Christmas Cards

[SilentOne]

What does your family do for Christmas cards? Photo cards? Year highlight letters? And if you send the type that opens, what do you write inside?

My mother still writes up a summary of what everybody's been up to all year, so I get included in that. I don't write one of my own but usually send out some of the folded kind. I've traditionally written a personal message to each person I send to and right now am taking a break from figuring out what to say.

[JohnsonJones]

I suppose I do not have any set thing to say.  I am actually right now in the process of writing cards up and sending out the gifts that I have collected all year.  Sometimes it probably is expressing my love for each of them and hoping they have a Merry Christmas.  I should work on it, but the first cards I write tend to have a lot more than the later cards. 

My wife has always been the better one with correspondence in writing.  I find it a LOT easier to convey a lot of writing to those grandchildren that spend time with me than those that come to the house and then sit in front of the playstation or xbox or wii-u and ignore me for the most part.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE THEM ALL (tremendously), it is just easier to write a lot to those who spend time with me and discuss much of their life than it is with those that do not.  I find that I tend to write those grandchildren's cards who have spent a lot of time with me first, and the others later, so maybe that's part of my problem right there.

[anatess2]

I send our family photo on a card with a stock message that comes with the card.  I send out each card with a gift - usually personalized but not always.  Like this year, I'm sending out tableya made from craftsmen in my mother's hometown in the Philippines who I visited earlier this year - they're not personalized, but it's from a very personal place for me.  

[seashmore]

I don't send cards.  I'm a bit of a Scrooge/Grinch.  Anyway, I'm only chiming in to say that my aunt's way of doing Christmas cards/mailings is my favorite.  (She's skipped a few years, but is pretty regular.)  She worked in the publishing department of a university and my uncle taught Phsyics at a community college, so their letter was in the form of a multiple choice quiz where every answer was correct.  I always thought it was kind of cute, and you don't have to come up with as much to say because the format provides a lot of filler for you.  A lot of years, they send out a Peace Corps calendar, too.  (My uncle served.)

Example

What happened when we visited Disney World?
A. Jerry and Ren took lots of selfies in line.
B. Susan got dehydrated and almost fainted.
C. Andrew ran into his college roommate, who was dressed as Mickey Mouse.
D. We all got soaked on the log ride.

[prisonchaplain]

I heard a great argument for resurrecting the Christmas card tradition (apparently it is becoming less and less of a thing):  cards are a way of sharing our appreciation for people without buying a gift. At first that might sound frugal, but it's not. Rather, there are many people we wish to bless with our love and thanksgiving, but we cannot possibly buy presents for them all. A card is a way to say, "I'm thinking of you and hope you enjoy God's blessings during this season." Many of us have dozens of folks like that. So, ironically, the tradition of Christmas cards helps us play down the commercial aspect of Advent and lift up love and gospel.

Having said that, we tend to send out the picture cards. I'm not sure what my wife's thinking is, but my girls make me look good.