Christmas Cards — Dead or on Life Support?
I write Christmas cards every year. Technically, I write holiday cards, since I often write out the cards while traveling, or while sitting around on Christmas Eve sipping something warming (often alcoholically so, I confess).
I write them for myself, because they are my one way of connecting with people I wish I talked to more often (I’m terrible at these little people things like phone calls and birthday cards). I don’t keep track of who sends me one (other than being delighted to get it, of course), and I don’t send out cards based on who sends me one (which is good, since I sometimes don’t get mine mailed until December 26th).
But I have noticed that I get fewer nowadays. And from conversations, it seems that mailing cards is going out of fashion for a variety of reasons — we can keep in touch or even send e-cards through the internet (cheaper, faster, and you can add music and animation); cell phones are ubiquitous, why not just call and wish a happy holiday; mailing can be expensive and time consuming and time is at a premium for us all.
I don’t mind that others let the card writing go by the wayside, but I hope I don’t. I like thumbing through my address book (paper, not online!) and reflecting on the names of people I haven’t seen in years, and people I see all the time. I like to see the changes (children’s names added, new addresses, etc.). I stop a minute and mourn those who are no longer alive. This year, I can’t find my address book (I only use it for Christmas cards nowadays). I feel like I’m trying to reconstruct my life as I think about who I normally send cards to, and figure out how to find out their addresses (family is easy — my mom will know).
Oh well, maybe the cards won’t get mailed until after Christmas again. But they’re written!
Kelly
