The Christmas Card - Are its days numbered?

JupiterKid

I'm currently updating my Christmas card list and as usual, have had to make changes for people moving, deaths etc.

But in today's age of internet based social media - is the traditional Christmas card going out of style? I mean, we can now instantly send messages to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and New Year but - called me old fashioned - I still think that there is something really nice about sending and receiving something tangible in a card.

So what do yis all think? Do you bother to send Xmas cards or just use FB and other online social media instead?

Aimeee

I used to love sending christmas cards, fixing my list from year to year etc. However each year i get less and less excited about it. It's a bit of a chore now. My list is short this year, as some of the old regulars have died. Actually our ex neighbour died last year and he was always our first xmas card received. It was lovely to get his card every year as we moved over 15years ago yet he still sent a card.
So yes I do think the xmas card is dying but I blame social media as i tend to text or send an e card to any newer friends. Having said that it might be just me as there is great choice of cards in every second shop so the demand must be there.

smash

Write one generic card, go to snap printing, select a picture for the cover and get it printed 20-30 times

MilesMorales1

No, cos people still like christmas cards. Might get smaller and **** over time, but like print media, it'll always be around.

Badly Drunk Boy

Do you know that An Post refuse to deliver Christmas cards unless you put a 70c stamp on them? That's ridiculous, the lowest of the low!

everlast75

Yep - 14 days to be precise

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I can only speak for myself but I'm sending as many cards this year as any other and receiving as many. Yes, friends die or drift apart but every year there seems to be new people added to the list.

You can't beat the personal touch of a card with a personal message.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

No, you're thinking of a calendar op.

valoren

It still has an old school touch of class to it.
Got some of the charity Christmas cards to send this year so you're making a donation as well.

There's a personal touch to sending a card as opposed to a generic internet message.

One of our Neighbours at the family home is literally a stone's throw away.
Yet every year they send a stamped christmas card instead of simply dropping it in the letterbox.
There's something lovely about that for me.

mfceiling

As a child we used to love opening the cards that came in the post. Most years we used to get over 100 cards!!
Now my mum just makes a donation to Marie Curie and doesn't bother with cards.
I'm a married man so I don't send a single card at all...not my department.

snickerpuss

We get lots of cards and send lots of cards. It's lovely to come home to them sitting on the doormat

Starokan

The time of the Christmas Card… is over. Do we leave the Christmas Card to its fate? Do we let it stand alone

kneemos

Cant put an email on the mantlepiece.

Badly Drunk Boy

valoren wrote: »

One of our Neighbours at the family home is literally a stone's throw away.
Yet every year they send a stamped christmas card instead of simply dropping it in the letterbox.
There's something lovely about that for me.

My next-door neighbour, and also a cousin of my mother's (who lives in the same estate as me) used to always send me a Christmas card. They'd write on the card, post it in the Post Office, and it'd get sent out of the county to the main sorting office in Portlaoise, then it'd arrive through my letter-box.

'Tis madness, I tells ya!! Just pop it in the letter-box!

DEFTLEFTHAND

No I don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon. It's the personal touch of a handwritten xmas letter which appeals to people, there's something cold and clinical about email.

Medusa22

I haven't sent a Christmas card for years but I do think it is a really nice thing to do, I'm just too lazy. I'm reconsidering that though because a friend of mine sent me a personalised Christmas card with our faces on it and it arrived today and I just thought it was really thoughtful and kind of him, so now I think I should probably make more of an effort and send a few!

NachoBusiness

kneemos wrote: »

Cant put an email on the mantlepiece.

You don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking your friends on FB for Christmas.

Figbiscuithead

Funnily enough, I posted off Christmas cards for the first time in my life yesterday. Gas!

The_Valeyard

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Do you know that An Post refuse to deliver Christmas cards unless you put a 70c stamp on them? That's ridiculous, the lowest of the low!

Well, weren't they the lads who came up with the whole thing in the first place?

Toto Wolfcastle

I hope not. I love sending and receiving cards. We've received 3 so far this year. Post is so boring the rest of the year.

jimmii

Sales of cards are actually going on the last year or two so looks like they are making a comeback. We've already sold more Christmas cards this year than last year.

fussyonion

I'm getting sick of sending them.

They're pointless; most of us write half-hearted messages of goodwill to people we don't really know well, or hardly see, and we spend money on stamps and go posting them.
Then we don't get any back.
What's the point?

I know Joe down the road doesn't care if I have a "smashing Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year."
Do you really care, Joe?
Do ya?
So if I DON'T have a happy and prosperous year, will that make you upset?
Nah.

I don't think I'll bother sending any next year.
'Cept to my parents. They will be traumatised if I don't send them a card and I'm not ready to be disowned.

jamesbere

kneemos wrote: »

Cant put an email on the mantlepiece.

Yes you could, just print it off. A sheet of a4 on the mantlepiece might not look as well but it's the taught that counts

Witchie

I used to send cards to all my aunts and uncles (14 in all), most of my 45 cousins and friends and neighbours. Found I was spending about €50 a year on them so I stopped 2 years ago and decided the money is better used as a donation to a homeless charity.

I now post a Christmas message on my Facebook page and explain that I won't send cards but will make a donation to the homeless in lieu.

I still buy my parents a lovely card but that is it.

freshpopcorn

We always send cards and apart from people dying we still get about the same amount. I always think they're a nice touch at Christmas.
We generally buy charity cards and I know all the money doesn't go to charity but we give to plenty of charities during the year. To us leaving out the cards would be the same as not having Christmas crackers, decorations, etc.

Spanish Eyes

I get cards from four people that I haven't seen for years!!

That's daft, but whatever, if it makes them happy.

I only send cards now to my Mam's friends as she cannot do this herself anymore, and it's a tradition she likes.

Anyone who actually sends me a card will get one back, and I love them for the effort they cause me lol.

Text or wattsapp with pics is for everyone else.

It's a dying tradition I think, but it will last a while longer anyway.

Spanish Eyes

BTW a friend of mine keeps all Christmas cards received for the last few years to put on the mantelpiece or wherever. Recycle!

She is terrified of not having any on show in case it all turns to texts etc.

But then she gets lots, and the pile in the attic gets bigger and bigger, just in case she would be embarrassed at getting none.

You couldn't make it up!

MonkieSocks

I've just got one of those new Jehovah's Witness Advent Calendars.




Every time you open a door, someone standing behind it tells you to fook off.

Lucena

I don't know about Christmas cards, OP.

Calendars though, their days are definitely numbered!

Truckermal

We never send Xmas cards I'm all out to send birthday cards..

Sh1tbag OToole

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

My next-door neighbour, and also a cousin of my mother's (who lives in the same estate as me) used to always send me a Christmas card. They'd write on the card, post it in the Post Office, and it'd get sent out of the county to the main sorting office in Portlaoise, then it'd arrive through my letter-box.

'Tis madness, I tells ya!! Just pop it in the letter-box!

I know a lad on Easter Island with a two-line address. I send him a parcel full of pre-addressed Christmas cards and a cheque for stamps every year and he posts the individual cards back to Ireland

MadDog76

smash wrote: »

Write one generic card, go to snap printing, select a picture for the cover and get it printed 20-30 times

How ........ nice and personal?

Whitewinged

Yes I do still send them. My OH is originally from England so we send his family cards that live there. We also talk and send online messages on Christmas day but they send cards to us and we send them to them so it's just something we like to do.

I remember it was a big deal in primary school. On the last day before finishing up, we would give each other christmas cards.

Also in my neighbourhood as a child i was always sent to the neighbours to post the cards and we would receive them too. I guess it was a good way of determining if you had pissed off a neighbour during the year since you then wouldn't get a card

Lady Chatterton

I adore sending and receiving Christmas cards every year, it's nice to come home from work to see a nice little pile of Christmas cards on the mat. I love to see handwriting as I'm more used to seeing typed text. I always keep my favourite cards, especially the ones with little notes and photographs.

Sending cards isn't for everyone though, I've an aunt who stopped sending cards after the death of her husband as she couldn't bear to see one name where there used to be two

kneemos

Lucena wrote: »

I don't know about Christmas cards, OP.

Calendars though, their days are definitely numbered!

Calendars have loads uses.

RhubarbCrumble

I don't think it's social media that's killing the tradition of sending cards. I think it's the cost. The cards themselves are cheap enough, but the postage is another matter. My aunt used to send 100+ cards every year. Over €70 on postage. More actually because she used to send quite a few to the States and UK as well, so probably closer to €80+. Personally I think that's ridiculous.

meeeeh

My grandmother sent them every year, my mum did it sometimes and I never do it. I think the tradition started dying when telephone came into every house not with internet.

Ansum

Yea, I can't say for other households, but in my household it's almost dead. It's the usual, pop onto a social media site or ,whatsapp or Viber ,and pop a text and a pic of anythin' Christmas-ey.
I love givin' Christmas Cards and gettin' them. It's just something about gettin' a card with a pic of a robin wearing a vertically stripped red and white scarf, whilst standing on a branch of a tree with white snow falling in the backgroung thatmakes me feel happy.
And I don't think I'll let that die.
But it's not just the picture but the time spent thinkin' of a message to sent to the person receiving or just the presentation that a Christmas card offers. It's not like scrolling through texts and viewing them but actually taking time to admire the card, opening it and then reading the message, however cheesy {Thanks Daniel (sarcasm)} or mundane it maybe.
I don't think Christmas card giving will be completely gone, but it will be reduced.

Son Of A Vidic

It's a nice personal touch to send a Christmas card and I only do it with close friends & family. It's a tradition that will never die out amongst my family & friends.

Sh1tbag OToole

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

It's a nice personal touch to send a Christmas card and I only do it with close friends & family. It's a tradition that will never die out amongst my family & friends.

We are living in the age of lazy, where nobody ain't got time for anything. An age where slobs would happily automate the sending of Christmas greetings and gifts with some app in return for an extra 30 mins of Netflix

Summer wind

I love sending and receiving Christmas cards. I don't send loads just some to family and close friends. The children send them to each other at school too. I always try to buy card that support a charity too so you feel you are doing some good too. It's all so lovely and christmassy:)

Del.Monte

I love sending and receiving Christmas cards. It's especially nice if it's perhaps the only contact that you have with a long distance relative or friend from one end of the year to the next. Email/Facebook etc. is lazy and basically says that you can't be bothered to make the effort - that's my opinion anyway. I go to the other extreme and track down an original painting or photograph and then get my cards printed. It's not as expensive as it sounds and it makes me happy anyway.

This year's production: https://insatiablecollector.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/the-christmas-indulgence-again/

Diamond Doll

Got a Christmas card from my sister today, it was really lovely to get an envelope in the door with my address handwritten on it. A positive change to get "nice" post, rather than the usual bills and crap.

Almost made me want to send cards myself, but meh. I probably won't!