Christmas cards are sort of my thing--anything paper related actually. Ever since we had kids I like to send a great-looking card whereas before, I just bought whatever I liked from card store and had far fewer cards to send. I actually wrote my cards out by hand to each and every person! Insert audible gasp here.
Now, I settle for a pre-printed one with a photo but we send about 75 cards out so it can get expensive. I'm trying to be good about getting a photo done early so I can take advantage of the sales that they all offer around Thanksgiving and of course, as a bonus that would mean I can get my cards out earlier too.
I guess you could say I'm not a fan of those envelope-sized glossy photo cards.
Way back before the digital age made the printed word cheap and instantaneous, some might say effortless and thoughtless too, people put their Christmas cards in a shoebox to save. People had things to say to each other and took the time to write those sentiments on a card during the holidays. I have to think those cards were saved as much for the power of their written words as for the effort it took to send the card at all. Whole shoe boxes were dedicated to saving those cards, as anyone with an elderly relative can attest! Then, we stopped writing them in favor of store-bought printed cards with their factory generated sayings, quotes, and artwork saving us the time and energy of writing them ourselves. Now, even those seem to have almost disappeared in favor of the ubiquitous glossy photo card printed on 9.5x4.5 paper so one can just slip them in the envelopes already on-hand in the office; practically eliminating entirely any thought or effort on our part.
But, I have to wonder what exactly we accomplish by sending those flimsy, notoriously difficult to display, pieces of photo paper that will fade to oblivion in less than a year. Certainly, cost is a factor. They can be cheaper than a store bought card to send and everyone loves a good photo.
But, If you want cheap you can just print the 4x6 photos and pop them in the mail with a post-it note to say Merry Christmas. There's always a 100 cards for 1 cent each deal going on online. And if post-its aren't your thing, buy the frame-type cards. It would be like sending a mini-Christmas gift or a card that keeps on giving. I know I would keep a photo I received like that but those long skinny cards I just never know what to do with. They don't stand on their own, they don't fit in a frame or photo album pocket and they're not printed to last without fading for any length of time. But I guess if you send those kind you don't expect any of that. It's a disposable card.
If it were acceptable many folks would probably skip the step of sending a card at all and just attach a photo to an email and write, "Merry Christmas!" in the subject line and hit send to 400 of their closest friends and family. To be fair, an email is probably already pretty close to being an acceptable mode of delivery for a Christmas card. A friend of mine did that last Christmas.
But, I reserve the right to stand up for tradition and quietly send out our cards--already a step-down from years past when we sent folded cards with a hand-written note--on real paper just in case someone out there still has a shoebox with which they like to collect their Christmas cards. And I like to think that we'll be around and our messages of joy and happiness in this season will last far longer having been saved by a few of the traditionalists in some little shoebox somewhere.
Wishing everyone a beautiful holiday season and mailboxes full of enduring, heartfelt messages of joy and love.
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