<p>I have cut my Christmas card list way down. </p>
<ol>
<li> I don’t send cards to people I see or speak with on a daily basis ( I wish them Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah in person).</li>
<li> I don’t send card to my Facebook friends (they already know what I’m up to and I send a greeting individually online).</li>
</ol>
<p>To those I do send cards,</p>
<ol>
<li> I always send a picture of the kids or the family and write a little news on the card.</li>
</ol>
<p>A Christmas card with no personal note or no photo just says “Yes, I am still alive and I still have your address and isn’t this a pretty picture on the card.” </p>
<p>I even like getting the ‘brag letters’, over just a signature, or even worse, the pre-printed signature.</p>
<p>Yes, we still send them (or I do). About 60. A flat picture card on nice card stock with a family photo and one of each of the boys (3). I try to write a note on the back of each. I don’t mind getting the ‘brag letters’ but won’t write one as my in-laws and SIL go so over the top it’s nauseating…I just can’t.</p>
<p>Yes, I still send them because I enjoy getting them. This year I added to the task by taking on my mother’s list. I had her sign cards when I was back last week; that’s about all she can manage. Now I am addressing the envelopes and including her new address in assisted living. I know it will mean a lot to her to hear from old friends.</p>
<p>I do, complete with Christmas letter and usually two pics of the kids (or the kids and DH–I am always behind the camera). I’ve never thought of mine as a “brag letter”–I think it started more as a story or two about each kid to tell distant friends/relatives who they were rather than what they’d done. I have gotten compliments on it over the years (“only letter I enjoy reading,” “I always sit down with a cup of tea and a box of Kleenex,” . . .). That said, it’s also something of a burden as I wonder every year if I have the energy to come up with something that measures up. </p>
<p>Anyway–you’ll notice my conspicuous absence over on the cookie thread. Seems that many of us focus on one or the other.</p>
<p>And FWIW, I never did send to close friends–they already know what we’re up to and what my kids are like.</p>
<p>I try to send them. I like getting them but I don’t get any unless I send them first. I hate emailed letters full of typos like I just got yesterday. Blahblahblahblahblah about nothing.</p>
<p>I have sent about 50-60 every year, but I’m stopping this year. It is a waste of paper and postage. I will do a Christmas letter with photos, and email it to most of the list. The few that do not do email at all (elderly etc) I will send the letter to in a card. I suspect that will be fewer than 10 cards. I am a little on the fence about this, but I think it’s time. As was pointed out, I am in touch with many of these people through facebook anyway.</p>
<p>I send them and I love receiving them- even if it’s a generic card with a line or two. I sometimes send pictures of family or the kids, but not always. This year I will send a card with a photo of both of my adult kids to all of our close friends and family. My son is getting married next summer, so this is the last year that I’ll be sending a card with both of my own, as our family profile will be different from now on. I don’t do a Christmas letter, but I write individual letters to those we don’t see during the year outlining the major events- graduations, work changes, and this year, an engagement.</p>
<p>I send another more generic card to friends we know through my husband’s work over the years. No pictures, just a “thinking of you at the holiday” kind of message. I don’t have a Facebook account, so I still enjoy the tradition of sending and receiving cards this time of year.</p>
<p>I was just thinking that this year I am going to go over my list and eliminate everyone who is either immediate family that I see pretty often, or a FB friend who already has the scoop on my life. I am betting this will take the list down to about a dozen. We have always done a letter, but it seems like life is getting quieter and there is less to write… not sure if I will do one this year or not. I suppose I had better decide this week!</p>
<p>We still do send photo cards c/o Shutterfly.</p>
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<p>Im guilty of this–too many names to write is my excuse. I personally write the complimentary close though such as using Sincerely, Love or Fondly or whatever depending on the cards recipient. I prefer to receive cards than the jibjab elf e-cards and this year I expect I will get those gangnam Christmas ecards at least 5 times.</p>
<p>I have come to enjoy late cards the best. Some of my friends wait until January. I find myself spending more time reading and enjoying their cards and letters than the ones arriving in bulk before Christmas.</p>
<p>I send about 200 each year - 150 or so to business clients and 50 to friends and family. Just finished my business cards and am waiting for my son to come home for Christmas for a family photo to use in my family Christmas card. </p>
<p>I love getting cards - especially the ones that have pics/stories of the family/kids. I have many relatives that I don’t see often enough.</p>
<p>I still send out Christmas cards, 40-50 each year. I have four kids and always include pictures of them from the past year. Last year, I included a big family pic (taken ourselves with a tripod and remote) on the front with a letter and goofy fisheye pics of each one of us on the back. It was a big hit. This year, I’m sending a photo collage card and uploaded various sepia pics from our camping/hiking/backpacking trips this past spring and summer for the front and then put a letter and a few more small pics in color on the back.</p>
<p>I particularly love getting picture cards from others and lots of people say they love getting them from us. It’s a lot easier now that there are so many on-line options for photo cards, but it’s still a lot of work addressing them all. I know a couple of people who entered all of the addresses into the computer and print out labels, but that seems too impersonal for me since I’m no longer personally signing each card.</p>
<p>I struggle with who to keep on my list. On the one hand, I think it’s in the spirit of the season to send greetings to all, regardless of whether or not they’ve ever sent us one. On the other hand, it seems like a waste of time, money, and effort to keep sending cards to someone who has never reciprocated. If they don’t send cards out at all that’s fine, but it’s painful to learn that they DO send them out - just not to us. Over the past few years, I’ve cut such folks (almost all family members on my husband’s side )off of our list.</p>
<p>I do this. Saves a lot of time and possible misspellings. Don’t think of it as impersonal, rather a customized address label. It’s also easier to personally write “Dear Jane and John” and “Sincerely” than
Mr. & Mrs. John Smith
123 Main St,
Cityname, XX 01234</p>
<p>I am laughing so hard I have tears rolling down my cheeks. What an appropriate thread. After noting that I like getting the letters but won’t write one because my SIL just goes overboard (post #2) I just got her’s in the mail…TWO FULL PAGES in 10pt font. Seriously?!</p>
<p>When the kids were young, every year we’d take a “Christmas card photo” in the summer and send out the cards where you stick the photo on the card. Then as the kids got older, I started hoping the photo cards would die down, but they didn’t. I kept getting photo cards of teenagers and young adults and I’d send out my holiday card (sans photo). </p>
<p>So this year I decided if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em, and I uploaded photos to shutterfly and produced a holiday card, which I just finished mailing out. As far as signing them, people last year used to draw a line through their printed name to personalize it, but I didn’t do that. My list is definitely smaller than it was before.</p>
<p>I still send cards. Like others have said, I love receiving them, too. I send them to about 50 friends and family, even friends who I see frequently, and always write them and have them in the mail by Dec. 1. Many on my list seem to have gotten theirs out early this year, too, as I’ve already received close to 20 cards. I love getting the crazy Christmas letters, even the ones that brag like crazy about their perfect children.</p>
<p>I send them out. I send the picture card. For years I just sent a picture of the kids, but some of my college friends complained they wanted to see what we looked like too. The last couple of years I had to do a collage photo, because with 2 kids in college, the 5 of us were never together. But this year we got a decent picture so we went with that. I send a letter, but I wouldn’t call it a brag sheet. I usually include something stupid each of the kids have done. I don’t mind if I just get a card without a note or even signed, because I know how crazy busy I was when my three kids were little. I really enjoy getting the picture cards and I put them up on the door of the pantry. Most years they fill up the whole door. I am doing the address labels this year. My handwriting is horrible and I want the card to actually get there.</p>
)off of our list.</p>
It’s also easier to personally write “Dear Jane and John” and “Sincerely” than