Christmas Cards

I found a great card reduced being on Black Friday, it will be for my lot in NZ
as the words on it it say,
'Happy Christmas you guys'
This is what my daughter-in-law call us, so just right I thought.

Cath

I love all the messages coming in at Christmas, but don't send to near neighbours. I always make an uploaded photo card, our cows in the snow, or last year's Christmas tree. I know it's more expensive, but I like the personal touch.

Usually send mine around 15th December. Overseas goes earlier. Always charity cards. Send old friends that I don't see (due to distance), a roundup of the year IN BRIEF. Our children were at school together, so I enjoy reading about what they are doing with their lives. (Tip: NEVER brag about anything, don't imagine your holidays are of interest to anyone except you and always try to make it amusing, in part.) BTW I am new to Gransnet - love reading all the comments!

I LOVE receiving Christmas cards but I do have a few friends who have stopped sending 'real' cards and send e-cards instead. I'm going to get my cards out very early this year (probably 1st December) because we moved house earlier this year and I've got 'change of address' stickers to go inside the cards. I also like to buy charity cards but I do wonder how much the charity can possibly make! I suppose it just feels like a good thing to do. Happy Christmas to everyone on Gransnet!

I like trying to guess, from the writing and post mark on the envelope, who the card is from; sadly over the last few years more and more people use printed labels which takes the fun out of it. I've usually got my cards bought, written and ready to post by the 2nd week in December but this year I seem to have lost the oomph and haven't yet bought any - not sure if I'll bother [miserableoldwomanemoticon]

I stopped sending them 5 years ago when we started going away for Christmas, over the years people stop sending them back, thank goodness! I know it's baa humbug, but theygot on my nerves falling down and making the place look untidy, I only used to put out the cards that went with my decor!

I love receiving cards and always send paper cards (don't really enjoy the actual writing and addressing them though). I also love receiving the annual Christmas letter from friends telling me what they have been doing all year. We have moved several times and although I will probably never see some of these people again I just like to keep in touch, even if it is only once a year.

I'm posting mine next week but have put a letter in with some to say this is the last time as giving money to my local hospice next year. Postage is so expensive and I feel it could be put to better use. I will still be posting a few to special people .

Cards all written and ready for posting, no e-cards from me, really dislike them, so impersonal. I love to see my cards hanging on the conservatory doors every year, makes the whole ground floor look and feel festive. Don't know if anyone else does this, some of my friends thinks it is morbid and weird, but it makes me happy, I keep all my cards until the following year, mainly so I don't forget anyone in the present year, that way I still have the cards from departed family and friends, which I display all together on a particular shelf, on Christmas Day I burn a candle near the cards in order to keep all those people in my thoughts and hearts at such a special family and friends time of the year. After Christmas all these cards are put in a special place until next year when I can display them again. Please don't think me crazy, it makes me feel good!!!!!!!!

Like Belleringer, we have moved around the world a lot, but still send cards to over 60 people. I think it's nice to catch up with news, if only once a year, and I tend to cover the left hand card with things of interest for each individual.

I think it's a bit "sad" to send cards before December, it looks like being desperate with nothing else to do? I guess it's different for those who no longer work, but I can't switch my mind to Christmas until second week in December, too much else going on. I aim for December 17th to have posted ours unless they are for overseas.

I agree with witchygran - hi, I'm new to Gransnet too - NEVER brag about anything that isn't of interest to others. We all know nobody really has the perfect life! Sadly I wrote, (not braggingly), in all last years' cards how we were looking forward to our son's wedding this year, only for his fiancée to walk out on him shortly before the event. Now I guess I need to tell all those who don't know about this in the Christmas card. Grrr.

Have made a start to cards. Have written our names on them, waiting for dh to do the labels then I will personalize each one. Have got poem printed out which I put in each card. Dh printed them out. I like to getting to get the cards out by end of second week. The ones going to America and Canada should be away by the end of this week.
My sister sho lives in canada always sends her cards out to everyone by the last week .I like sending ecards as well and do so to those living abroad so they get 2.
I like the idea Ttta2015 of keeping the cards of those who have passed away and putting them up together in a special place so that I remember them at this time of year.
Happy Christmas everyone.

I too send a brief roundup of the year to old friends and send charity cards but also wonder how much actually goes to the charities. I'm hoping to get my cards written this weekend but I'm putting a note in with some to say this is the last card I'll be sending, next year I will give some money to charity instead. The people who will be receiving my note are the ones who I never hear from for the rest of the year and never pop a roundup of their news in with their card. And the postage costs a fortune...........

I'm just a big kid at Christmas and love the religious aspect of the festival but not the horrible commercialisation in the shops. Trees in the shops in September!!! I buy my cards in the sales after Christmas and try to get them off before the final post by dates. We have an excellent Scout post where we live which saves trudging around the village dropping cards in to friends and neighbours and is a lot cheaper than the Royal Mail, plus the money goes to the scouts to help pay for activities etc.

Lillie, that is a complete pain (in more ways than one!). However, just be thankful that she did it before, rather than after, the wedding! Happy Christmas to you and your son! I don't know if this helps, but we either buy our cards direct from the charity, or from a special charity card shop, set up in a local church. The proceeds go directly to the charities. Lots of churches in towns and cities do this.

Last year we told all we would not be sending cards any more but donating to air ambulance not 54p to royal mail

Was helping at charity Christmas card shop yesterday so it encouraged me to buy my cards with the intention of making a start this weekend (but I've been distracted by reading this thread!). Love sending and receiving Christmas cards, to me it's the start of Christmas and thinking of family and friends.

PS in answer to Minder we were told that last year 76% of the money goes to the charities, it varies according to costs of hiring the space for the charity shops, many are in churches so the church also benefits.

I am a Christmas card fan and always choose a very thick, quality card which has to have both a religious picture and be by a traditional artist, usually Renaissance but often Arts and Crafts or Pre Raphaelite. I write the card and envelope by hand and enclose a yearly newsletter which, if irritating, can always be binned by Chrustmas curmudgeons. Then I post the lot on the 10th December. It is a real thrill posting all those lovely, white, crisp, fat envelopes with their Christmas stamps and hearing them fall into the box. Then there is the sheer joy and pleasure of almost three weeks' worth of personal post from others - lovely envelopes on the doormat from all over the UK and the world.

I have also sent a Jacquie Lawson card to everyone on my e mail list for Christmas Day.

I love Christmas and everything about it but the cards are really special.

Another vote for real cards, not e-cards. We got one e-card last year and looked at it a couple of times, but the real cards were stuck up on the doors as usual so that we could see them and think about the people who sent them - much more fun IMO. I'll get down to it next week, I hope (see Procrastination thread!)

I remember when I was a child (around 1950) my mother used to wait and post Christmas cards on Christmas Eve, so that they were delivered on Christmas morning!

Now that most of us don't get any actual letters ( not counting bills!) it is rather nice to open all the cards.

Charity cards bought and waiting for DH to write his bulletin which will go with the cards to those people who we keep in touch with after twenty years overseas and some neighbours who moved away. Love reading their news! Postage is fairly hefty but worth it. We have whittled down the number we send as it used to be about ninety every year but if a person didn't send a card for two years running we took them off the list. Local cards are hand delivered round the village. It's exciting getting the cards, reading the news and putting them in the hanging containers which decorate all the doors downstairs. I always keep the cards from family, and still look at the ones received from those who have gone, sad but the memories are good!

Post 30 or so. Getting less each year. Then hand deliver locally. So another 15. Love getting cards through the post. I try for second week in December. Likely to be later this year. Each time I buy the stamps I wonder about a note saying this will be the last time but as I love getting the cards I don't and I guess won't.

I post less now because of Fb and people passing away I've written a few already. In total I will give about 40 cards and receive about the same.

It's a good way of hearing from people who have drifted away over the years.

Yes, great fo people far away. Have to say I always found it a bit strange to give cards to all the people you see every day, at work, neighbours, etc. Will be busy writing them today and tomorrow morning, as we are having lunch with friends from the UK tomorrow- and they will take them and post them for us in the UK next week.