Where Debbie Bennett is Marking the Occasion

Have I written here about Christmas cards? I’m not sure I have, but I lose track sometimes  having blogged here since the site’s inception, I’m fairly sure I’ve duplicated topics from time to time… 

Never mind: Christmas cards. Or any other occasion cards, I guess. We got significantly fewer this Christmas past. I’m not sure whether that’s because 2020 is desperately trying to be the Year That Time Forgot, or if it’s simply that people just don’t write any more. Several of my friends send out email missives summarising the year for themselves and their families; others donate to charity in lieu of sending cards. And I know we’re all about saving the planet – but there’s something old-fashioned, quaint and just nice about the sending and receiving of cards to mark an occasion. It means that somebody has – just for a short moment of time – thought about you as they scrawled your name and address on a card and envelope. I know I do it; as I write each card, my mind drifts back to moments we have shared, moments/days/years, even, when our lives have intertwined. It makes me wonder what people are up to now and how their lives have changed. It’s good to reconnect with people you only ‘speak to’ once a year when you write a couple of sentences about your life (I think I can sum up 2020 in less than two sentences, anyway). I think it’s even more important when our lives have been so severely restricted these past ten months. 

I’m not sure my daughter sends Christmas cards. Do any of the millennial generation? Or is everything online now – quick ephemeral tweets or social media contacts. I suppose when everybody is always contactable via their phone, there is no need anymore to make that extra effort. 

And what about the actual writing? I always dig out my posh fountain pen to write cards – the occasion seems to warrant it. But I’m so used to a keyboard now, that stringing together more than a few sentences by hand is difficult. My hand aches with the strain of it and I’m aware of having to think much harder before I write, as words once committed to paper are permanent and the undo key doesn’t exist! And again – how do the youngsters cope when they use computers constantly and yet often have to take an exam by hand? 

I do at least recycle cards – although I do tend to keep them for a year with the decorations in the loft. That way I can be sure I have correctly recorded (again by hand in my little black book) all changes of address and name. 

So I will continue to send Christmas cards. And birthday cards too. To those people who receive them, be reassured that for a fleeting moment, you were uppermost in my thoughts. 

Happy New Year! 

Comments

Umberto Tosi said…
I love getting paper Christmas cards by good old fashioned post, but I must confess having become remiss about them in favor of e-cards and messages. One of my daughters and her children maintain the postal card tradition, bless them. I hope you have a happy Christmas and a joyful new year!
Jan Needle said…
Happy New Year, Debbie. There - that's another card sent! My modern weirdness involves the mobile phone. Most of my friends, family, associates, do most minor communications by text. Which I find vaguely rude and uncaring.Told you it was weird, didn't I? But the whole bloody boiling's weird at the moment. Keep smiling!
I am in complete agreement with you on this, Debbie - I write letters by hand to people at Christmas, and I too save the cards until next year in case I've forgotten about changes of address. I love hearing back from people even with mail-merged letters.Other people's lives are so different from mine.
Debbie Bennett said…
I have to admit, I never open e-cards, so they are wasted on me. I never quite trust them not to deliver other nasties to my pc at the same time!
Eden Baylee said…
Happy new year Debbie. I still send out and receive cards. At one time, I used to send a box of cookies for Christmas too, even to the UK from Canada.

In the case of my friend in Sheffield, he received the gift after the new year, but as you say, it's the thought that counts!

eden

Reb MacRath said…
What a treat, Debbie, finding someone else who believes in Christmas cards. It's too tempting to tell ourselves 'Well, I'm thinking of (someone) but don't have time to write or even call. But there's still something magical about sending as well as receiving a card that did find the time to get written.
Wendy H. Jones said…
I'm in the I don't write Christmas cards camp. I just don't see to get my act together enough for cards.
Kirsten Bett said…
I love receiving and sending Christmas cards, well especially New Year's cards, too but don't send them to everybody. We get about 15, I think. We went to relatives on Christmas Day and they had two strings of cards hanging on the ceiling. There must have been 200 cards...
Debbie Bennett said…
200 cards? Wow! We used to get 30-40, but in recent years it's been more like 20 or so.
misha said…
I love getting cards and sending them too. As you said Debbie, it feels so much more personal than a text or email message.