Mailing Christmas Cards

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
Do you think this is getting to be an obsolete custom? Last year I mailed 8 cards and got 5 returns, this year so far, only 2 back. It seems everyone is sending e-cards or greetings on social media. My cousin doesn't do cards. He says that it so expensive to buy cards and pay postage for something someone looks at 2 seconds, then puts in the trash.

BTW - I save my cards - bind them with a rubber band or put in a manila folder and label with the year.
 

Last edited:
I'm sending all e-mail greetings this year, as I missed the card sales last January and refuse to pay regular price for them. Too bad, because sometimes they are very nice and keepers, but usually just expensive waste of paper.
 
We send out around a dozen of them and get the same number back, friends and family still mail cards and many will contain a photo or little note.
 

I'm not sure if it's becoming obsolete. I am receiving less and less but that's because friends and family have passed on. I still send cards, but if I wait to long to pick them out around a holiday I can't get near the counter, it's so busy. I did notice it seems to be the older generation doing the buying. I display them all through the holiday season. I save the real special ones although I do appreciate the others as well. The ones I don't save I cut into smaller sizes and make into tags if possible for next years gifts.
 
Between the two of us, we've sent out about 30 cards and so far have received 15. The cards sent/cards received list definitely gets smaller each year.

Then there are the "off and on agains"......you send a card this year and don't receive one back, so next year you don't send a card but they send you one. So, the next year you send one to them and they don't send one to you. After about five years of that, neither one of you send a card one year and that's that....
 
Not sure when I last sent cards. Only get 2 or 3, usually from hubby's elderly aunts. With the prevalence of social media, I think it has gone away. I was never the sentimental type, never displayed the ones I got, or even saved them after reading.
I have a friend, who has lived in her home over 5 years, and still gets Christmas cards addressed to previous family who lived there. I feel if you are THAT disconnected from people that you do not even realize they moved 5 years ago, it is time to trim your list.
 
Marie5656 said:

I have a friend, who has lived in her home over 5 years, and still gets Christmas cards addressed to previous family who lived there. I feel if you are THAT disconnected from people that you do not even realize they moved 5 years ago, it is time to trim your list.
Click to expand...

I used to send a card to a teacher I had in high school, but the last 3 years she has not reciprocated. My aunt knows her from a club they are booth in, so I asked auntie to ask the teacher about it. Apparently, the teacher was sending them to the wrong address and getting them back. I don't know why she would send cards to any address other than return address that I put on the envelope. Last year I put a big return address sticker on the envelope and also wrote my address in the card. Still nothing from the teacher. Go figure. This year I didn't send her one.
 
We definitely get fewer cards than we used to get. This year for the first time we made up a custom card using one of my photos and it had a message we drafted. Sent out about 35 cards between my work colleagues and relatives and friends.

400248975_e2fbe82495_o (1).jpg
 
I send cards to people to let them know I'm thinking of them--people I have almost lost contact with and friends and family. I don't count--a lot of people have stopped sending cards, I understand that. Some are to older, shut-ins and I wouldn't expect a card back from them.
 
I stopped it. It got to the point where it was more of an obligation than a kind gesture. I'll just send a couple random cards each year. I get more cards from my insurance agents, tax attorney, etc than I do from friends and family! :)
 
Bobw235 said:
We definitely get fewer cards than we used to get. This year for the first time we made up a custom card using one of my photos and it had a message we drafted. Sent out about 35 cards between my work colleagues and relatives and friends.

View attachment 34195
Click to expand...

What a beautiful card, Bob!

My husband is the one who sends out the cards these days, and we do find fewer people sending them. I'm the one who usually buys them.

Have you noticed that cards in general, not just Christmas, but Birthday and Get Well cards are getting really expensive? Spending $5 to $7 on a card that isn't that special seems like a waste of money to me. Looking for a Birthday card the other day I could hardly find any that were under $4.99 and most were very plain.
 
BlondieBoomer said:
Have you noticed that cards in general, not just Christmas, but Birthday and Get Well cards are getting really expensive? Spending $5 to $7 on a card that isn't that special seems like a waste of money to me. Looking for a Birthday card the other day I could hardly find any that were under $4.99 and most were very plain.
Click to expand...


Try a dollar store.
 
There have been some years where I haven't received a card until almost New Year. If the sender waits that long, it's like "why bother"? What are they doing that prevents them from mailing until after Christmas?

My family exchanges cards at our holiday party - that saves a lot on postage.
 
Some of those old vintage cards become valuable eventually, if anyone bothers to save them, and good for us that some folks do. I used to go to the Old Paper Show and Sale in my city and saw some wonderful vintage paper ephemera, including xmas cards, calenders, posters, you name it, it was there.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top