Is Your Christmas Card List Getting Shorter

I didn't send cards last year,as I had alot on my mind,and I haven't sent any this year,because the cards and postage are too expensive,

The only reason we still send them is that I received enough free stamps through doing a Royal Mail survey (via Mailagents) that I haven't had to buy any stamps at all. Cost of the 40 or so cards we send is negligible, and mostly buy them half price in the charity shops' sale.
My address book has so many crossings out through people sadly dying or moving, I will be buying a new one in the new year.

Same here Moonwatcher, I’ll be crossing names off my list too.

I noted that we have received much fewer cards this year than in the past. I also sent fewer. Electronic messaging has replaced cards, and most of those whom we do receive cards from are those who create cards from photos of their young children.

I’ve spent over £30 in stamps but could have spent more. Some fold just stopped sending cards assuming text or text cards are the same - they are most definitely not the same!!!
My family don’t send cards now - we oldies do but the youngsters no. Perhaps they’ll regret this at the reading of my Will.

Several people emailed me in November to say instead of posting Christmas cards (at 15shillings old money)🤣 they were donating the money to charity. An excellent idea it seems to me and I’ve done the same to friends I’m in regular email touch with. I enjoy sending the Jacqueline Lawson e-cards and they’re always appreciated. Still send by post to non-email friends.

They have and they will be getting cut further next year.
I don't like getting all the health updates and deaths either.
I send Best wishes for the New Year.

The best for laughs that we get is an e-mail round Robin from a couple who seem to have a friend in every country and include us in it when I haven't sent cards to them for 12 years. I realised they were sending me a postcard which was much cheaper from Spain and using their mother's address as a postbox drop and she was taking them all out for them. It seems the poor woman whom I did like and respect died in April but they did not bother to tell us.
Another was a travelogue and we've had remarriages when we did not know there had been divorces!!!!

Myself and MrR put the same card up every year. It’s become a standing joke which had spread to valentine day and anniversary lol

We do not post cards any more, just deliver to neighbours and send e-cards to everyone else. The expense is too much for most these days and all for what, ending up in the bin within days. Waste of money you could donate to a charity if you want to spend the money.

I post cards to three friends who live a long way away and hand deliver to close family and friends locally but don’t send half as many as I used to. Cost is definitely a factor I think

I sent about 30 this year about 10 less than last year. So far we have received 4. Will be cutting back next year as I'm sure most of the family aren't bothering with cards this year

I do but much less than years ago. This year gave out several but only posted 20 odd. . That cost £18 in postage which is extortionate

ronib

I’d be grateful not to be updated on seizures and brain tumours etc as the point of Christmas cards is to send Christmas greetings. I’d prefer an email update on various health/bereavement issues nearer the time they happened.

This made me laugh but actually I know exactly what you mean. The occupant before us had not lived here for 3 years : before that she was hospitalised in another part of the country for six! months, following a bad fall and didn’t return here.
Still! we have cards coming to her which we open hoping for an address, phone number, so we can let people know. Only one we were able to email, with a responding email thanking us.

The firstChristmas we were civilised and kindly disposed, sent
all cards to the office of the Sheltered Housing where we knew she now lived to be handed to her with a request she or family
advise of a change of address, so that the many brochures for stairlifts, insurance, ready meals, letters from far flung places,
bank statements! insurance company reps calling etc etc would cease as well as her card senders notified.
Alas this fell on deaf ears.

Many of these cards have round robins included, which I bin after looking for clues. They are mostly describing surgery, aftermath, squidgy bits, deaths, trauma of one kind
or another, or ‘We hope you are keeping well’ etc.

This year I asked the postman not to deliver these,
he said he was legally obliged to post to the address.

Next year any will be StB, as, if these senders were such
good friends, how come they didn’t know either her new address after three and a half years, or that she had died
this year, aged 95!

When my mother died in August my sister used her precise list with addresses and phone numbers to let people know.
These would be people mum didn’t see often or at all, but wanted to remember or be remembered at Christmas which can be a sad time, absent friends and family.

As a family we dispensed with cards a few years ago. If
a string/s of cards are meant to signify popularity, then
we are doomed.

Merry Christmas one and all!,

feasting we will be on a Monday, almost hedonistic.

I up date my list each year as people die, remarry etc. I send cards even if I do not receive cards. Its nice to keep in touch and wish people well. I also have a list of 10 relatives and close friends I send a bunch of Cornish scented daffodills too. It means a lot to them though some do not let me know if they have arrived and some of them do.

I was so pleased to receive card from a friend in a nursing home. As I get older and friends and family have passed away I have a smaller list than ever before. It makes me quite sad.

I sent two cards at the beginning of last week, and will send two more when this storm blows over.

I sent e-mails instead to most of the people I am in touch with. Cards and postage has become so expensive that sending traditional cards or letters isn't really an option.

Yes me too I have made a donation to RNLI just sent immediate family postage is disgusting.

What about sending every other year? That way they'll know you are still alive and still care but perhaps are trying to reduce paper?

I send some. I bought 4 packs of 10 and then had to buy another as cards dropped through the door from friends I had forgotten.
I have a few left for emergencies 😂

I am sorry adrisco and Barmyoldbat

I'm not sending so many abroad. They can get an email. I don't send to people I see all the time so it's mostly family, including my late DH relatives, friends from schooldays and friends who've moved away.

It is expensive in stamps but apparently not as much as it was in the days of the penny black as a proportion of income.

I'm currently starting a new address book as the old one has fallen apart and there are too many crossed out names.

bytheway

We stopped sending cards a few years ago, preferring to give the money to charity (or buy a bottle of whisky as my sons jokes) though I admit I do still send a couple to those I know who live alone. Funnily enough we get few in return but my sister, who I fell out with a few years ago, stills sends us one every year despite not speaking to me (unless its over something essential like our Dads care) and not receiving one in return.

bytheway - do we have the same sister?
One of my sisters stopped talking to me some years ago and when I pressed her for the reason - this was her reponse...

"You removed me from Facebook"

I will still send cards, birthdays and Christmas etc.. regardless.

I send tfor the pleasure of giving, it doesn't matter if I get any back or not. As we have only had the postman deliver once this December in my street I think I may get some in January as I did last year. Royal Mail are not honouring their commitment to First and Second Class mail at the moment. One of the letters I received on Tuesday was posted First Class on the 25th November.

So sorryAdrisco and SueDonim.
I send fewer and receive fewer, but I still like the tradition.

Every year I go through our card list crossing off those who have sadly died during the year. Also move those who send electronic cards over to a reciprocal arrangement.

Stopped sending cards last year - couldn't really face writing them after the death of DH and Royal Mail strike so just gave money to charity with the Big Give which doubles the donation and have done the same this year - keep up with everyone via email, text and whatsapp during the year.

We stopped sending cards a few years ago, preferring to give the money to charity (or buy a bottle of whisky as my sons jokes) though I admit I do still send a couple to those I know who live alone. Funnily enough we get few in return but my sister, who I fell out with a few years ago, stills sends us one every year despite not speaking to me (unless its over something essential like our Dads care) and not receiving one in return.

I suppose cards are a fashion like most things in social life. I still send around 40 (though I hand deliver any I can) and enjoy getting them, but my adult sons in their 40s have given up. I also think cards may well die out with our generation. I think it’s a shame as I like getting them, though writing them is a chore. For those who ‘give to charity’ instead, fair enough, but most cards we buy (all of mine actually) are linked to charities, and obviously the charities will stop being supported in this way if everyone stops buying cards.