Friday, December 10, 2021

The Decline And Fall Of Christmas Cards

 For all of my life, I have lived where we received Christmas cards at Christmas.

My parents, for whatever reason, started send out pictures of my sister and I when we were young - back in the days when you had to take the picture, develop it to verify that it was a good picture, and then provide it to a company to print them on photo paper.  Ever year, the card went out and over time, building a nice picture of us growing up to those far away (my sister for one Christmas collected all of them for me as a picture, which brings me joy).  My mother would spend hours hand signing and then addressing each card.  As I recall as we got older, we got "volunteered" to apply stamps, back in the day when they were not self stick.

In return, we received a plethora of cards from friends and relatives:  some with just a card, some with a card and note or letter, some picture cards, and the best - a card with a gift in it.  This was the annual exchange of greetings and catching up, a sort of analog Social Media before Social Media existed.

The Ravishing Mrs. TB has taken over the task in our house.  The mechanics are different: an electronic picture, sent electronically and then artfully arranged on a computer, printed with soy ink on non-rain-forest-destructive/recycled paper, labeled with printed labels and stamped with self-sticking stamps.  It is fortunate that she does it - I have neither the interest nor the inclination, both from the patience to do it standpoint and the "this all ends up recycled anyway" point of view.

Over time, I have noticed, the cards coming in are less and less.

Part of this is to be expected, of course:  people pass away or move, addresses change, or you do not "make the cut" for this year's list.  At the same time, I would argue over the last two years there has been something more like a precipitous drop.

I do not know that it surprise me, of course.  I suspect that very few over 40 sends out cards anymore, based on a combination of cost, interest, and the fact that Social Media (for a lot of people) fills this update role.  In that sense, we are as "out of touch" as we want to be.

Every year at the end of the season, I hint about the number of cards that we have received, more as an exercise of "are we going to do this next year?"  To date, no such conclusion has been made - and to some sense it is understandable:  especially to older relatives (a large chunk of whom we send to), this may be their update for the year - and it does give them a picture to hang on a refrigerator or wall (and I have seen more than one of them at someone's house).  I suspect none will ever be made and I suppose I am okay with that:  in the course of events it is a minor cost and if it does bring joy to someone that needs it in this (of all) seasons, it is worth it.

As of the date of this writing (09 December) we have a total of 5 cards that we have received. I assume they will continue to trickle in, either as the mail plods along or the sudden reaction of some that "they sent us a card, we need to be polite and send one back".  That seems a little down to me from earlier years, but it is not as if I keep a running log of these things - although I remember when the count was likely 60 or more.

I am not one that cheers the death of traditions, as usually they are let go for reasons that have nothing to do with the tradition or the purpose of it.  But for once, in this case, I am not sure that I would mind if the sending of Christmas Cards simply and inevitably became the unusual and surprise occurrence instead of an expected social necessity.  Perhaps it is the growth of social media with more frequent updates, or perhaps it is simply the sense that a card once a year is not a true substitute for a relationship that in some cases, may simply be a reaction to what comes in the mail. 

14 comments:

  1. We never did this. Mom did send cards to family, but I never adopted it. Too expensive. We didn't have any frivolous money.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suspect that in some years - this being one of them - cost has a great deal to do with it. I have no idea what the total of the card/envelope combination and stamps are, but it can certainly add up.

      Delete
  2. My wife is into cards up to the hilt. She has stencils, tiny precision paper cutters, weird shaped hole-puncher things and gizmos that I have no idea what they do. And folks just love her cards - especially the old folks. It's a hobby for her.

    We get tons every year but it is the folks at church. They have a community mail box in the coffee room and you can sneak secret Christmas presents and cards off to unsuspecting victims without being seen. I used to love it because I could make horrible crafts in the leather shop and folks would have to pretend to be delighted at church and then wait until they got home to throw them out, HAR HAR HAR!

    I just go on my cell on Christmas morn and text 'merry christmas' along with a quick message for everyone in my directory and that is good enough for me...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glen, The Ravishing Mrs. TB has all of that equipment and used to make more cards - but then life happened, etc. Now, one of Na Clann occasionally uses it. But not often.

      Yup, the cell phone and/or social media has made it exactly that way.

      Count as of this writing is now 8. I would be in years past we would have triple that number.

      Delete
  3. The cost of cards has gone through the roof. We send a few out. We get a few back. Like you said, these are usually to and from the elder among us... myself included...

    Social media... filling in the gaps... We all wonder why there are such big gaps in the histories of various civilizations. They exist because there is no written account of them... "Social media" is worse than no account, as it is capable of actually rewriting history... I'm not a big fan of Faceplant...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pete, it used to be we would get them in the Christmas after sales and then we started doing the photo thing.

      You are correct about the loss of written accounts being the loss of a civilization. At some point the lights will go out, and this entire part of history will become as abandoned and unknown as Bactrian History.

      Delete
  4. I guess I am your complete opposite on this post. My parents never did such a thing when I was growing up by my wife insisted that we do so after we were married. We started out sending a handful of Christmas cards every year and now send out somewhere close to 70. The post office man always comments on how many Forever International stamps I purchase after he dusts off the few sheets he carries. We probably have over two dozen cards received thus far but our card holder that displays them holds 50 and it is usually completely full and then some be the end of the year.

    Thanks to technology, it really doesn't take much of an effort to send them out. We can take a picture with our digital camera and have the printed off cards in about an hour. With the girls helping out by stuffing and stamping the envelope, I address them and my wife personalizes a message, we are generally done with three hours of having saying we need to take a picture and get our card printed. I then print out a spreadsheet of everyone and their addresses and make a note of any changes in address, additional names of children and grandchilden as they come in so we can get things right the next year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ed, I would bet we send out that same number or more. Our count now is up to 8.

      That sounds like quite an assembly line you have going. We would be 90% of the way there, except we do the actual card printing via some company on the InterWeb.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous7:54 AM

    Challenge accepted. Keith

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Keith, I am interested to see what our total count will be this year.

      Delete
  6. Our house growing up had louvered doors immediately beyond the front door. Four sections covering a large coat closet. Every year after Thanksgiving the Christmas Cards would start hitting the mailbox, and the cards were just perfectly situated to fit through the louvers. As the days passed many happy and thoughtful images grew and expanded to cover the doors from floor to ceiling. Happy Santas, Funny reindeer, quirky snowmen, and peaceful mangers filled the space, and was always nice to see as you entered or left the house. As the years passed the numbers ceased to fill the space, and now Mom doesn't even have enough to bother with it. Technology and old age has killed a wonderful relic of the past, yet we cling to the memories, and all is right with the world.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just So, I think my grandparents employed a similar strategy.

      There was something almost magical about see that collection of Christmas magic. Now, what we have (at least) is a distant and faint memory of them - at least here. Perhaps, as Ed suggests, it is a regional thing.

      Delete
  7. I am the Christmas card sender for us, and two years ago I changed to New Year's cards. I found this liberating, as I feel as long as I get it out by the end of January, it's fine. And judging from personal experience, the receiver is more likely to enjoy it after things have slowed a bit and the Christmas season is done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob, that is actually a great idea - and in fact, they are much more of a wonderful surprise when later.

      Again, The Twelve Days of Christmas. We should bring it back.

      Delete

Comments are welcome (and necessary, for good conversation). If you could take the time to be kind and not practice profanity, it would be appreciated. Thanks for posting!