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Strollerderby
Are Christmas Cards Dead? Or Just on Life Support?
The last time you'll see one of these?
Over on Slate, Kate Julian wants to know: where are the holiday cards. It’s less than a week before Christmas and she’s only received four — one of which was misaddressed but she opened it and put it on the mantle anyway.
Can you blame her?
I can’t. My family has only received six (all addressed to us, incidentally, but maybe I’m just showing off). Usually, by this time, I’ve got more than a dozen — sometimes a stack so big I have to cull as new ones come in. This year, I’ve got a thank you note from our realtor hanging with the six actual holiday cards just to give our Wall-of-Christmas a little more umph.
But back to Julian. She’s polled the folks at Slate and everyone reports a noticeable drop in Christmas cards,too. Among the speculation about just what’s going on, they’re blaming the economy, e-cards, record number of moms (read: Christmas card organizers) back to work, electronic contacts not including physical addresses. But I’ll cut to the chase and pick Option 5: Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg killed the holiday card.
On Facebook, we saw the latest kid photos just last week, we’re up-to-the-minute on what everyone’s up to (chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, huh?), there’s no reason to take the time once a year to remember those we care about. All we have to do is “friend” them and we’re good!
Ahhh, but Christmas cards. Christmas cards! I’m such a huge cheapskate procrastinator (ours went out just yesterday), I’m such a likely candidate to have never gotten into the holiday card business in the first place. And yet. I love them. I do them every year, and pretty much everyone who gets one is a friend on FB. Why? I’m not sure, but I think it’s for selfish reasons: in the past, you had to give to get and I love to get.
But maybe I’ll have to learn to love to get something else. Because if this isn’t the year Christmas cards died, it’s definitely the year they went into a life-threatening coma.
Only four days left, but at this point? Turning around our lackluster stack of cards will take a true Christmas miracle.
It’s still not too late to send e-cards, either. Here’s a list of the best free e-greeting cards.
What about you? Did you get them? Did you send them? Why or why not?
Photo: Longoria via WikiCommons
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0 Comments
jrmiss86 commented on Dec 21 10 at 5:02 pmWe have also gotten much less this year than we have in past years. I am waiting for the day when my Techie husband wants to do e-cards. I was actually surprised he didn’t mention it this year.
Although in kindergarten this year my son had a card exchange at his school party, so I now have 15 cards to display with cute kindergarten writing.
Korinthia commented on Dec 21 10 at 5:48 pmWe actually still make our own cards, but I know we are a dying breed.
Laure68 commented on Dec 21 10 at 6:15 pmWe also have received fewer cards than normal. It is great to actually get something in the mailbox that is not junk mail, and something to actually touch.
I have a couple of friends who say they are saving the environment by not sending out cards, but I really can’t help but love sending and getting cards in the mail. Since it is only once a year I really don’t know if this is a significant environmental impact or if people are using the environment as an excuse.
Brandi commented on Dec 21 10 at 6:54 pmI debated about sending out cards this year, but for none of the reasons listed above. Postage! When I added up how much it was going to cost, I started thinking of all the other things I could do with the money. In years past I’ve mailed out 50 & recieved only a handful back.
the original Sarah commented on Dec 22 10 at 9:31 amWe sent out over 100 cards this year and we’ve recieved over 30 so far, which is about what we usually get. The main thing for us is that an actual hand written note is definately on the decline. I think only about 5 of our cards actually have any kind of personalized hand written note in them. We’re guilty of that too though. With a 3 year old and 1 year old, we don’t have a lot of time, so we opted to write a letter (as we usually do), and only write a note to the older generation and a few select friends.
Siri commented on Dec 22 10 at 9:32 amWe still made a Christmas card but then posted it on Facebook instead of mailing it out. We ordered 20 copies of the printed card for grandparents and others who would treasure having an actual card. So, yes, FB!
Jessica commented on Dec 22 10 at 2:09 pmWe always do Christmas cards, and send about 40 out. There are definitely less than that we receive, but we do it more as a family tradition. Now that I have a 3 and a 4 year old, they enjoy helping to create it, and LOVE going to the post office to send them out. In a world where everything is electronic, it is really special for someone to take the time to send a real card. I agree the photo cards with the prestamped signatures are a cop out. The ones we truly treasure are those with a handwritten message!
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