"tis the season"- let's talk about HOLIDAY CARDS

Parent Cafe
61

<p>ROTFL, scalum! Please do keep us up to date on your antics…</p>

<p>Thanks for the link to the older thread about all this- I guess I should have searched and hijacked- sorry. But it is worth reading, all, as it is completely on topic.</p>

<p>Time to pull out all the Holiday decorations and finish those cards!</p>

62

<p>One year I sent photo cards with pix of the recipients (rather than us). Took some work but it was fun. Some of the pix were really old but sure to bring back memories. I figured they would keep at least that one!</p>

63

<p>It is the tradition in my town to send out Xmas cards with multiple photos of your beautiful offspring, and I always feel like I come up short – I use the cards where you stick the photo on, instead of producing unique ones via internet and Mac. I told D this year – wouldn’t it be ‘greener’ to just send an email with your photo? She vetoed that one right away.</p>

<p>So now, I’m struggling to use one from Facebook (yes – Facebook has great shots of your kids! And I bet you can photoshop out the red solo cup!)</p>

<p>When does this stop? When they’re 43?</p>

64

<p>I save and store away all the photos of relatives that I receive- sometimes the whole card, sometimes just the photo. It is a good source of future memories. If they sent newsletters, I might save those, too.</p>

65

<p>Send all your newsletters to me. I like getting them. My family is scattered all over the place, and no, I don’t know what is going on in their lives, so I’ll take a newsletter once a year. I am not insulted if someone sends me a newsletter, I’m flattered that they sent something.The only kind I don’t really enjoy are the ones that go into great detail about health problems. I like knowing what is going on, but not in such detail. But, I can skim over the gross parts . . . really, so take a chance, send me your news! I don’t consider any of the letters that I receive letting me know what people are doing as braggy. Little Suzy is in a play – that’s not braggy to me. Timmy is a freshman at U Penn? Great. Not braggy. Just info. So far no one has sent their SAT scores or grades. :)</p>

<p>Also, I like getting real photos, not e-mail ones. For one, I accidentally deleted a whole bunch of e-mails one time. All those photos people sent went poof! And I seldom go back and read the old e-mails or look at the photos the way I do with real letters, prints.</p>

66

<p>We send out cards and a family picture each year. This year my list has 60 peopel in the US and 20 abroad. I always buy cards at the after Christmas sales that you can insert the photo into. I have never done a Christmas letter, but handwrite a not in each card I send. </p>

<p>I enjoy doing Christmas cards and love receiving them. Some of the Christmas letters are fun to read, but some are a bit overwhelming. We had one family that sent us a single spaced, double sided, 8-font, legal size paper letter every year. I needed to have a large glass of wine and settle in for awhile just to read their letter!</p>

67

<p>My late father in law, God rest his soul, used to send out a fairly inflated account of what had happened during the year. We used to look forward to reading what great things we had accomplished each year.</p>

68

<p>I can answer LasMa’s query post 55 as it applies to me.
For those that choose to send me a personal greeting at the holiday:

  1. Know me well enough to know if I celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa. Don’t open with such a generic catch-all phrase. Seriously, if the sender doesn’t even know whether I am of Swahili or other African descent then we’re not close enough for a personal greeting.
  2. I don’t expect a handwritten page, but a card with a handwritten note or just a handwritten “Merry Christmas” and a handwritten signature.
  3. No stamped or machine printed signatures. A business may send cards like that to clients or suppliers, but I don’t feel individuals should sign personal greetings that way.
  4. Lastly, please don’t send me the generic <em>list of accomplishments</em>, “resume”, or <em>brag letter</em> using phrases used in this thread. If the sender is close enough to me to want to share these things(and presumably hear what I have to share) then that individual should have been calling and writing through the year, and not sending a one-sided communication like a newsletter and pretending it is a warm personal greeting for the holiday. A printed form letter that basically says “here are our year’s accomplishments” is a long way from wishing me a joyous season and hopes for a happy new year. Instead of showing me how much the sender thinks of me, I think it shows how little they think of me.</p>
69

<p>Bunches of stuff used to bother me but now I’m usually happy that someone put a stamp on the envelope and thought of me at all!</p>

70

<p>Amazing how that works, gouf78.</p>

71

<p>I agree Gouf78!</p>

72

<p>younghoss, your post addressed to me (#68) actually seems to speak mostly to those who write newsletters, which isn’t what I asked about since I’ve never even considered that option. However, your answer # 2 sort of answers my question about whether a signature-only card is better than no card at all – at least for you.</p>

<p>This thread has shown me that there’s no one correct answer to this. Some love the holiday letters, some hate them. Some are offended if there’s not a personalized handwritten note, others are just happy that the sender thought to stick something in the mail. And a few of you, like me, have opted out. What I’ve learned is that no matter what I do, many of the people I know wouldn’t like it! So I’m sticking with my plan. :)</p>

73

<p>I did an iPhoto card. </p>

<p>Selected a template with lots of photo boxes and pulled pictures from my iPhoto library to fill them in. On the inside flap I wrote identifying captions – front yard during snowtober, Hurricane Irene gets our feet wet, S1 at college, S2 at hockey game with friends, refugee shelties during Irene etc. </p>

<p>I did the whole thing and then realized that almost all this year’s pictures are from my iPhone!</p>

74

<p>I am down to about 30 cards now. No one on Facebook gets one, they are already up to date on our lives. Wish the other 30 would join so I could cut out the cards altogether. :wink: </p>

<p>Here is one of my favorite things to do: sit down the week after Christmas with the huge stack of cards and letters that my parents (in their 80s) get. Probably 200+. I love reading all the brag letters, looking at photos of the grandkids, hearing who has been sick, etc… This is actually sort of a tradition for me, since I don’t live in my hometown any more, and don’t know what all my parent’s friends are up to. I definitely prefer the cards with a note or letter!</p>

75

<p>I send Happy New Year cards for two reasons. One, I don’t want to offend anyone and two, I’m lazy.</p>

<p>My current approach is to wait until the New Year and I save all the cards we get. Then I sit down and send back a Happy New Year card. It’s a very easy system and I enjoy having our card made each year. </p>

<p>Also, I suppose I am an odd duck in that I love reading the “brag letters.” But I dare not send one with my card!</p>

76

<p>I could never understand why anyone would send a generic Christmas card with only their signature. My DH’s relatives do this and I’m baffled. Why bother?</p>

<p>OTOH, I have always sent out photos of my kids and some years, I have also written a quick summary of what we are all doing (trying NOT to be bragging). Some years I’ve noticed that only after my cards have been sent do I receive their holiday cards. Even though I have lived in this community for a very long time, working has meant I don’t see friends like I used to. Sending out Christmas cards is my way to remember the days gone by, but the list has grown shorter and shorter.</p>

77

<p>You are correct, LasMa, that I was answering for me, the part of your question referring to what kind of card I like to receive…</p>

78

<p>We received an unusual (to us anyway) Christmas card this week. It was from my niece and her husband. The card was a 5x7 photo with their wedding picture covering most of the card and “Merry Christmas from the Smiths” in the small white space at the bottom.<br>
They were married last April. Anyone else ever seen a wedding picture as a Christmas card?</p>

79

<p>I receive quite a few photo cards. The pictures have covered a very wide range of activities. I wouldn’t be surprised to receive one with the wedding photo. I like the photo ones. Nice to see friends and family, especially the ones I don’t actually get to “see” that often.</p>

80

<p>The wedding ones I have received have been more of “this was an excuse to get our entire family together for a photo.”</p>

<p>PackMom, were you invited to the wedding?</p>