CHRISTMAS CARDS: A DYING TRADITION

Every year, it seems like we receive fewer and fewer Christmas cards. This year’s crop of Christmas cards has been slow to come because I haven’t sent out our cards, yet. It is only appropriate that most people to whom you send a Christmas greeting, will reciprocate and send one of theirs after they receive yours. It becomes a stand-off between “Johnny-send-early” and “Joe-I’m-waiting-to-see-if-you-send-one-to-me” that leads to uncertainty. My thought is it’s best to send first and receive later. If you set the precedent by sending first, there’s a good chance you’ll receive a card for many of those you send. 

But receiving cards is not the point! Christmas cards are meant to be a present, of sorts. Instead of sending each of your Christmas-card recipients a physical gift, which in these times of record inflation would be beyond financial feasibility, you opt for a greeting card that conveys a personal message of love, hope, and joy for the Christmas season. To that mass-produced card you add a personal message, or greeting, that expresses your wish for happiness and blessing for the person or family. Since “It is better to give than to receive,” the number of blessings you send should not be limited.

I signed, addressed, and stamped 23 cards this morning (I still have more than one hundred to send). We mailed them just awhile ago. The “picture cards” I had made have not arrived in the mail, yet, and may not until December 20th, so our cards may arrive late, even after Christmas this year. The short time between Thanksgiving and December 1st didn’t allow me time to transition my thinking from Autumn and Thanksgiving to December and Christmas. 

To decide who gets a card, and to be sure I don’t forget someone, I keep a list of the people I have sent cards before. Each December, I go through the list and update it with new people and, unfortunately, those no longer with us. That list seems to get longer every year. 

Two weeks ago, I made 100 picture cards. As I mentioned previously, I haven’t received them from the vendor so I’m getting a very late start this year. Usually I send cards out by the first week in December, but this year I was still dealing with 76° high temperatures and thus, a slow adjustment to seasonal changes. But when I finally got in the Christmas card mood, I was stymied by not having any cards to send. It will be a rushed job when they do arrive. 

I make a point of signing each card and adding a brief personal message. That slows the process quite a lot. Sending cards from Arizona seems to be problematic. It always take 3, 4, or even 5 days to get mail from AZ to Indiana, and even to Texas. Sometimes it feels like we’ve restarted the pony express, and the rider has been ambushed along the way. Well, as long as it gets there I’m ok with it. 

I like it the trend of sending a single card with current pictures of the senders and their family. That cuts down on the number of full-page, single-spaced, both sides of the page, letters that are filled with details that make for slow reading. These picture cards save time for both the sender and receiver and give the recipient a chance to see how time has changed peoples’ appearances. There’s plenty of room on the back for a few brief sentences highlighting the family’s activities. Those long letters are newsy, but they are very easy to put aside and forget to read later. Brevity is important to keep the attention of the reader.

I love sending and receiving Christmas cards, but I think the tradition is losing its importance. The cost of Christmas cards and postage, and the time it takes to address envelops, apply stamps et al., has changed this from a fun activity to work. Then, adding a brief note and signing each card adds more time. 

But I don’t think of it as an obligation. It’s a labor of love because it perpetuates the joy we feel at Christmas and the love we express for our friends and family. I’ve heard people say they hate Christmas because it reminds them of a bad time in their life. I find that situation very sad and feel compassion for those folks. Christmas is intended to be the ultimate expression of love because “God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever  believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 

Christmas cards are meant to remind us of the birth of Jesus and the blessing of eternal life we receive through Him. They remind us to love our family and friends and express that love freely by giving gifts and sharing greetings for a Merry Christmas. They remind us we have received the greatest gift ever given—salvation through Jesus Christ. Secularists have commercialized Christmas, but we mustn’t forget that the real meaning is far deeper and far more important to eternal happiness.