Up For Display
Every year I try to be creative with how I display them; tape them on our our sliding glass door, hang them from Ikea green and red clothes clips, stack them in a bowl (no way!), but this year I arranged them on a CB2 Cable Photo Cord held stationery by a mighty, tiny, little magnet. One year I kept the cards up on display until after Valentine's Day.
For several years I made other people their own specialized Christmas cards for $1.00/card with special services (printing labels on the envelope, licking the flaps closed, or putting the stamps in the corner). Each family had a different size number on their mailing list: some had a list of 50, most had 100, a few had 300, and one had a list of 500 names. Whatever the size of your list, how do you determine who to add or who to take off of your list?
(I just have to add here that this is the first year I didn't make our own Christmas cards, but I ordered them from Shutterfly by the October 31st deadline to cash in on the killer discount. They are able to produce my cards cheaper than I could ever make them on my own.)
Well, the other day I was at my friends house when I noticed two cards from mutual friends. Not so unusual, except, I didn't receive those Christmas cards myself. They sent their cards to me last year, but not this year. Yes, my feelings were a bit hurt, and it got me thinking about our Christmas card mailing list.
My Mailing List
On my mailing list I have family (of course), cousins (even though some do not send me a card, I just send them one anyway because how rude is it not to even send your own cousin a Christmas card), friends from college, roommates from years gone by, my husband's friends, friends that I have known a very long time, friends from church, my boys' friends' family, and new friends. So my list grows and shrinks year by year.
So the big question is when do you cross people off your list? I have friends on my list that I have not seen for years, but I love them and I want our lives to intersect back to each other and I couldn't bare to cross them off the list. It's like crossing them out of my life. Christmas is sometimes the one time of the year that gives me a window into their lives for the past year.
I don't cross people off the list if they still send me their card, but there have been people I didn't know very well anyway who I don't see much and I can't imagine how are lives will intersect again type of people who I cross off the list and feel okay about doing that.
My boys have also been in on the Christmas card mailing list, because they too fancy to send a family card to their friends as well. And, for the most part, we are friends with the parents of our kids' friends anyway.
But, at what point do we cross them off? Some people stike out people on their list that they haven't seen for half the year or their kids don't hang out with the other kid so off the list they go.
It seems our lives are so disposal to some. Friendships come and go. As I receive my cards I think about friends who used to send me cards who don't any more. How did I get off their list? I just crossed a friend off my list after thirteen years of sharing cards and lives. I must confess, it was difficult and it sadden me to do it. I so wished our lives and our familys' lives could have intertwined, but after not receiving a card for the past two years, regretfully, I knew I had to finally release this friend from my life.
Merry Christmas to my fabulous blog friends!
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I LOVE hearing that you send so many cards and have made your own each year but this one! I think we are a rare breed! I haven't made my cards in several years but I miss it and may start again next year. I do always try to send a Christmas letter - some think they're corny - but I love getting them and hearing how everyone is doing...and a picture of our family or the kids. I used to handwrite long, personal notes in each card but I gave that up several years ago - far too time consuming - but I do try to write a little something and sign our names to each card, even if it's preprinted.
ReplyDeleteCrossing off the list....the past 2 years I have crossed around 20 names off my list. It's getting too expensive so I cut where I felt like I could. I did cross off people whom I haven't rec'd a card from in 3 or more years. Some of those people I will still send a card to periodically. I try to write, very small, in my address book the year(s) I've sent each person cards so I can keep track. It helps so much.
I'm terribly sad that the amount of cards I receive each year has gone down substantially. We love getting the mail this time of year but it definitely isn't as fun as it was about 10 years ago when the cards would roll in.
My favorite person to send a card to is an old friend from our 1st years in the Navy. He now lives in Key West and has for about 20 years. He tells us that he looks forward to receiving that card each and every year. Though he's never sent one to us, I could never stop sending him one.
Merry Christmas, Sharon :-)~Suzy
I think your enjoyment of creating, sending, receiving and displaying Christmas cards is just great. Don't try to figure out what other people do;-- just continue enjoying the spirit of Christmas
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