Christmas Cards Away

The Weekly Journal



Did you get your cards out in time this year?


December 24, 2006

Everyone loves getting holiday cards, but most of us hate sending them. It's a chore, a duty, something that is put off until the last second. "I've got to get to those cards," a friend says as if putting off a root canal.

Regardless of whether you loath or love the annual card dispensing, we do appear to fall into a handful of sending categories.

The one most maligned is the annual Xmas letter, the family recap. These have reached the heights of the fruit cake in the cringe-and-shudder holiday category. I still think the fruit cake wins out as long as letters are kept to one page and well written. But I do wonder why those that send them out appear so oblivious of this lowly status?

Thank God the email card has gone the way of boy bands.

But it's the untouched by human hands card that bugs me the most --you know the ones, they arrive with the computer address label and preprinted card, typically with a snap of the family, or worse, just the kids. Since no one took the time to even write the address, at no point in the process was I thought about. For all I know, I could have been long forgotten, but still on a list that hasn't been culled in years.

As far as I'm concerned, those cards don't count.

At least the hand written address involves a visible review process. Writing my name at the top of the inside of the card would be better, but in my book, the short, personalized note is the card I most appreciate receiving. I only send this sort nowadays, but when I was a vice presidentat HMV Records, I had to send a small forest worth of cards to business acquaintances. The process was ridiculous. My secretary would generate the list and put a pile of cards on my desk to sign. Even if I wanted to write something personal I couldn't because the cards weren't matched to the envelopes.

In the last weeks of December my mail would be clogged with cards from people who had done the same thing. A meaningless exercise -- I would blindly say to whomever I was talking to, thanks for the card, and they'd return the platitude, both of us not having a clue on whether we'd sent or received one.

Things are less complicated now, but since I combined my email addresses with my real-world address book, I've lost the plot. I don't know how to find addresses or make lists anymore, so this year I'm doing it by memory.

But no matter what system I have, it never fails that a few folks will send a card that wasn't on my list. When it arrives with that hand written address and personalized note, I will feel awful. But if they're really a friend, they'll cut me a break and keep me on their list for next year.

Happy Holidays to everyone that sent me a card, even the preprinted sort with the computer address label…

rsw