HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: The fact that I am writing this now is a testament to the reality of what is bound to happen. Or not. I have a selection of holiday cards here, they are really really lovely, and I am so happy with them.
Aren’t they pretty? Here's one (it opens like a 3-part accordion) from the sets I ordered from the Bodleian Library:
And I’m eager to send them out. Someday.
I love getting holiday cards in the mail, the real mail, I mean, not by email, but that is another topic. It is so much fun to open them, and I look at them and save them, and it’s even okay when the glitter falls onto the carpet, never ever to come out.
I can also picture people getting cards from me, and that’s fun, knowing that they know I thought of them, and that I am personally wishing them happy new year and happy everything and I really, truly, mean it. It’s a very sweet thing to send a holiday card – – even the writing of the people’s names and addresses on the envelope makes me picture them and think of them and be grateful to them.
But reds and readers, you are reading this on December 16. And that means I am pushing the deadline.
What I need to do is make an appointment with myself, maybe two hours? And just see how many I can get done. I could do it when watching a Hallmark movie, or something, and I would be so happy to be successful with this. And it is enormous fun to take the finished cards to the post office.
Okay. I’m gonna do it. Probably. Maybe. Soon. How about you, Reds and readers?
JENN McKINLAY: We used to do ridiculous over the top cards for the holidays (the Hooligans spelling out JOY or the four of us as Superheroes) but then the Hooligans moved out and it became impossible to schedule (the idea had to be executed in Nov if we stood a chance of getting it out on time) and I took that as my opportunity to retire from the holiday card conundrum. I had a blast for two decades but I was ready to do other things. No regrets.
LUCY BURDETTE: We love the cards as a way to keep in touch with old friends once a year, so I’m loath to give them up. I have whittled the process down to a photo card with a small amount of text with highlights of the year. (Not the long letters I used to do, and still enjoy reading!) This is my favorite, from the year of the pandemic:
We'd love to show our grandkids,
But the virus kept us tethered.
Instead you've got the two of us,
Slightly worn and weathered.
In 2020 we had no news
Roberta wrote and John enthused.
A little lonely, we formed our pod,
Thus Lottie puppy got the nod.
We miss you all,
we love you dearly.
Pray our doggerel don't come out yearly.
Merry Christmas and thank goodness for 2021!
Love from Roberta, John, T-bone (who is really fine, he simply doesn't like hats), and Lottie
HALLIE EPHRON: Lucy, that is adorable! When it comes to writing Christmas cards, I have (as my mother would have put it) eyes bigger than my stomach. I’d LOVE to write personal notes to catch up with so many people whom I love and have moved away from over the years.
Every year I buy cards and make a list. But my actual output of cards is pathetic. And as Hank points out, it’s getting late. I hand deliver cards to neighbors who, especially this last year or two, have been a life line for me. I’ve been so lucky with who’s moved in next door and across the street.
Jenn, those cards you used to send sound absolutely hilariously wonderful!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Do I have a wonderful collection of cards I purchase every year right after Christmas? I do! Do I have sheets and sheets of Christmas stamps, which I loaded up on back when Forever stamps were 55 cents? I do! Will I have time to write a brief message and send them out to friends and family? God knows! But if I were using a Magic Eight Ball, All Signs Point to No.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: You are asking the person who is still putting up her Christmas decorations, the person who usually ends up wrapping the gifts on Christmas Eve? And, yes, I have quite a few boxes of beautiful, unsent, Christmas cards… I used to do so much better, though. There were the years when I made the cards by hand–including the year when I hand stamped about a hundred gold pears (made the wood block myself, too!) high on painkillers after having major dental work! Then there were the years we sent beautiful photo cards, usually of our dogs or cats or something Christmasy around the house, with detailed notes. Then those became e-cards, and then somehow they never got done. Why did we think we’d have more time when we got older???
The photo is my favorite from one of the photo card years–our cat, Jolly, seen from outside the dining room, with a weird light effect from the point-and-shoot camera. (Remember those?)
HANK: These are all so great..and I always love a shared experience. Or, I guess, a non-experience. How about you, Reddies? Are holiday mailings in the cards for you?
I love Christmas cards, but I never get my act together to get them out early [but I don't despair over it because I figure I really have until Three Kings Day before the Christmas season is actually over] . . .
ReplyDeleteWhen the children were small, we sent picture cards . . . then lovely, glittery holiday cards . . . then cards from just the two of us . . . cards are stacked up by the door, ready to mail in the morning.
Nope, no Christmas cards from me; it's just gotten too flipping expensive to mail them.. I miss them, though, both sending and receiving. My mother used to send out, and receive, hundreds of them each year; she would spend weeks going through her mailing list. Mt brother used to hand-design and print his own Christmas cards, and I once had an artist friend who would hand paint her Christmas cards individually. Me? I'm just a curmudgeon and a Scrooge, but on the inside I am still wishing everyone a very merry holiday season.
ReplyDeleteYou Reds are on a roll, there! I love those cards from years past, Jenn and Lucy and Debs.
ReplyDeleteI love getting holiday cards, and was planning to write a few this week. I have a couple of boxes of fun cat-themed cards. Then I remembered I have to make Ida Rose's Christmas stocking. And get those ideas for the next three books to my agent. And finish the cookie baking. And hit the grocery store because our regular shopper (Hugh) still isn't driving after his hip replacement. And...
Ecards are a problem. If I get your chatty family news in the US mail, I will read it. The ecard (letter) came from a good friend in Colorado last week and I still haven't opened it.
Edith, with postage and printed card costs as high as they are, it's no wonder so many have switched to ecards. Greeting cards have just about priced themselves out of the market.
DeleteMailing cards exists only in my mind. I love the idea, but tend to give only to local friends. Plus, Canada has had a postal strike for the past month, so it's not possible to mail anything these days...
ReplyDeleteWhile my mother used to send out what seemed like a small forest's worth of cards every year, the advent of social media means I (whether I want to or not) can pretty much keep on the news of everyone's day/week/month/year on an up to the second nature.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll stick to putting up a photo of the Iron Maiden mascot Eddie wearing a Santa hat on Christmas Day and call it a day as far as holiday greetings.
Ooh, Hank, that Bodleian Library one is fabulous! Jenn, your family was a riot.
ReplyDeleteWe still have a drawer full of Christmas cards, and Christmas stationery, which I probably ought to get rid of. I used to send out more than 100 cards, with hand written personal messages in each. Until I realized Steve was sending out his annual bird calendars to almost all the same people. The postage is a lot more, though. (The large-size envelope is one problem, but the bigger issue is the wire coil, which means they can't machine process them.) So we consolidated our lists, and every year we try to update about 300 addresses. By the way, if you are on our list, he has sold photos to the calendar company at least through 2028. I just edited the descriptions that go under each photo.
I really appreciate cards, especially with a personal message, and love reading Christmas letters.
Such a relief to learn that all you smart, accomplished woman struggle with Cards Not Sent Syndrome, too! Maybe we need to start a self-help group: “Hi, I’m Katie and I’m staring at all the boxes of beautiful. Christmas cards I meant to send this year—and didn’t…”
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, here’s a thought: why don’t we liberate ourselves from the tyranny of expecting to write cards in the impossibly short period between Thanksgiving and Christmas? A time when we are doing (and meaning to do) a million holiday things—buy and decorate the tree, locate, buy and wrap the perfect presents, find the recipes for and bake hundreds of Christmas cookies (well,, OK, maybe not that), So, writing cards becomes yet another item on an imposing to-do list. What if, instead, we started a tradition of writing and sending cards in January? After all the holiday festivities have ended and we are feeling kind of deflated and blah? We’d have the time. And maybe the need to connect with friends in a more thoughtful way.
I always admired one cousin who sent out holiday cards on Valentine’s Day. Why not split the difference and make gloomy January the time to slow down and cheer ourselves by thinking about faraway friends
We finally received the proofs of family photos taken on the beach over Thanksgiving. My wonderful, talented daughter assembled my card with 48 hour turnaround. I'll send them out after the kids leave after Christmas. Our headline news? A new grandson!
ReplyDelete