 2.5 so it will be very artistic, but I think most of them are people who will appreciate it...

codswallop · 13/12/2004 17:31

dont send htem
I dont

codswallop · 13/12/2004 17:32

Oh and I always bint hem
cant see the point. when I tell epople I dont send them they look at me enviously adn then chicken out

spacedonkey · 13/12/2004 17:44

I don't send them either.

I find xmas cards meaningless tbh. I'd rather receive a little note or postcard from someone "just for the sake of it" at any other time of year.

moondog · 13/12/2004 18:41

Agree spacedonkey. I've liberated myself from Christmas card hell and really don't care whether I get some or not, although I've just had one (will be my one and only here in Turkey) from my husband's Englich colleague and for some odd reason I am irrationally thrilled with it even though it looks quite lonely all on its own!

Mind you, I send a LOT of e mails to people I care about through the year and amazed at how little effort most people make in return.
A crappy 30th hand joke does NOT a suitable missive make. Now I delete even before reading..

What amazes me is the assumptions others make re my infatuation with their children. I have received framed handprints and framed pictures amongst other things.
Now a loose snapshot (oooh, lovely old fashioned word!) is great and may possibly grace the front of the fridge or office pinboard for a while. Similarly, framed pictures of VERY close family are sometimes acceptable (especially if we or our offspring are also in the picture Smile) but I will NOT have people choosing my accessories for me.
What a cheek!

wickedwinterwitch · 13/12/2004 20:18

Ha ha at this thread! I'm not sending any either, I just really, really can't be arsed.