Christmas Cards

[MarissaNicole]

I am one of those people who likes a personal thank you card - not a poem that everyone got... I find it impersonal....

so I heard them talking on the radio today about Christmas cards - and how people don't like impersonal ones.... and I realized, that we send the picture cards, with a note about our year, but we don't do a personal note. And honestly I am having a hard time even getting these sent out. It made me realize that I kind of have a double standard.

And I am feeling kind of guilty..... but not guilty enough to change my ways this year

We are sending out a little over 100 cards (I have a large family and like to keep in touch with friends and family this way) and they are going out as they are - without a personal note to each person.

Are you annoyed when people send "impersonal" Christmas cards?

[L.Jane]

I think a thank you card vs the annual holiday update is totally different. I understand that one can not write every single person every holiday. That's just silly. But I LOVE getting the annual updates (especially if they are humorous like one of my friends does). I think in the holiday cards, just getting them out is enough. You can spend hours writing personal updates to everyone. That's crazy! I guess you could write a quick sentence on each one, but again, that's very time consuming. Its a wonderful thing to do, but I don't think its as necessary as personal thank you cards. Thank you cards are supposed to be specifically thanking someone for the gift they sent. Its not something you can really do generically if you want to do it right.

[scrub-jay]

I appreciate a personalized thank-you, but the impersonal Christmas/Holiday card has never bothered me - I like to see the photos, the update, or even just the signed card with a cute design. It is at the very least reaching out to family and friends who may not have heard from you in a while. Just my 0.02.

[SuzySunshine]

We've always done, and will continue to do, the Christmas update with a few photos. I don't see them on the same level as a personalized thank you note at all. I would love to take the time to write a quick note in each card but when I do almost 100 cards there just isn't time. I hand write the addresses and consider that to be good enough - if someone has an issue with receiving my card that way they can just tell me and I'll be happy to pare down my list.

[ladymoreta]

I also send out close to 100 cards each year. Next year, we'll probably do picture cards, but up until now, I've just bought ones I thought were cute and wrote "Merry Christmas" and our names inside. No note, no update, no pictures. If people are annoyed, they're more than welcome to throw it in the trash. I like getting cards/letters in any form, and I put them all in a little wire card holder that becomes my table centerpiece. I think it's cute, and aside from reading the cards before I put them in the holder, I don't really pay attention to the inside of the cards.

[MarissaNicole]

Okay -thanks ladies - I feel the same way... I just wanted to make sure I wasn't alone!

[Pollyanna]

I for one am completely offended if I don't get a handwritten Christmas card!


Just kidding, I don't care either way.

[DCJenn]

I try to put a little personalized something in the cards- but I'm not writing a discourse on the events of the Hussey family because really, there's not that much that is interesting. There have been years when things were quite interesting but thankfully this isn't one of them.

I really just like to see the pictures and look at the pretty cards.

Jenn

(and my tree-hugger tip of the day- tuck them away in the decorations and next year pull them out and make package tags out of the cards. (at least the ones w/ no pictures on them. My mother has done this for years)

[L.Jane]

(and my tree-hugger tip of the day- tuck them away in the decorations and next year pull them out and make package tags out of the cards. (at least the ones w/ no pictures on them. My mother has done this for years)

Thats not just tree hugger, thats crafty and creative! I like it!

[Sheherezade]

I don't do Christmas cards. My family has always done the Christmas letter thing and over the years I've seen so much ridicule and belittling of that practice that when I formed my own family I decided not to take it up. Why go to the trouble so people can make fun of your effort? (True Gen X slacker thinking, huh?)

As for cards, I don't see the point of buying them, taking the time to address them, sign them and send them if people don't really gain any info from that except that I have their address written down somewhere and that I am a person that can send out Christmas cards. I don't mind getting them. I don't expect a personal note - but I don't see the point. I did (for a few years) spend Christmas afternoon writing letters to friends that I had moved far from and sending them out before the new year. It was time consuming but I thought it was a nice personal tradition and a more "real" way to keep in touch. With that tradition though, you have to pick only the people that you *really* want to keep in touch with because writing 15-20 personal letters takes up a lot of time. I haven't done it in the last few years.

So, bah humbug impersonal Christmas cards. Seems like a chore to make the season more stressful with little gain to everyone. Obviously, I'm a total bitch and the exception to the rule -- so don't mind me.

Written with Holiday Cheer,

Ebenezer Angie

[Lynn]

I'm not annoyed, but disappointed. I see the card, and think "Oh nice! A card from so-and-so!" Then I open it and it only has their name, or worse, their names professionally printed inside, not hand written.

It's just so much nicer to get something personal - even if it's just a line or two.

We send an obnoxious newsy photocopied letter every year. I'm going to try to cut it down and have a little less detail this year. (See how late I am?)
I do get people who say on their card to us "can't wait to get your Christmas letter". So I will keep doing it.

[MarissaNicole]

I'm not annoyed, but disappointed. I see the card, and think "Oh nice! A card from so-and-so!" Then I open it and it only has their name, or worse, their names professionally printed inside, not hand written.

It's just so much nicer to get something personal - even if it's just a line or two.

We send an obnoxious newsy photocopied letter every year. I'm going to try to cut it down and have a little less detail this year. (See how late I am?)
I do get people who say on their card to us "can't wait to get your Christmas letter". So I will keep doing it.

So do you do a handwritten note with the letter? (I do a typed note about our year and include it with the photo card).

[Lynn]

So do you do a handwritten note with the letter? (I do a typed note about our year and include it with the photo card).

I try to write at least a line - asking about their kids, or commenting on something they wrote to us. But that's about it. We do a picture, too.

[oceanchild]

The other day we got a picture card that the sender didn't bother to sign. That disappointed me a little bit.

But I really enjoy receiving cards and letters, even if they aren't personalized.

[GrayMatterWife]

They don't annoy me, but they definitely don't impress me. To me, it sounds like what you're saying to me is that I am "special" enough to warrant being on your mass mailing list. Most of them I receive don't even have a hand signature. They feel cold and impersonal. And I never read through blathering, poorly written, rambling letters that are a "detail dump" of the sender's personal life over the past year. If we are not close enough to warrant a personal note or a phone call, why would you think I would find this interesting and worth ten minutes of time?

I just hate the lack of the human touch.

I sign my cards personally and include at least one personalized sentence in each, and then hand address the envelopes in careful cursive. Maybe this is old-fashioned, and it definitely takes me forever, but I enjoy doing it and expressing my interest in the receiver. And I never enclose one of those "detail dump" letters.