Holiday Blog

By LydiasDad

December 18, 2007 9:37 AM | Link to this

Who sends a Holiday card? I send Christmas cards. Does anyone send a Hanukkah card or a Ramadan card? Are Muslims in Afghanistan exchanging Hallmark cards? Didn’t think so.

By outraged

December 18, 2007 10:07 AM | Link to this

HOLIDAY CARDS? THERE IS NO SUCH THING. WE SEND CHRISTMAS CARDS. IT IS THE CHRISTmas season.

By Amy

December 18, 2007 10:09 AM | Link to this

Aren’t we off to a good start??

I love receiving picture cards for my refrigerator. This year the cutest is a sand snowman with the kids at the beach. We do a family one, but did not this year. I’ve heard friends say they don’t like getting the “guess where we went on vacation this year” cards, if it’s show-offy. I just like seeing the kids and how they grow each year.

By FCM

December 18, 2007 10:44 AM | Link to this

am THAT one….the one that doesn’t send the note, card, photos.

I cannot find time/energy/money etc…plus do I send to all of my exs’ exteded family? Which coworkers? Which of my family?

What I do is send email photos of the kids to their grandparents (the exs folks who in turn take great pleasure in broadcasting them to the extended relatives. My family gets email photos too. Then for holidays both sets of granparents get a limited number of formal photos of the kids—they get to decide which of their sibs get photos….My mother always sends to my granparents straight out with her card.

I do cards at work—and they are probably so sick of seeing my kids’ faces they don’t care if they don’t get a photo.

By FCM

December 18, 2007 10:49 AM | Link to this

I do enjoy getting the cards with photos. 2 of my friends let me know that they sent them this week so I can watch for them. (They will get digital shots on hard copy paper of the kids from me too).

When it comes to family/close friends, most of the time my mother has beat me to it….she takes her favs of the kids and sends them.

As I said, no time/money for the portrait stuff for the community at large.

However, given the number of people mentioning New Years Cards…I think I will look Mom’s list over and do those for the one’s that were left out.

As far as the photos we receive go, they live in a special place where we see them daily. They come down when they replacement arrives.

By FCM

December 18, 2007 11:01 AM | Link to this

Yes, actually I do send Chanukkhs cards…and occasionally I receive a few from friends who celebrate that event….usually the send me a Christmas one out of respect of my faith, just as I send them the Chanukkha out of respect for theirs. (I know few Muslims and those that I do know are private about their faith. Several of them celebrate Christmas as they see Jesus as a great prophet. Therefore they send and receive Christmas cards).

Then others have said they send New Years cards…so I think Holiday cards works….besides Holiday comes from HOLY DAY….how is that disrespectful to God/Christ/Christians?

By Real Cards Please

December 18, 2007 11:06 AM | Link to this

The perfect card is a REAL card - not an e-mail greeting or a photograph with a letter stapled to it but no card in the envelope. And, to the distant relatives - please label the pictures so I know who is who. Grandchildren of my grandparent’s cousins and children of my mother’s cousins are generations removed from me - it’s nice that we keep in touch after our older relatives have passed away but I haven’t seen you or your family in person in decades and have no idea which name goes with which face in the pictures. All these northern European white people look alike to me!

By jct

December 18, 2007 11:18 AM | Link to this

I love getting the picture cards. I have not seen one of my friends since we graduated college in 1992. We keep in touch via telephone and email. I just got her card on yesterday. I love watching her kids grow. It gives me a point of reference when we speak on the telephone.

Now…I do get bored with the annual update. I could do without that.

By Jennifer

December 18, 2007 11:27 AM | Link to this

I don’t do the annual update because it either seems like I’m bragging or complaining, depending on the year.

I found some cards this year and I really liked the sentiment inside. It reads Honor Christmas in a way that means the most to you, in a way that fills your heart with happiness and I wrote a short note and signed our names. I don’t like to send out cards with pre-printed names because it seems so impersonal. I don’t even like to print out address labels for Christmas cards and instead hand write the address on the envelope.

By Spock

December 18, 2007 11:43 AM | Link to this

When I was growing up, picture of kids were always of the “My Visit with Santa” variety. It seems now that the current trend of cards I receive are just plain pictures of kids, not in any type of Christmas setting, and they are all unsigned. Sorry folks, these go straight in the garbage can.

By mom3boys

December 18, 2007 11:56 AM | Link to this

Usually the cards are of the kids…for a few years I consulted Family Fun magazine for cutesy ideas…everyone loved those…that was before I went back to work…way too much time involved now! The best one I ever sent (IMHO): I cut the heads of the kids from a photo. I glued them onto some cardstock where I drew 3 snowmen…each kid became a snowman. The snowmen were decorated with things the kids were involved in (scouts, ball, etc). This year, during one son’s brief visit home from college, I threw them all on the porch and snapped some shots. The least horrible one bacame the card picture! A note of what up w/ each was tucked inside…tried to keep it from being too braggy…short and to the point.

By Jen

December 18, 2007 12:55 PM | Link to this

I like picture cards. And I don’t mind annual updates from immediate family.

I am one of 5 kids (and we all have kids now) and we are all scattered throughout the southeast. We all get together about once every 5 years so these cards and updates are the only way we keep up with each other.

This year one of my younger brothers sent out a picture of his son as a baseball card. That was cool.

By dawn

December 18, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this

I actually enjoy getting other peoples’ Christmas letters, but never have the nerve to send one myself because I know there are so many cynics out there who rush to judge anyone who wants to express joy and celebrate the year’s highlights.

We tried to get a picture of all of us for our card this year, but the ones I liked of me, my husband didn’t like of himself, and our 4-year old son refused to look at the camera, while the baby was all smiles in every shot. I ended up taking individual pictures of both boys plus a photo of our tree and putting them all together on a card. I think it turned out really nice.

By the way, we have received several Hannukah photo cards from our friends who are Jewish as well as a Kwanzaa card from some friends who are African-American and celebrate Kwanzaa. I like cards to reflect the faith of the sender, but make sure to write a note in our cards acknowledging the faith of those friends I know do not share our Christian faith.

By singlemom

December 18, 2007 1:20 PM | Link to this

Lydia’s Dad and Outraged, get a grip, believe it or not their are non-Christians who enjoy the holiday season too. As someone from a mixed faith family, I consider the cards I send out HOLIDAY. My mom’s family is Jewish, and yes, they send me Hannukah cards. My dad’s family is Baptist, and yes I get plenty of Christmas cards from them. Last year I sent out Christmas cards and Hannukah cards of my daughter, but this year I just didn’t have the time so I sent some cute photos on a wintry background. I don’t do the long update letter….the people I send cards to are the friends and family I keep up with all year anyway so they know what’s going on.

By Mike

December 18, 2007 2:53 PM | Link to this

I’ve gotten two Christmas cards with photos - one had photos of the kids, the other was a married couple with no kids. I enjoyed receiving them both.

What I DIDN’T enjoy receiving, or not receiving, was a card from my cousin addressed to “the XXXX family” at my mother’s address (she’s divorced, I’m 37 and have lived in another city for fifteen years). It was a photo of the family from their trip to Mexico, along with a newsletter telling everyone about their elaborate overseas trips and how both kids are on track to win the Nobel Prize before they’re twenty-one.

They could afford three weeks in China, but they can’t spend the extra two bucks to send a card to a grown-up relative who sent THEM a card?

By InTownGal

December 18, 2007 3:45 PM | Link to this

I enjoy getting the photo cards, especially since I don’t live close enough to see relatives often. As long as the yearly update letter is fun and entertaining, but not how wonderful, and perfect we are, then all the better.

By LydiasDad

December 18, 2007 4:20 PM | Link to this

Overall, cards are a huge waste of time and money. I throw mine away as soon as I get them. Spend money on something else. $4 for a piece of paper is ridiculous.

By Tina

December 18, 2007 6:51 PM | Link to this

We usually purchase Christmas cards at half off for the next year. I got an email from my sister in law after she received our card this year saying they sent the same cards we did this year! That’s pretty odd, considering I purchased our cards at the Perimeter REI last January, and they live in Albuquerque. Sometimes I do a photo card, sometimes, a photo in the card. This is the first year I didn’t bother spending hours putting together a synopsis of our year, and a friend called me on it in her card (“where’s your letter!!!”) I’m just glad I got them out in time. I am surprised to see so many cards where the photo is badly blurred on cards that clearly otherwise cost a fortune. Why bother?

By nurse&mother

December 18, 2007 7:30 PM | Link to this

Maybe “Real Cards Please” should be thankful that the distant relatives think of him/her.

LydiasDad, don’t mean to offend, but you sound like a typical male. If I were divorced or dead, my husband probably wouldn’t save the cards either. I do think that he appreciates the cards, though. He looks at all the new cards when I display them. He doesn’t keep a lot of things like I do. I’m sure he would look at them, smile, then toss (typical male)

By Racebaiter

December 18, 2007 8:09 PM | Link to this

Yep, typical male here. You’re married, huh? Sigh.