The wording on Christmas cards

I hardly ever get cards with My more than plain happy birthday.i write my own verses and thoughts

I stopped sending cards except to elderly relatives or people I know don't use email or social media. I used to spend well over £40 on cards and stamps so I now donate money to The CF Trust (granddaughter has cystic fibrosis) and send email or social media messages. Most people understand. In fact some of my work colleague before I retired used to give me money to add to my donation and do the same themselves.

Don’t think ‘merry Christmas’ is offensive to non Christians at all.

Save us from Happy Holidays!

For anyone not in a happy situation, there are some lovely cards which just have Thinking of You on the front.

I usually buy with blank insides charity cards and then write "All the best ", for whatever year. It's an old saying around here used a lot. You can get packs of Blank Charity cards I usually get mine from M&S or John Lewis.
I do agree you have to be careful what you write the worst I ever received was one that had obviously been written in the summer and told me how happy my mum was in the home she had gone into as if I hadn't visited and also she had died in the Autumn.
I have felt awful after sending cards to old friends and relations then getting a quick note to say they had died in the summer, the relations just hadn't bothered to inform me.

I always look for ones that have 'peace' in the wording. I always buy ones with a dove on as well...have done for over 40 years.

I find there are many different greetings in Christmas cards and after all Christmas cards are to celebrate Christmas so it should be mentioned in the message. When anyone has been widowed I always send a 'Thinking of You at Christmas' card. Season's Greetings is rather remote for Christmas itself.

What I can't stand are the ones that say "Happy Holidays" ! You could be in the Bahamas, then it might be appropriate! Think it's more 'Americanisation'

I agree with Aveline. Never Happy Holiday.
Happy holiday is for post cards.
We’re not in America and we are celebrating Christmas. The birth of Christ.
It’s Christmas time - Christ Mass.
For those non believers, just stop celebrating - no presents etc. Please will those non believers stop trying to dilute a Christian special day.

Actually, being wished a peaceful Christmas when I’d just lost my dad was like rubbing salt into the would, as he was always the life and soul of the party.
Send a card that shows you are thinking of the person-use your own appropriate words or use season’s greetings.
With regard to ‘merry’ EP I wouldn’t worry. Teetotallers, dieters, drinkers and gluttons all make merry in their own way with or without cards.

I agree it is bland- but any connection with religion seems too inflammatory for some people.
I suppose you choose your cards according to what you think will bring pleasure to others.
As someone who was widowed about 6 weeks before Christmas I can honestly say I took no notice of the printed greeting but liked reading the few words friends had added - it was comforting to know that anybody was thinking of me at all

Maybemaw "Seasons Greetings seems to be the most common and nobody can take exception to that"

Sorry but I do take exception to that. We are not celebrating the season, we are celebrating Christmas. I would never buy cards that do not mention Christmas regardless of people's different faiths. I would not take offence at receiving cards celebrating other religious festivals at other times of the year but the 25th December is Christmas.

Snap, Early. Beautifully expressed too. Thanks.

25Avalon

There are Christmas cards that have “wishing you a Peaceful Christmas” or words to that effect. They usually have pictures of doves or one I had with purple crocuses in the snow. I have sent these when I have suffered a bereavement or the person to whom I wish to send it has.

Usually these cards come in packs and are often from a charity such as Mind or Muscular Dystrophy from whom I get mine. You may find you pay a little more for the card but you are helping the charity.

The one I found many years ago had a picture of a dove.

I use moonpig. If you go on line and write in moonpig voucher code, you get a discount too so it's about £3 a card for my special 6 people and you can say exactly what you like as they offer ones where you write the text. Admittedly too expensive if you send lots but I only send 6 a year .

That is interesting. In that scenario my instinct would have been to send a card, one suitably peaceful for a reflective time. It not occurred to me that someone would prefer no card, so as to just go through the final days of December as if it were some other month. Something for me to bear in mind.

Sorry ElderlyPerson,I misread and now see that you were saying a "What if" scenario....

It's nice that the OP Elderlyperson,is being thoughtful and compassionate about a friend.When my wonderful Father unexpectedly passed,a friend sent me a Christmas card saying have "the most wonderful christmas" I could have slapped her with the card! As a rule in our extended family,when a loved one has passed away,that 1st Christmas is a no no on the card front.Its an impossibly sad time with reminders everywhere.I love Christmas,but didn't cope with the 1st after his death,too well and just wanted to get through it. We are Irish so I don't know if its an Irish or just a family thing.But it makes so much sense.Bereft people,usually, do not want Christmas cards,despite the kind intentions....

Lucca

Why do we always have to be so rabidly anti anything American ? They say happy holidays, we don’t. Big deal.

Is it American? I don't like it much either.

Many people are working in essential jobs so no chance of a Christmas break.

MayBeMaw

I would disagree with your basic premise- I have bought cards with all sorts of greetings- Merry Christmas being only one.
Seasons Greetings seems to be the most common and nobody can take exception to that.
But of course you will know the origin of the word “merry” ?
Merry", derived from the Old English myrige, originally meant merely "pleasant, agreeable" rather than joyous or jolly

Hence “God rest ye Merry, gentlemen” (not “Merry gentlemen” )meaning “may god keep you agreeable”

Thanks MayBeMaw for that. I understand the meaning now. I love that every day is a school day here on GN!
?

Lucca

Why do we always have to be so rabidly anti anything American ? They say happy holidays, we don’t. Big deal.

Quite right, Lucca. Holiday is from Holy Day which is exactly what Christ Mass is.

For the record, when newly widowed, I took myself off on a walking holiday my first Christmas alone and had a merry time in every sense of the word. It was pleasant, I enjoyed the glorious scenery and culture and drunk a bit too much wine on occasion. It’s how my dear husband and I would have enjoyed the holiday together and how he would have wanted me to enjoy it alone. Life went on, life goes on. I never wanted people to treat me differently or with kid gloves or to imply that I shouldn’t be enjoying Christmas when others are. We have had many threads here about how people treat the bereaved differently, making us feel other and outside of things. I would never have taken offence at being wished Merry Christmas. Don’t for a second think that I did not love him with all my heart. Fifteen years on, there isn’t day goes by that I don’t miss him but widows’ weeds were for Victorians.

Why do we always have to be so rabidly anti anything American ? They say happy holidays, we don’t. Big deal.

There are Christmas cards that have “wishing you a Peaceful Christmas” or words to that effect. They usually have pictures of doves or one I had with purple crocuses in the snow. I have sent these when I have suffered a bereavement or the person to whom I wish to send it has.

Usually these cards come in packs and are often from a charity such as Mind or Muscular Dystrophy from whom I get mine. You may find you pay a little more for the card but you are helping the charity.

I don’t mind what they say as long as it isn’t “Winter Wishes”. I saw some that I liked in a catalogue that SSAFA sent me, but I really don’t want to send people “Winter Wishes”!