Is the tradition of sending out Christmas cards heading for recycling bin in the sky?

At some point today, no doubt, you will be packing away your Christmas decorations and consigning all your Christmas cards to the recycling bin.
We received fewer Christmas cards in the office this year.We received fewer Christmas cards in the office this year.
We received fewer Christmas cards in the office this year.

At some point today unless, of course, you got fed up with them earlier in the week and bounced all your baubles back to their home in the loft.

The giving and receiving of Christmas cards is one of those great traditions, but one that appears to be dying out.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In my youth, my parents sat around the dining table with snacks on hand as they ploughed through the 140 or so cards they sent out each year.

They chatted away merrily and recalled old stories about the people they were sending cards out to. It was an expensive business for them, but one they thoroughly enjoyed.

At work we used to receive scores of cards each year, this year it has been down to a handful.

And at home we used to get 50 or more, this year the number reduced by 50%.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

We still get cards off people for whom the giving and receiving of seasonal greetings is the only communication all year.

And some of the people we used to receive them from now tell us quite politely that they are no longer sending them as they are going to make a donation to their favourite charity instead.

After much discussion we decided to pop a note into many of the cards we send out expressing the same sentiment.

Cards in 2018 will be reduced to a handful, charity donations will go up by an equivalent amount and somewhere along the line we are bound to lose that last thread of communication with people we used to know much better and see more often.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It will be a shame if the giving and receiving of cards totally dies out, but it is almost inevitable.

After all, this year I actually received more electronic greetings in the form of e-cards at work than I did actual cards.

But having said that, the one I did receive at work was one more than I actually sent out from the office, the days of sending out mass greetings being another victim of economies with the company.