Who sends Christmas cards?

There are 11 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 2,642 times. The latest Post () was by Rice.

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    Before I moved here we used to send them out every year without fail to family and friends, but I haven't done that for years now.

    Cards don't seem to be a big thing here - same for birthdays. I always thought it was a nice way to keep in touch, although the ritual could be a bit taxing, especially if you were sending out more than say, 25.

    Buy the card, write in it, seal it, write the address, stamp it and post it down the road. To be honest, I enjoyed the whole ritual as well as receiving them and hanging them up.

    The other day I bought a birthday card for Adri and filled it in, only to find (yet again) that the envelope didn't have glue on the closure, so I had to seal it with sellotape. What the...?

    I was going to post it, but since there are no post boxes anyf***ingwhere and the thought of going to the post office and queuing up was too much for one card, I just wrote "by foot" and gave it to her this morning.

    What about wrapping presents? I do, but here they simply leave them in the fancy bags from the shop. Not very festive really.

    Funny I was thinking about this the other day. My sister in the UK was pretty miffed when I told her not to send any more Christmas cards after the first one she sent didn't arrive until around the end of January despite being posted weeks before Christmas.

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    Christmas cards are used in Italy, but they are really out of fashion. My grandmother used them, and then followed a phone conversation with the closest persons after Christmas to chat about novelties. This was until the '80s.


    After that, Christmas card started being used merely for commercial relationship, i.e. companies sending you a Christmas card just to sell you something or to announce their upcoming sales or the pre-sales (yes, that's a thing).

    When I was an adult, Christmas card were used in the office by suppliers to 'thank you' for your business with them or just reming you they existed.


    There are smaller cards that can be attached to gifts with the name of the recipient and/or a few festive words inside. These gifts are handed over in person, so no mailing.


    I think it's always nice to receive physical mailing, but given the cost and the hardship of international mailing, there is really no point.


    I used to send Christmas card to my clients, but this year I passed as I have lost contact with most of them anyway.

    Many happy returns to your other half by the way. :thumbup:


    Think you were sensible delivering it by hand. I wonder how much it would have cost to post anyway? You're right about the cards available here with the non stick envelopes. The last time I got the missus one the choice in the shop was dire....old fashioned picture of a basket of roses which looked as of it was made using Windows 2000.

    If I remember, I usually just make the wife a birthday 'card' on some A4 adding a picture of the dogs rather than one of me.

    Argentina has its own postal problems, especially for mail sent abroad. The last time we sent Christmas cards to the US was in 2005, when we had to go to the central post office, now the Centro Cultural Kirchner, standing in line while growing long grey beards, then finally purchasing air mail stamps and mailing to family who received them in March.


    But in the US and, I suspect nearly everywhere, the practice of mailing cards is pretty much relegated to childhood memories. As children, we loved rushing to meet the postman to see what treasures he was delivering from friends near and far. But making the time to write actual messages on cards, tracking down address changes, and spending hundreds of dollars as the prices of cards and stamps increased, meant that people were abandoning the custom by the 1990’s. Then in the late ‘90’s, when most people had computers and were on the internet, sending e-cards was a quick and easy replacement. Now, even that has largely fallen by the wayside.

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    Quote from Rice

    Then in the late ‘90’s, when most people had computers and were on the internet, sending e-cards was a quick and easy replacement. Now, even that has largely fallen by the wayside.

    Indeed. This year I just received 4 e-cards, and only one had a personalized message. The other three were mass mailing and were promptly deleted.

    I have lived outside the UK for a few years.


    when I lived in Spain , I still sent cards and received them as well - Both UK and Spanish friends.


    Here I did it the first year and that was the last year I did it.


    I managed to convince my family not to waste time ans money doing it . After two years it worked .


    Our record was a card that arrived on 26th January - posted by my oldest sister on 10th December in Glasgow.