Do you send Christmas cards? I just do a few to older friends and relatives who I know like getting them and for the rest now I do an email/message and a greeting on Facebook
But I’ve noticed a trend now for people to announce they are donating to charity instead of sending cards. I just got one via justsendmeacard.com.
They send out an e-card of your choice to your chosen email contacts in return for a donation to one of their member charities. There’s no admin charge taken from your donation and they don’t charge the charity to belong, they seem to make their money from companies using them to send corporate cards
It’s a good idea, I suppose, but I just don’t like people announcing they are giving to charity. It feels too goody two shoes and taking the moral high ground to me
If you don’t want to send card or gifts, fine, if you want to donate to charity, even better
But the two things aren’t interdependent and you don’t need to boast to the world about it!
But if you’re (general you) are the type of person to send out one of those boasting newsletters to everyone, just as soon do some good in the world while you’re at it.
We send cards. Mrs mart hand-makes all of them. It’s part of her life at this time of year. I’m sure she would feel some sort of loss if she were to stop doing that.
I know what you mean. But where does buying charity cards fit into this? I often buy from a charity shop and the cards are of course marked as supporting that charity. Have I been accidentally virtue signaling?
No, I think charity cards are OK, if you’re going to buy some you might as well do it from a charity and it’s not like telling people “I don’t buy cards so I’ve made a donation”!,
it’s usually just small print on the back
On the other hand, the charities sometimes only get a very small percent of what you pay for the pack of cards if you buy them from a supermarket etc, they get more if you buy from the charity directly
Even then, they’d probably get more if you bought a cheap pack of cards from Poundland and gave your favourite charity a direct cash donation!
I like sending Christmas cards to friends and family. I recently received a text from one of my friends telling me that she wasn’t sending cards this year due to the cost of the postage, which is absolutely fine. However, she finished by saying that because she wasn’t sending me a card that meant that I wouldn’t have to send her one either, which really irritated me! I absolutely understand if people choose not to send cards for whatever reason but to be told that I needn’t send one in return really rankled - I send cards because I want to not because someone sends one to me … so I have sent her one!
That happened to me a couple of years ago and I felt miffed and said well you have one anyway !
But I have not sent one since .
This year I will only send a few .
My friends are getting less and less anyway .
I have a friends in another country who said that. We haven’t sent one. I don’t care if they don’t send one back but maybe they would feel obliged to if we sent theirs.
We’ve probably done what most people are doing. Sending less cards because of the postage costs. I mean, £1.25 for a first class stamp , is a bit much! The wife picks the cards, mostly charity ones. Just sent them all off by 2nd class.
@Pipsqueak , I agree with you totally. I can understand why some of my friends have stopped mailing cards out because of the rise in postage, but I have sent cards since I was 20 years old. I like the entire ritual, sending one with my handwritten address on it, and a small notation inside before my name at the bottom. I don’t do the long typed/copied events of the year thing, but I like my friends to know I am thinking of them, and taking the time to show I value their friendship and caring.
I also send donations to charity, but that is a separate thing entirely. I’m keeping them both on my holiday check list for as long as I can.
It makes me smile. My list of cards has shortened from about 70 to about 30, but still…
It is quite possible to give to charities AND send Christmas cards.
Funnily enough I had decided not to send Christmas Cards this year because it is getting harder to find cards that can contain a 5 by 7 inch photo.
Every year I make a collage photo of events that have happened during the year with my kids and grandkids, emblazon it with “Merry Christmas 2023” and stick it in the Christmas cards.
This year I decided to abandon the Christmas card and just send the photo, I had bought some 5 by 7 envelopes from Amazon over a month ago.
Early in December, after creating my annual masterpiece, I toddled off to the local Big W store to get them printed from my USB stick. Couldn’t find the machines, asked a girl and was told it is all done on line. Rushed home and discovered that it takes 10 business days for the processing - I am still waiting, not due until the 15th Dec at the earliest. (In time, I hope, for the domestic Christmas post).
That was too late for my overseas Christmas Cards so I bought some large ones with a blank LH page inside and bunged them through my laser printer to print the photo on the blank page. It’s not the same quality as the photo but it will have to do.
I love these, I just happened to stumble upon them in a mini Christmas sale during the summer in the Glasgow branch of John Lewis. And they are charity cards
I have 3 people to send cards to, my husband and my brothers. Plus, we live in sheltered housing, independent living. There are 33 flats and communal areas. Mainly single people but 3 couples. I started sending everyone a card and it caught on. Many of the residents don’t have many friends/relatives and it’s lovely to see their faces when they have a lot of cards. It doesn’t have to be expensive, Aldi and Lidl do some nice sets for silly money and I spend less than £3. It’s not about the money it’s about the kind thoughts. We’re having a big Christmas party in our 100 ft communal lounge tonight, should be fun
My Christmas photos came back and I posted them off to friends and relatives in Australia on Friday. I wrote greetings on the back of the photo.
To be honest I think I will go back to sending it in a card next year, as I mentioned it was because of the difficulty of finding a card big enough however now I know I can get the 5 by 7 envelopes I will buy the cards again (from the Royal Flying Doctor) throw away the envelopes the card came with and put the untrimmed photo with the card and into the A7 envelope.
My Christmas card list has dwindled over the years as people fell off the perch - less than 20 now
I am a big believer in local action rather than giving to big national and international charities because I think sometimes the money donated gets diverted too much to admin, advertising and other things and you don’t see a direct benefit
You created a lot of happiness with an inexpensive pack of cards
Mrs Fox takes care of all the Christmas cards of which there are many. She’s very popular locally, and has many family members so we have cards spread about on every flat surface in the lounge or hanging on strings…I just send two cards to a couple of past work colleagues who I keep in contact with every blue moon…The only charity I donate to is the Yorkshire Air Ambulance because I watch them on the telly every Saturday night and impressed by their work. I would never, ever, send money to a charity that works abroad…There is enough work to do here…
PS:-
As a retired postman, I still think the cost of a first class stamp is very good value for money, so get your hands in your pockets and support your postman/woman…
Funny thing is that I mostly only support charities that work abroad like UNICEF and Médecins Sans Frontières because Australia is a rich country and there are far poorer and needier people in the world.
However it is not an either/or situation so I do support the RFDS, PCYC and the Rural Fire Brigade. The only mob I absolutely refuse to contribute to are those associated with a religion (Anglicare, St Vinnies etc).
And where is your bloody uniform? When I was a postman we had a proper uniform and didn’t go around looking as if we were homeless
