Birthday Cards , Calls & Blues

Hi NanaTuesday I think young people don’t send cards anymore and it seems as if older people are going the same way
Like you my birthday and Mother’s Day have just happened close together I got 18 birthday cards which thrilled me as I love getting cards ( they ll be up on my shelf for a couple of weeks I love looking at them) All my usual friends sent (but only two out of seven grandkids sent cards however I did get phone calls from five grandkids and messages off two so I m not complaining at all ) but the practise is dying out probably because of postage price plus the internet which I think is so sad
Christmas cards have definitely gone down in numbers and I can see them dying out completely in a few years time which I think a great pity A call or text is lovely but not the same as a card that you can look at over and over

BlueBelle
Totally in agreement ( mine is 10th/11th)
My cards have diminished but the ones I did get are beautiful. You wouldn’t believe that on Sunday my DS came around after we arrived home & said I haven’t got you a MD card , which was fine . However , I had new MD & BD cards , that I had discovered in my stash of cards a few weeks before ., which my DH brought over the years for his ( now 91yr old) Mum . I cheekily told DS that he could choose one or two 😂
He laughed at that & did pick a BD card but did t write in it & forgot to take with him .
That beggars belief 🥺
Phone calls I fear are getting rarer as people now message instead of calling .
My eldest GD called me (17) Neither of the elder two (27!25) called or sent a card .Of the others (11,12,13,14) the 11yr old sent a card from her & her siblings the eldest was the one who called .
I am going to ve sounding like my MIL as I am sorely disappointed it doesn’t bode well with how I believe they see their GP’s , in my eyes at least !
Rant over

The cost of postage is horrendous, especially if, like me, you have relatives living abroad.
I do send proper Christmas and birthday cards, but I'm always shocked at the cost.

I love my cards and two that I got were seed impregnated
I had one last year and it didn’t do anything but I m happy to try again so that’s exciting, fingers crossed

All our family group, and friends, like, and send cards.
No idea if we are a bit unique.
Plenty of card shops around here too, that always seem to be busy enough.
They sell the cheaper end cards, on the whole. All fine by me.

We use 2nd class stamps. And people send the cards days in advance.

It’s not just some young people it’s the older generation too. The price of stamps has gone up as everything has but for special occasions it’s worth the expense. We receive cards from our son and daughter they are the ones that matter along with our close friends.
Christmas is such a special time it’s once a year that most people enjoy religious or not. It’s a time to get together help each other just enjoy the season it distracts us from miserable dull drab winter. I find people are becoming more distant and don’t even bother sending cards. I get email messages they mean nothing to me as I like our house adorned with cheerful cards.

DH used to get me to send cards to work colleagues and their children but I stopped that when he died. It wasn't the cost of postage but the difficulty for me to shop for individual cards.

harrigran what do you mean by “individual cards”?🤔

It’s a dying industry in every respect. You cut down a tree, send it to a mill, turn it into paper and card, imprint the paper and card with toxic chemicals, stock retail outlets, buy stamps, ask the Royal Mail to deliver it where it sits of a shelf for a couple of says before being put in a waste bin or recycling bag for the council to deal with.

One can argue that it’s part of the global economy and creates jobs but it is also hugely costly in terms of resources and pollution and for what? So that someone can feel important for one day a year.

A mature tree can absorb on average 50 pounds of CO2 per year, Cutting down that tree for paper production removes that storage capacity to negate the effects of 4000 cars on the road or producing energy for 2000 homes.

radicalmoderate.online/christmas-cards-and-their-environmental-impacts/

I’d rather have the tree cleaning the atmosphere and supporting an abundance of wildlife. That’s why I stopped sending cards and asked friends and family to stop sending them to me. I’d rather they made a donation to the Woodland Trust.

@hollysteers I only have help once a week so find it difficult to purchase a birthday card unless I can find one when I am taken to a supermarket.

harrigran I often buy cards from Amazon online, have you tried them?

TinSoldier I bought my husband a birthday card from Amazon one year. It included a donation, possibly to the Woodland Trust, to have a tree planted on his behalf.
The card came with the details of the location of the tree. To his delight it is on a golf course in Scotland!

The trees for paper making come from fast growing trees and are planted in managed forests meaning that the land is replanted as soon as the previous one is cut down.

Young trees absorb more carbon than older trees. If paper is recycled and re-used after its primary use, the loss of carbon into the atmosphere is slow and gradual, meanwhile - back in the forest the new tree is rapidly absorbingcarbon.

I saw one of my daughters on Mother's day. My other daughter phoned me too.
My birthday is next month and my 2 girls are taking me out for dinner. I don't have any other family and several friends usually send messages on my Birthday.

I really think that my generation will be the last to send cards for so many reasons. Our DD don’t really send cards to anyone but us. We both still get a lot of birthday cards from friends of a similar age, and still send a lot although we’ve cut Christmas cards down quite a bit.

due to mobility and lack of card shop i send using funky pigeon, my son and family don't do cards not even to each other, my mothers day call was at 11.54 on sunday, it would have been nice to get a card, but they do so many other things for me that it does not really matter anymore, we went out yesterday, he organised a wheelchair, got some food then a trip round primark (wish they were online) and some other shops, then supermarket on the way home, that is all better than a card to me.

I am quite happy that it is not longer the norm to send cards, I have thought for a long time they were a waste of resources and money.

I only want greetings from those that genuinely care about me, not because it is felt they have to. You cannot make people care about you.

To me cards are of the past, unnecessary use of paper, stamps, money. We write notes of what we think, not what the card manufacturer writes.

V3ra I used to shop at Amazon but am no longer able to shop online.

V3ra thanks for the tip re woodland trust card, going to get as something different for my soon to be 21 granddaughter. I still love to send/ choose cards, either on Amazon or Tesco, I do 2nd class stamps now though. Like to get a few and still do from my 2 kids and pals , I’m lucky I know

I bought some recently from an online company called Whistlefish. 10 cards for £10 + postage. Really good quality cards and designs.

@Cressy, I also recently purchased 10 cards for £10 from Whistlefish, they’re lovely cards. A friend has just messaged me to say how much she appreciated the beautiful card I’d sent her

I’ve had 4 cards today that were posted. Friends and neighbours have shoved them through the letterbox and my DDs will bring cards from them and my DGSs when they come over straight from work later.
I love a nice card and post quite a few throughout the year - but I do hand or personally deliver if I’m seeing that person or they’re in a 5 mile radius.

TinSoldier
Thank you for your input but I didn’t ask for a lecture on the environmental issues of simply sending a card via the post .
Though , put as you did it sounds like a lot to think about when one sends anything .
If I were you I’d concentrate your energies on telling this to the vast amount of companies sending ‘ unwanted’ junk mail through the post .

Cressy
I also have purchased from Whistles , while on Cornwall last year . Like you I now have a selection to hand.
I love to send & receive a card .