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<\/a>I love everything about Christmas – the decorations, the tree, the festive spirit that seems to permeate the air.\u00a0 Of course, all that egg nog and hot buttered rum helps.\u00a0 The only Grinch to my Christmas spirit is the dreaded Christmas cards.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, I love to receive them, I just hate sending<\/em> them.\u00a0\u00a0So while our house is now ready for Christmas (my husband has opined that\u00a0it looks like an elf vomited in here),\u00a0I have put\u00a0off my decision on cards until this week – do I send some out or just forget the whole thing?\u00a0 Christmas cards just seem so 80’s to me – the 1880’s, which is when Christmas cards became popular in America.\u00a0 The sending of cards is\u00a0reminiscent of a time before the internet, when you didn’t hear from people except for the annual Christmas card.\u00a0 Social media and email have completely changed that; today I can tell you what my friend down in Texas had for breakfast because she posted it on Facebook. \u00a0 I know of every birth, death, marriage, divorce and trip to the mall. \u00a0So I don’t really need to get a Christmas card or worse yet, a Christmas letter, to know what my friends have been up to.\u00a0 I know what my friends are doing right down to their scrambled eggs.<\/p>\nMy Christmas cards seems to fall into four major categories.\u00a0 First are the corporate cards.\u00a0 You know, the ones from the banker or \u00a0insurance agent.\u00a0 The first card we received this year was from our attorney, which seems only fitting since we bared our souls to him\u00a0a few months ago while drawing up new life and death documents.\u00a0 I don’t know whether he’s sending genuine greetings or he’s just checking to see whether the card gets returned and he needs to start filing paperwork.\u00a0 The second category are from distant friends – people that we don’t see all year long but somehow the need arises to wish each other the very best for the holiday season. \u00a0Mostly they are old neighbors or workmates I couldn’t pick out in a crowd.\u00a0 Am I\u00a0morally obligated to continue this exchange of well-wishes?\u00a0 The third group are the true friends – some of whom we see or keep in touch with all year long. \u00a0Heck, some of us are golf partners or good friends with whom we socialize every week. \u00a0We will be wishing holiday greetings in person, some of them several times.\u00a0 Do we\u00a0really need to send cards too?<\/p>\n
The last category is the Christmas letter. \u00a0There are some that are really well done. \u00a0Some. \u00a0But most seem to have turned the Christmas tradition of wishing others a happy season to one giant “let’s talk about me” exercise. Generally, people just don’t know where to stop.\u00a0 Johnny got into Harvard?\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 Snookie was elected president of her third grade class?\u00a0 Good for her!\u00a0 But too often it goes into such minutia that it borders on the ridiculous.\u00a0 My parents used to receive one that was so full of trivia and self-aggrandizement that our mom used to wait until we were all gathered on Christmas Eve so that one of us kids (by this time adults and full of “cheer”) could read it in dramatic fashion, everyone breaking into gales of laughter.\u00a0 Each year my husband and I receive one from one of his former co-workers that last year had me going from the start.\u00a0 In addition to a litany of the various trips taken, there was a review of golf handicaps (they went down, of course), a tabulation of their granddaughter’s Girl Scout cookie sales and the net worth of the company that their son-in-law went to work for, along with its employee count and various office locations.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 As they’re writing this tome do they really think anyone<\/em> cares about the headcount in Poughkeepsie?<\/p>\n So, here I sit in mid-December still trying to weigh the pros and cons of sending cards.\u00a0 Mailing cards has become exponentially easier with the advent of computer-generated mailing labels so I don’t have that arthritic wrist to provide an excuse anymore.\u00a0 And since I do like to see photos of people’s kids, grandkids and dogs\u00a0I feel like I need to somehow reciprocate.\u00a0 After all, who am I to deny the world of one more cute picture of Dash the Wonder Dog at Christmas?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson I love everything about Christmas – the decorations, the tree, the festive spirit that seems to permeate the air.\u00a0 Of course, all that egg nog and hot buttered rum helps.\u00a0 The only Grinch to my Christmas … read more![\"christmas-letter\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Christmas-Letter-225x300.jpg\")
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<\/a>Perhaps the best take on Christmas cards was from a friend of our parents back in the 60’s.\u00a0 They kept every card they received the previous year.\u00a0 Then they re-addressed it to the sender inserting a note that read “We liked your Christmas card so much last year that we have decided to give you the pleasure of seeing it again this year.\u00a0 So, we’re sending it back to you.”\u00a0 Now that <\/em>is clever.\u00a0 And it beats using old cards to make ornaments.\u00a0 As for all the Christmas letters?\u00a0 They could be shredded into bird cage liner and the circle would be closed.<\/p>\n