<p>Social media has made them pretty redundant for most of the people in our lives (they know what is going on with graduations, new pets/losing pets, kids activities, etc.), so we have stopped sending them. So have most of my friends. I get them mostly from friends who are not on social media (Facebook).</p>
<p>I’ve sent picture cards of my daughters for the past 21 years. When they were tiny it was such a trial. Take a roll of pictures, get it developed, decide all the prints look terrible, take another roll, get it developed, decide which print of the two rolls looks the least terrible and then get copies printed.</p>
<p>My 21 year old was pretty vehement against the picture card this year so I just sent a regular card. I wrote notes in about 1/2 the cards and sent about 50. Most cards go to older relatives, college friends and friends from places where we used to live. Most are for people we aren’t really in touch with but are still fond of.</p>
<p>I love receiving cards and send them to close family and friends. Its just my way of letting them know we are thinking of them. I enjoy shopping for the perfect card with the perfect sentiment and always and a little note of my own.</p>
<p>I agree; for me, social media has made it redundant. I used to love doing holiday cards, but I’ve let it go. </p>
<p>every time I think I will stop sending to patients, I receive cards and phone calls thanking me so much. I never enclose a letter to friends or relatives, I guess because I never receive any.</p>
<p>I love receiving them, and even for those I see semi regularly in social groups, the letters can give me some additional details I’d otherwise have missed. But I am very hesitant to send letters, and only do to a very few. We all travel a lot in my family, mostly through craftiness with FF miles, priority setting, and necessity, as the family is all over the globe. I don’t want travel to come off as bragging or a sign of privilege, so don’t want to send letters talking about it. </p>
<p>Timely topic. I received a card from a friend who always does a nice newsletter with pictures. No letter but a note saying they decided not to do one as we see it all on Facebook. I was surprised to find I was a little disappointed. They lead pretty interesting lives and I enjoyed the newsy newsletter (even though it was a tad braggy sometimes).</p>
<p>My brother, who lives in England, asked in an email if we wanted to forgo Christmas cards this year and just say Merry Christmas on Facebook. I told him I’d already bought his card (a little white lie but I found a really cute one the next day). I don’t send or receive many, but I think I’d be sad to give them up altogether.</p>
<p>I was going to skip my Christmas letter this year for all the reasons already stated (facebook info etc) but a couple of my friends expressed disappointment, so I wound up doing one. I mix in about 8 pictures with the text and share the good and the bad. This year I did withhold some struggles we are having with one family member, because I decided it just wasn’t my place to share it.<br>
I wound up sending about 35 card/letters and about an additional 20 or so by email. There are some people in my life who just prefer a “hard copy”, and I have learned that. Every year I say I am stopping or cutting way back. I have cut back, but so far I’m still sending…</p>
<p>I enjoy receiving the letters, although I think writing one takes some skill.</p>
<p>We did a letter every year for a long long time & family photos, too. I am glad I have all these annual photos! The last few years it has been early impossible to get every one in the same place for photos & the one or two times we were together I did not want to be annoying Mom wanting a photo.</p>
<p>I am afraid my early letters could have come across as braggy instead my actual feelings of sincere excitement at good things that happened. As the kids matured we made sure to take a more cynical tone & tried to make the letters amusing. At one point we had a great amusing anecdote and it was hard to top that in subsequent years, nothing seemed that amusing & that coincided with some things going great for my kids where, to me, there was no way to talk about what they were doing without sounding braggy, no way to convey the humble gratitude I felt as a mother that things seemed to be working out as they hoped.</p>
<p>One thing I always did with the letters was not send them to local friends & now, I agree, facebook does make it somewhat redundant, but I love to get cards with letters and photos.</p>
<p>I like cards and letters, and I don’t care if they are brags. Love hearing the good news and enjoy the glow of envy I get for those I so like (yes, one can enjoy envy). We moved a lot in early years, and I left a number of great friends behind. I’ve lost some of them as the years have gone by, and without the contact through holiday cards may not have even learned of their deaths as we live far away. This is a once a year, touch base sort of thing. If people want to just put in the good things, that’s fine with me too. Sometimes a funny event of note, an exciting experience, a move, kids moving into milestones, all of these things are often conveyed only in that short card. </p>
<p>I lost one of my very close friends last month and I will so miss her holiday card and note. </p>
<p>I love to receive letters, and I love to write and send them. I think my letters are kind of funny and I enjoy hearing that people enjoy them. I’m an accountant by trade and no one tells me my balance sheets look good, so I get my creative ego boost from my Christmas letters (though I can be an exceptionally creative accountant.) I figure if people don’t want to read the letter they won’t. </p>
<p>I love love love getting stories with pictures. If you are just sending me a signed holiday card (no picture, no story) please don’t bother! I get super annoyed when I open an envelope and there is no picture. We have friends all over the country and all over the world that we haven’t seen in years but it is great to get annual updates. Also we are well into the point at which we recognize the pictures of their children (because they look like the people we remember) but we don’t recognize our friends any more!! LOL! And we have gotten plenty of those long long cliche stories about wonderful exotic family vacations and world-conquering kid accomplishments, and I just find them amusing. </p>
<p>I also love sending and receiving cards and letters. I used to send just cards but since we have relocated, I now include a letter to those going to friends and family we no longer see regularly. I try to hit a few events of the year and keep it lighthearted. </p>
<p>My H had one business associate who would always send the most over the top letter imaginable. We would wait for it to come and make an event out of reading it. When the associate retired we stopped getting the letters. We figure life is now either too boring for him to report on or they are having such a fabulous jet-setting life that they can no longer take the time to write the letter. LOL</p>
<p>The ones I like best are the ones where close friends pencil in liner notes. Next to the photo captioned “Jeff and Julie and little Emily enjoy her first birthday” is the personal note “Still no wedding in sight!” Under the photo of the whole family with the dog at the 4th of July is the note “Dog found the extra bowl of potato salad in the garbage the next morning and ate the whole thing…vet bill $175.” </p>
<p>I just today ordered my New Years cards on Shutterfly! I’ve been super busy at work and just ran out of time for Christmas cards. Pics of “kids” and dog + our garden. Short informative note. I love getting cards with pictures and letters to keep up with friends and relatives from afar. A much loved aunt 2500 miles away always signs her card with just her name - so disappointing!</p>
<p>A high school friend with whom I have little contact always sends cringe-making letters. They are dense-packed with bragging. Last year - nothing. This year - a much more restrained letter. Am I wrong to feel… disappointed? </p>