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Raise your hand if you still do this.

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Thanks to modern technology that keeps us in constant touch, I don’t write letters anymore… but I do still send cards. Not for every occasion like I used to, but definitely for birthdays, graduations, new babies, and weddings. Okay, I send sympathy, thank you and retirement congratulations as well.

Maybe I do still send them for everything.

But not the lesser holidays… no more Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day cards. Those are a thing of the past.

But I do enjoy the annual Christmas card swap. For some of our old friends it’s the only time of year we correspond and I look forward to seeing what brightly colored festive greeting they’ve chosen to celebrate the season.

Though I’ve cut back my list dramatically, dropping the dead beats who haven’t sent us one in 3 years or more, I send a lot of cards…. and it takes me a few days to write personal notes and hand address the envelopes. Don’t get me started on those impersonal photo cards and computer printed labels.

I’m old school.

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Every year I buy three different types of cards. There’s a Maine themed card with a moose or lobster for my southern friends. A sweet and glittery card for friends who like those, and then a slightly funky, artistic type of card for my more creative friends.

This year, those boxes were an assortment of four designs from an artist I was unfamiliar with but will be looking for again.

I love them!

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Very cool indeed Charlie.

❤️

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53 thoughts on “Raise your hand if you still do this.”

  1. I used to send a card to everyone I offended at work. It got pretty expensive until I offended the last one and then, I just got a really BIG Christmas card with the word, “Sorry…” and posted it in the lobby…

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  2. Those are cute!!
    I like holiday cards that include stickers to personalize… I let the recipients do that. I also like 3D cards. But I quit sending cards years ago. I still buy a few… but usually forget where I put them… till about a week after their relevance.

    I painted 2 cards a month ago (or longer). I still haven’t written msgs and sent them.

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  3. Your picks this year are adorable! And, oh man, I am guilty as all get out with my cheap photo cards and no personalized note inside. Here I was feeling proud I’d managed that. How many do you send, on average?

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  5. Yup! Me too. I write a light-hearted Update Letter to those I don’t see on Facebook – several long distance friends have kept them from years back which is pretty cool.

    Mind – I HATE the hassle of it all really. If I wasn’t such a traditionalist, I’d bin the idea tomorrow. And it’s so expensive now … like @ £1.25 for a first class stamp.

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  7. I used to design my own Christmas cards and then have them professionally printed – I’d start designing in October LOL I’m actually quite proud of my handiwork…the image on my current blog post went on a card one year – I think that was everyone’s favorite. I stopped sending cards during the pandemic and never picked it up again. I send very elaborate birthday cards because I no longer send gifts to adults mostly because the majority of my friends have summer birthdays and chocolate doesn’t ship well in the summer LOL I received exactly 3 condolence cards and 2 of those were from people who live in my building – sending cards has gone by the wayside in this internet age…Maybe next year I’ll start again…

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  9. I love sending Christmas cards, although this year work and the menopausal fatigue have gotten to me. I actually forgot about it until I received a card from my good friend Heather in the mail earlier this week. Next year will be better, but then I’ll take your advice and cut those that don’t ever reciprocate and cut them off my Christmas card list 😁. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Spectacular New Year!

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  10. Those are cool cards. We send cards to special people and people we know will enjoy receiving them. I was once assigned the task of addressing the cards. Of course, I took the envelopes we had received the previous year – scanned them – performed OCR on the scanned images and created a file from which I could create labels. I printed the labels and a sheet of return address labels, complete with little Christmasy decorations.

    My wife nixed the address labels but stuck the return address labels on the back.

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  13. I wrote this a couple years ago and it seemed pertinent to this subject. If you don’t think so I won’t be hurt, better luck next time
    Can’t we just not be friends? Kenny Nines
    Before anything else, thanks to Caitlyn Kelly for suggesting that I post this, sight unseen. Let’s see how it goes.

    I have lived in a lot of places, with a lot of people moving into and out of my life. I grew up in a military family, surrounded by other military families who were also constantly on the move. This changes things.

    I figured out early that my base housing relationships were going to end and, most likely, they were going to end suddenly, with seldom more than a couple weeks notice. I wrote letters, maybe a few letters, to see how things were going, but it was inevitable that, by slow degrees, the distance would grow. The changes would come and we would not be there for them, until my Friends and I became people we used to know.

    This used to hurt me. I didn’t understand how so many people I liked and remembered so well could just forget me. The old feeling of hurt has faded into a sort of humble acceptance that I, as a small part of the past, shouldn’t expect to be that important in the present, so good luck to you all and no hard feelings.

    I have Friends now, seven at last count. They have seen me when I would much rather they had not and held me in their hearts even though I felt I didn’t deserve it. My Friends don’t all know one another but whenever I am with any of them I belong, and belonging is everything. I Love my Friends and, sad as it is to say, that’s not good enough anymore.

    The wheels of progress roll and, while many good things come from this, far too often things of immense value are left ruined in the ruts they leave in their passing. Things like Friends.

    The Gospel of John says ” Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” I’m an atheist and, gender politics aside, I feel certain this statement is in no way an accurate reflection of many people’s Facebook profile.

    Sometimes I hope for some friendship and end up with a broken heart. I will meet someone and find I really like them, then something will emerge that I simply can’t abide, can’t respect. If I still think it’s worth it, I’ll try for a while but it usually rankles to the point that the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze.

    Let’s not make any mistakes here. Often as not the problem is me. I’m less than diplomatic and people don’t like that, even though it means I’m addressing them like an adult. Some people don’t like that either.

    So here I am in my shop and it’s LONELY. One day this will end and my friends and I will be together once more. I will, however, still be me, just like they will be who they are and we will belong.

    To the friend I had who was taken by the covid-19 pandemic, I could not be more deeply sorry. This aside, all the sorrow and regret, the tender words and forgiveness can’t change the fact that we should just not be friends.
    The everyone comes back the same part didn’t work out, I doubt it did for anybody. The good news is that you can burn a forest and the trees grow back. It’s like my barber shop: Any bad haircuts are guaranteed to grow back in a couple weeks.
    Thanks for looking again.

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    1. It’s funny how time and distance can affect friendships. I’ve had female friends as close as sisters, women I thought would always be there…. until they weren’t. To be honest, today I don’t even recognize some of the people they’ve become. Of course that goes both ways, they probably say the same about me.
      😉

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  14. I’ve stopped sending Christmas cards, except to my cardiologist, just to let him know that my heart’s still in the right place (he’s the only one who still has reason to believe this old curmudgeon). 😀

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  15. That’s good art! And since I am a Ball State University alumna, mascot being Charlie Cardinal, I’m gonna check these out O_O

    And yes, I do still do it, although it seems fewer and fewer each year!

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  17. I’ve been Team Photo Card my whole life, but I don’t view them as impersonal. There’s still quite a bit of effort involved in figuring out a theme, planning a trip, setting up the tripod, ordering them, etc. And of course, me being me, ours always include a pun.

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  18. The cardinal cards are super cute; I love them too!

    I send about 60 cards and I do the photo montage with an update, because a lot of people only hear from me at Christmas. (and vice versa) I used to hand write all the envelopes, but my handwriting has gotten so bad that I use the printed labels….also, I can print those before my cards arrive so I’m ahead of the game. I do write a note to each person though, I’m not totally out of the game.

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