<p>Do people still send holiday cards? I like receiving them, so I make an effort to send them. When my kids were younger, I’d enclose a school photo in cards that I sent to relatives. I also like to write a short note to each recipient.</p>
<p>I get a fair number of cards, but very few holiday letters. I actually like the letters. That being said, every once in a while I get a letter that crosses over from family news to self-promotion. (It’s a fine line and certainly subjective.) Here’s a condensed version (it was a single-spaced one-pager) of a card/letter I got today–IMO it crossed the line.</p>
<p>“We went to Hawaii for spring break; we went to Martha’s Vineyard for the summer; we bought a new house and packed and packed.We are finally moved all our stuff to the new house. Hope someone buys our old house. Kid A won X award. (Nothing about other Kid B, who is special needs.) Hope all are well.” Enclosed was a photo of the pool/patio of the new house and photos of family on vacation. Am I being too critical? </p>
<p>What’s your view on holiday cards and letters? Waste of time and money? Fun way to catch up? No time?</p>
<p>I love the new trend which seems to be picture cards…done by Shutterfly or the like…with lots of pics. Those are fun to see. I’m not a fan of the letters. And we don’t get very many of those.</p>
<p>Since my kids aren’t here together until December 26, I’ve taken to sending an email update with kid pic in January. We don’t make it a bragging newsletter…just an update on what everyone is doing and where. </p>
<p>I love getting holiday cards and letters. I love reading what people are up to and seeing pictures. That said, I am not sending them this year. Too late, I realized that this was the one year when we actually have some really nice family photos that I could have used. Oh well, maybe next year.</p>
<p>I think I sent 60-70 cards. One was to my mom’s best friend, who is now in her 90s. She called, and we chatted an hour. I send to patients, old and new, and some professionals. It is very timeconsuming.</p>
<p>Every year, my mom sends out a letter including news from my family and my sister’s. In 2013, I was tempted to include info about my son’s month-long stay in a psych hospital, our dog dying, our business slowing down to a halt, my husband dropping a knife on his foot and severing a tendon, our tenant threatening suicide in our daylight basement, my middle son graduating from HS by the skin of his teeth, etc. But I restrained myself! Thank God things turned around in 2014!</p>
<p>I like getting cards and letters and most years I send them. We’ll send one out this year. We’ve got a kid who graduated and had a reasonably interesting internship, now over so as of today he’s unemployed. We’re putting an addition on the house, so there can be something about the trials and tribulations of living with contractors and their deadlines, and dh has a lot of news about the med school which may or may not undergo a major transition in the next year or two. Lots of drama. </p>
<p>Haven’t sent out for years. Was the most dreaded Christmas task so I stopped doing it! We have a small family and circle anyway.</p>
<p>As far as cards we receive (which gets smaller each year) - the picture ones are cute, the letter ones are fine though yes, sometimes feels like a family ego trip - but I have to say any card with just a signature does feel like a waste of money to me. Just a tradition I don’t buy into. </p>
<p>I send cards, and write a note to each person, except for the few people I send to that I see/talk to very regularly.
I usually have a picture of some version of kids, either from school or vacation. I like getting a note, pictures, and/or a picture card. Some personalization is appreciated. </p>
<p>I do send out cards with letters and a pic or two. It is the ONLY time of year I connect with some very long-term friends, so for that reason alone it is worth doing. I try to make the letter more updates and humor than braggy. I also do share any health challenges.</p>
<p>Today I was taken aback by a letter I received from a friend of decades but who does not live near me and whom I have not seen or spoken to in several years. Christmas is the only time of year when we connect. Her H, not much older than my H and me, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Her letter was gracious and upbeat, but honest about the reality, expressing gratitude for all they had done together in the earlier, easier years. I feel so bad and hope to manage to visit them in the coming year. Had we not maintained Christmas card contact I would have been oblivious.</p>
<p>Individual notes are nice but would take me too much time. I too sigh when I receive just a card with a signature. All that tells me is that the person is still alive. </p>
<p>I think next year I may switch to just pics with captions.</p>
<p>I actually make my cards, from scratch. I made 60 this year. I’d say I put in about 40 hours working on them. Every year when I get that first one completely done, I text a picture of it to my Ds. The other night D1 texted me back and said I should open an Etsy shop - I took that as the highest compliment. I guess I would call it a labor of love.</p>
<p>I am in the boat of enjoying getting the pictures and newsletters. Last year I actually saved all of them until Christmas Eve and sat down and opened the envelopes all at once. It was sort of like having everyone in my living room visiting with me. I did not do a letter last year, so I do feel sort of obligated to do one this year. As the years pass by and our kids are really adults in their own right, I don’t share as much information about them. My goal this year is to get it all in one page, one-sided only. </p>
<p>I appreciate picture cards and letters, and keep everything 'til next year–then I use plain cards for shopping and to-do lists, and trash almost everything else. I usually do a letter for some of my Christmas card recipients, mostly friends from college with whom I’ve exchanged greetings for over 40 years now! For the first time, this year I had a picture card made, so I could share photos celebrating DD’s Masters degree and a couple of road trips DH and I made. If I were more active on Facebook I could have posted them there, but this way they reached some older relatives who wouldn’t have seen them there.</p>
<p>I like receiving the holiday cards and enjoy the pictures and letters, but have been slacking in the letter department since the kids are out of the house. And frankly, my letter tended to be the obnoxious “kids are wonderful” humblebrag variety. My parents used to send out hundreds of cards, and I’ve maintained the tradition with a few old family friends and a handful of my peers who for some reason aren’t online all the time.</p>
<p>I sent out a photo card with a half pager this year. Very brief, but hit a couple highlights for each kid and us old folks. You gotta walk the line between updating and grandstanding. Nothing worse than receiving an over the top letter from someone you know has a far from perfect life. </p>
<p>My husband does a wonderful job of maintaining friendships so our Christmas card list had over 300 names. I would send cards to the people that I knew which still left a large number for him. Some years he was still writing in February. Nine years ago, my sister died the day after Thanksgiving and I just couldn’t write any cards or letters, so H did them all that year. Now, I write to 3 or 4 people and he does the rest, although he has cut the list down to closer to 100. The problem with him writing letters to 100 people is that he gets so far behind in other chores that need to be done at this time of the year. I have decided that it is ok that “stuff” doesn’t get done; we have lost too many friends and at our ages (H is 75), hearing from old friends is more important than my list of things for him to do. I enjoy the pictures and letters and get slightly irritated at nothing but preprinted names. </p>
<p>Got another letter today–this one IMO set a good tone–it was newsy and informative and I enjoyed reading it. The card had four small family photos. Inside, there were bullet points highlighting what happened during the year: husband got a new job, wife went back to work, one kid hiked/worked in South America, other kid (junior in college) started learning to play guitar, third kid (who graduated in May) got a job in DC, two of the kids were in a play put on by the local community theater at the lake community where this family and wife’s parents have vacationed for many years. Maybe it’s the tone of the letter that’s the difference for me or maybe my view is colored by the fact that I like this person more than the one whose letter I thought was over the top?? </p>
<p>I love Christmas cards and letters. I have done a picture card of our kids since S1 was born in 1987, plus a newsletter updating our friends about all of us. Years ago, I started having each kid write their paragraph about their “year in review”. Some have been pretty hysterical. I will send about 75, when we get the letter done (hopefully tomorrow)! </p>
<p>I sent a very few cards to close family members.
I love the family letters that are simple and down to earth and not just full of bragging. Honestly, many, many years ago the first one I ever received from an old friend so appalled me that it was a real lesson on how NOT to write one. LOL.</p>
<p>I try to be somewhat silly and witty instead of braging in the years that I do manage to get a card/letter out. Photos of the family. Don’t list every camping trip taken or concert attended, nor every family visitor. Just a few paragraphs about what’s new.</p>
<p>Didn’t do one this year. Any year that starts with H in intensive care for weeks and includes three more hospitalizations and surgeries after that…I’m not sharing with our wider network. It just makes us sound old.
2015 will be a better year, and we will share good news then.</p>
<p>I love getting cards and letters and used to write a letter in each card I sent out to friends and family on both sides…there were more people then and I had less time with 3 children yet now the kids are all grown, our correspondence circle is much smaller, I don’t seem able to put pen to paper! </p>