Do You still mail (USPS) or receive holiday greeting cards?

Is that now a thing of the past?

I got my first holiday card today, in the mail. I have two boxes of my own holiday cards ready to sign, seal, address, and stamp with the new USPS holiday stamps. I do most of my bill paying online, but my partner (a retired USPS employee) still snail mails checks for his share of the bills. I continue to send birthday cards and thank you notes via the USPS. I also use it for my small mail order business. In ten years, I have never had a package fail to be delivered.
USPS%20fan
letters were rare and therefore, special.
Me too,r1. I've heard complaints about the USPS all of my life but they've never let me down. For the first time in years I'm in the mood to send out cards by snail mail. It's gathering the street addresses that I dread.
Della
I do. I remember when my parents got at least 100 Christmas cards each year. It was really exciting to me to get those cards in the mail. Nobody was allowed to come over our house. I couldn't bring friends home and relatives were not allowed over except for a few minutes. There were never any parties at the house. So I guess getting the cards was the closest thing to a social festivity. I remember back in the 80s I used to send out about 60 cards. When I looked at the addresses I noticed how far flung everyone was. California, Hawaii, Ireland, South Africa, Brazil, etc. I felt very wordly knowing people in so many different parts of the world, but they were people I had known through school or work and after a few years, we fell out of touch. I didn't have the money to travel and visit people. Now I mostly send cards to my older relatives -- aunts, uncles. I miss getting cards and I even miss those updates typewritten on Christmas stationery that we used to laugh at.
I send cards to older relatives and several friends that are in the military, but the cards are with care packages, so I don't know if you'd count that.
I gave up on this tradition last year, when I realized I was sending out about five times what I was getting in return. So I just... stopped.
I can't stand Christmas. It's a stressful, expensive, pain in the ass. However, the one thing I like doing is sitting down and writing my Christmas cards. I've always been pretty good about trying to keep in touch with people throughout the year, and Christmas cards are a nice way to stay in touch. I even write short notes on several of my cards. And I like looking for unique or unusual cards to send. Who knew that a Scrooge like me would actually enjoy sending Christmas cards?!
yup, and it's ALL I do
I finally gave up a couple years ago. The cards were pretty to get and fun to send, but eventually I started to feel about them the same way my mother always did: "Well, it's nice to get a card from [so-and-so] once a year so you know they're alive." She didn't mean it in a sarcastic way; it WAS nice to get that card. But now we hear from those past friends and long-lost people at different points during the year via email and Facebook. But I miss all the pretty cards mixed in with the bills.
The only cards I ever receive are those gawdawful "Christmas newsletters" from relatives (full of Christian this, and Jesus that), or simple cards with a signature. Most people I care to be in contact with (and many I don't), I'm in contact with regularly via Facebook or Twitter or both.
I'm not on Facebook. I like sending Christmas cards.
Check out the extreme Christmas cards this family sends.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/slideshow/extreme-holiday-card-photos-17819077
Cute, r12. We hated Saturday morning chores except for that one Saturday morning of the year in December when, after chores, my parents would make a family project out of "hanging the Christmas Cards." Sometimes it would be as simple as reverse tape on the backside of the cards so we could arrange them on the wall, or disastrously, attempting punch discreet holes in the corners of the cards so we could string them together to drape across the ceiling. Good times. USPS household-to-household mail won't be around in 20 years. Maybe that accounts for my wanting to send out cards again.
Della
My parents got lots of cards and sent out a lot too. The thing with my Ma was that if the incoming cards were addressed to just "Mr & Mrs Jones" and not to "The Jones Family" or to "Mr & Mrs Jones & Sons" then we were not allowed to open them. Us kids had to be included somewhere in the address. I had a couple of Aunts who always sent each of us kids our very own card addressed to us personally. I would practically wet myself when I saw my name on an envelope. Then I got to send them a card just from me. Talk about joy to the world and don we now our gay apparel. That's all over with now but I still send the few cards I do send by snail mail. I like dropping them in a mail slot.
[quote] I even miss those updates typewritten on Christmas stationery that we used to laugh at Let me share my cousin with you, R4! She used to send a long (and long-winded) typed letter in the post. Now she sends it as an email attachment (in some format that various relatives can't open!). I still send and receive Christmas cards. And I love to read the ones that my parents receive. And like R14, I like dropping the cards in a mail slot!
Growing up, we loved to read all the cards my parents would get. I guess that was what was instilled in me and I continue the tradition, including the dreaded Christmas letter. I keep mine light and funny and get a number of, "I just love your Christmas letter" remarks from many of my friends. I send out about 120 each year and usually receive around 40 in return. It's a lot of work, but its worth it. Nothing better then dropping them all off (preferably by the 15th) knowing they're done...
bump
Della
I have a list. If you sent me one last year, you will get one this year. I used to send them out to everyone but only half the people would send them back so I just send to those that send to me.
I send out ~30 and maybe get 10 in return. Growing up it was my father's job to fill out the Christmas cards. He'd hand write the Christmas round robin letter in each one. He'd spend a couple full weekends writing all the Christmas cards.
Yes and yes.
Bengali in Platforms
My Mom died in December of 2009. I brought her address book back and the following year I went through her address book and sent everyone it in a card. I've been doing it ever since. Before that, I never sent out Christmas cards. The Christmas after she died was awful. I'd get a card in the mail and I wouldn't know if it was a Christmas card or a sympathy card. Plus, I had wrapped gifts from my Mom (whose death was not expected) to open.
Crying as I type
I really miss the days of getting lots of cards and spending an entire weekend signing, addressing and stamping a bunch to send out. Now I only send cards to dear friends, and to a few business colleagues in offices in other cities, people I talk to or work with via remote access - it makes things a little less impersonal. All my relatives are gone now, so that's about it. I can always count on receiving a stupid Christmas newsletter from a college friend, a card from my company's home office, and a faux-card from my alma mater with an enclosed envelope soliciting a donation to the alumni fund.
FOLLIES!
I do exactly what R18 does.
My partner and I send cards and letters for all holidays, with the most going out for Yule/Christmas/New Year. But we also send Easter, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Halloween and Thanksgiving cards to people for whom the days have meaning. A few also receive St. Joseph, St. Patrick, Epiphany, and Equinox cards. We often send small gifts - jellies, jams, baked goods or candy - with our holiday letters and cards. We don't send our friends and families a barrage, pelting them constantly. We spread it out and just keep in touch this way when we feel it's time. We do it because we love celebrating holidays and marking the seasons, and because there is nothing that compares to the tangible receipt of something that lets the receiver know they are thought of and valued. We like to let the people we love and like know they remain in our thoughts. I understand that for a lot of people these notions are outmoded. We don't want to bother those for whom such things have no meaning, or are a hassle. But we also note that these are the people who also do not keep in touch generally, and who don't consistently use electronic means to communicate around holidays or birthdays or any other time, despite their Twitter and Facebook accounts and near-constant use of technology. We don't drop people by requiring reciprocity, of course. But some do let you know that they don't care. If we know that people really prefer electronic means of communication, we keep in contact through email and in other ways. But of all my friends and family, that comes down to only two cousins, one nephew, and one friend. No one else relies on technology to keep in communication regularly. They just post their kitty pictures and "likes" on Facebook in an impersonal way. Selfish and lazy people will use whatever excuses they can to justify whatever they do. Perhaps they actually care about others. But who would know? How can you take the word of someone for something, when they don't use words to let you know they're aware you're alive.
A few of my relatives still send out Christmas cards/ annual newsletters.
I've always enjoyed receiving and displaying Christmas Cards from friends and relatives. Every year I mail out a limited amount of cards to special people.
Gay Austinite
I still do it, but at cards $4 or $5 a piece I send them only to my parents and very close friends.
at = with cards
Aww, R21. It's sweet that you send them out in her stead. I buy boxes, then forget to send them, then feel guilty when I receive some. Sometimes I try to belatedly salvage the situation with New Year's cards. It gives my lazy ass a whole month.
Yay R25.
bump
Della
Hyacinth sends Christmas cards to herself from people who didn't bother.
Richard
I'll send Christmas cards with USPS Holy Family stamps.
This a off the mailed card topic, but here is, and always will be, my favorite television holiday commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktw4J8kg3SE
Della
I haven't sent them in at least a decade or more. And now there's the Facebook phenomenon.
LuciferTheLightBringer
Nope. Always drove myself crazy trying to get them out--then just saved myself the angst and stopped trying. I'm bad like that. Don't follow my example.
A few years ago, I sent Halloween and Thanksgiving along with Christmas cards. No more. I just became tired of it. Even though I didn't have a long list, I just felt it was not necessary. Halloween went away first. Last and this year, I did away with sending Thanksgiving cards. (Though I still have some stored away that can be sent next year, should I be in the mood to do that.) So, it's end-of-the-year greetings from me. And that's fine.
I manage the Costco Online Photo system. Believe me, people are still printing cards in large amounts, at least via photo. cannot speak for regular greeting cards.
Yes and yes! Facebook and email don't count for everything! Support your local PO!
In a very small town
R21, I completely feel your pain and sympathize. My mother has been dead 22 years and I've probably moved 6 times since then, but I still have her (probably from 1946 when she and my father got married) old address book and I treasure it. I mark off people when they pass away, with dates of death. Stlil sending cards to relatives and her friends in the book. And will cry, like you, when I address them this year
Sucks when one's mother dies
PS to R21 from R39: I am so sorry for your loss; is very hard when someone dies, especilly when it's unexpected. My mother died the day after Mother's Day - about a month after my bday (which I was home for, thank goodness) but she died about 2 weeks before my brother's (32nd; I was 34) bday but there was a card (with $$) all ready for him. I also started to cry just looking at mail ready to go out, things in readiness around the house - excep for her (died of cancer, about 6 months after it "came back.") I hope you're 40+ or more; to lose your mother at a very young age is sad. Losing mine at 34 (I'm very immature) was hard, but I feel so much worse for pepole whose mothers die when they're 20 something or younger. GOOD for you you keep up the cards tradition!
OP, are you planning on e-mailing your Christmas card or something? Of course I still mail my Christmas cards, I have a little bit of class.
Always have. Always will. Love sending and receiving cards.
Yes, for some bills. I also prefer when companies ship USPS because if I miss the delivery it's only a short walk to pick up the package in person. Although, my local branch in Sunset Park, Brooklyn is THE worst branch in New York. Fat ass parcel post delivery people who won't climb the one flight of stairs to my front door so they leave the "notice" on the ground floor. Sometimes I am home all day and they still leave that fucking notice even though the shipping address indicates that I live on the third floor. But I believe these fuckers are the exception rather than the rule.