Christmas Cards

I usually buy my cards from Oxfam which are ecologically produced. Not sure what I will do this year, will certaqinly look around for recycled cards

You can make your own from last year's, or from recycled paper, seems a shame to deny your friends the pleasure of receiving a card and news from you, especially now.

Yes recycling the way to go!

I always buy charity cards. At least I'm contributing to some good causes as well as keeping in touch.

I get mine from the hospice where I volunteer, they are beautiful, and actually cheaper than most other charity cards. I I know that very little of the price goes on admin. The hospices really need all our support at this time as they are not receiving income from charity runs etc.

Personally, I stopped sending cards five years ago when my DH died. I couldn’t face writing them from just me, plus the increase in postage just made me feel the money could be put to better use. Charities are always needing funds so you can take your pick.

I cut down on cards a couple of years ago, but put a note in the year before, if that makes sense,
to say what I was doing, and was going to donate to charity instead, which I do.

The ones I cut out were the tit for tat ones, and it was noticeable how others followed suit.

Just seems pointless really, so now I just send to the ones I really want to.

Also, my DH and I don’t buy new birthday or anniversary cards for each other any more, as I had saved every one, and it seemed silly. What was I going to do with them? The family will just dump them when we die.
Just kept a few of each, and we re-give them in turn.

Many cards are produced using recycled materials

I have a gorgeous picture of our house (sorry not ready yet to call it MY house) with the roof covered in snow. I have edited it to say Merry Christmas in red on the roof. I post it on facebook each year with a message for all friends and get loads of replies there and very few actual cards. No trees are harmed when using this method.

Making Christmas cards has kept me entertained during this covid crisis so I will be sending them to people this year (whether they like it or not). However, I did cut down a lot in previous years by sending an explanatory email and a collage type photo of the family with a Christmas greeting. I think the important thing is to stay in touch in some way.

I have a Christmas card from my DH which is 54 years old. We get it out each year and just add the date.

Hello Maria

I re-evaluated all the cards we were sending each Christmas (well over 60 ) when I retired.
All the people who I still wanted to keep in touch with, and whose e-mail addresses we have, now get an E-card - I use a company called Jacquie Lawson www.jacquielawson.com/.
People I see quite often get a hand delivered card. Relatives abroad get a card posted to them. I usually buy cards to support a charity.
Saves time, money and the planet!

I use Jacqui Lawson too, I also send the advent card to the GCs on the 1st December from the same web site.

I still send them, though fewer than I used to, and like receiving them - they form part of our decorations. I always buy charity cards and recycle them.

I don’t feel bad about the trees - this sort of tree is a crop like any other, and fast-growing softwood trees use up a lot of CO2.

I do like Jacquie Lawson cards for certain purposes - there are some lovely Christmas ones - but a lot of the cards I send are to far flung friends and relatives, so I like to write a bit of news on one side and you can’t really do that with an e-card.

Our Christmas card list used to be ridiculously long.

One year, we put a little printed slip (with cheery snowman) inside the 'local' cards which read "We hope you don't mind but this is the last time we are sending cards to the friends and neighbours that we see regularly throughout the year. We are giving the money to charity instead".

Everyone thought it was a good idea.

You can send Christmas cards and help to plant trees for forests of the future by supporting the Woodland Trust.

Paper is produced from recycled materials and from specially planted pine forests.

The kind of forests you would be supporting do not consist of pines and could be there still in hundreds of years' time.

shop.woodlandtrust.org.uk/christmas-cards

I don’t feel bad about the trees - this sort of tree is a crop like any other, and fast-growing softwood trees use up a lot of CO2.

Yes, Witzend they are beneficial too.

I still send Christmas cards, plain recyclable ones, bought directly from local charities. We still receive plenty too, and they all go up on display, so much better as decorations than a load of plastic tat. They’re reused as gift tags or by the DGC’s schools/nurseries afterwards, then eventually recycled.

The Jacqui Lawson Advent calendars are great - our DGC do the activities (decorating Christmas trees etc) all year round. I don’t care for e-cards though - to be honest I don’t even open the odd ones I’m sent.

There are several things you can do.

1) Recycle last year's card by pasting a piece of paper over the signature and re-using them. Send them in re-used envelopes with labels on the front

2) Only buy cards made from recycled paper

3) The trees used for paper making come from large (100 miles square) tree plantations in Scandinavia and the USA, where the trees are harvested and replanted on a regular basis like any other farm crop like grain or potatoes. paper is not made from trees felled during de-forestation schemes in the Amazon or anywhere else.

There is a scheme known as the Forestry Stewardship Scheme. You will see the FSC logo on the back of most cards. This says that the plantations the trees come from are being farmed in a sustainable way fsc.org/en. Only buy cards with the logo on the back.

4) Buy charity cards, that almost always will have the FSC logo on the back and will do good for humankind at the same time.

I am echoing those that say the trees are fine!! Softwoods that also absorb co2 - its the postage cost that horrifies me.

I have lots of friends that send me a message every Christmas saying the money they would spend on cards they will be donating to 'x' charity instead - perfectly acceptable to me!

Perhaps you could buy obviously ethical ones this year and put a note in to say this is the last year you will be sending cards to help the environmental issues caused by the sending and receiving of them.
I'm definitely cutting down this year . I usually write cards out at the end of November and send them out early December in one go . This year I am only going to write out a card to people I have received from.

Can you let people know in advance that you have decided not to send cards and you are donating money to charity instead? I have a couple of friends that do that. But I still send cards to them as I enjoy sending the cards. Would you be okay with getting cards from other people or would that be an issue for you?