Not that I don’t actually get them, between birthdays, anniversaries, hallmark holidays and Christmas I get plenty of greeting cards. I just don’t understand or appreciate them. I don’t understand why people spend their money on them, and I really don’t understand why people enjoy them.
I don’t even read the ones that I do get, I just sorta stare at the front of them for a while, then open them up to check for pictures or cash or whatnot. Then I’ll either read the handwritten message inside, or just stare at the card thinking about how I should respond.
My birthday is tomorrow, and I’ve gotten 4 or 5 cards from relatives and I haven’t read a single one of them. I feel bad that they’ve wasted their money and I’ve told them all several times to save the money and just give me a call, but year after year I just get more cards.
So tell me, am I alone in this? Am I a horrible person for not reading these things? Does anyone actually like them, if so why? Most importantly: How do I get them to stop sending them?
I share your opinion and don’t care for cards in the least. My wife on the other hand loves them and has been known to give someone three or four cards for the same occasion. It boggles my mind.
I don’t understand or appreciate cards either. I try to never give them. I put tags on presents and that’s it. Plus, they are like $4, which I think is a complete rip off. What’s the point?
I’ve read statistics about how women buy a lot more greeting cards than guys do, so it doesn’t surprise me that male-sounding usernames have shown up so far.
I don’t send cards to many people, but of those I do send I always include a long and meaningful handwritten note inside. For example, I sent my boyfriend a card for valentine’s day but it was very personalized too.
I guess my thinking is that what you’re actually paying for with a card is a symbolic gesture of “I spent time/money picking out something that I thought was appropriate for the occasion because I wanted to say you mean something to me”.
Not even the humorous ones? See, the joke is that the firemen are there because you’re so old, you have so many candles on your birthday cake that it looks like something’s on fire. Get it?
The sentimental ones, you’re supposed to save so that when you’re a lonely old fart, you’ll have evidence that someone once cared about you.
To me, it’s not about the money. I love to give/send cards to friends and whatnot. It’s to let someone know I’m thinking of them - not to mention that I appreciate the “old-fashioned” type correspondence from time to time.
I’ve even decided to make some cards of my own when the mood strikes me.
I was shocked when I was told that my father kept and treasured one of the birthday cards that I sent him. Of course, I did know my father’s sense of humor. On the outside it said “Happy Birthday to an old fart. You know what a fart is, don’t you? (inside) It’s the lonely cry of an imprisoned turd.”
I like both giving and getting cards; I bought one the other day to mail to a friend I haven’t seen in a couple of months, even though she only lives twenty minutes away. She’s gone through a lot recently and her schedule is always crazy.
She called me the day she got it and insisted we meet up for drinks to catch-up. She was very touched.
A card means you took the time to read a bunch of them, pick out the right one, fill it out, and mail it. It’s one of the very few pleasant things you get in the mail anymore. It means you were thinking of that person.
It’s the same thing as writing “I love you” on a Post-It and mailing that, but it’s more fun to buy a card.
And for cards that aren’t mailed, but given in person…the same theory applies. Especially if you’re not very good with words but you want to let somebody know how you feel about them; cards are perfect.
I guess I can see why some people might not “see the point” of cards, but I don’t know of any pleasant way to tell people to stop giving you cards because you don’t read them and you don’t appreciate them. It’s not that big an imposition to open the card; it seems to me that you would merely hurt peoples’ feelings if you tried to convince them that cards are meaningless for you. Because obviously they’re not meaningless to the people who are giving them to you.
And the way to respond to the card is a simple and gracious “Thank you.”
You don’t have to send them one in return and you don’t have to say anything other than that. Pretty simple.
But I wanted to tell you that first of all, I’m a girl. Second of all, I don’t do cards. Or at least I try not to. My dad doesn’t do cards either. Mostly. We have a running joke and call ourselves the ‘No Card Cartel.’ Unfortunately, we sometimes feel as though we are being guilted into sending them anyways. :rolleyes:
I understand why you wouldn’t want a pre-written Hallmark sentiment card, but what’s wrong with the humorous ones? They are a bit expensive, but it seems somewhat along the same lines as buying a comic book for someone, just the book only has one comic in it. And the blank ones that you write your own message in? Sure it’d be the same to send along a picture you had with your message, but I know I don’t have a lot of pictures on nice paper that I can just send out.
But yeah, the ones that say “To a very special grandson’s dog in law” and then the person just signs it with “Love whoever?” Those are totally lame.
I’ll admit that it’s always nice to get mail that isn’t bills, and while I don’t read the cards I receive there are times that I’m forced to buy a card and I always try to go for the funny ones. For the most part though the phrase “funny greeting card” has about as much meaning to me as “funny Family Circus comic” I’m not sure that I’ve ever really seen one that made me do more than smile.
It’s a holdover from the pre-Internet days, when communication was not so instantaneous. Says you’re still thinking of someone. We still send Christmas cards, but Thai-themed ones that no one would ever see anywhere else. People seem to like those.
I can understand your “not getting it” - but how can you not even read it? I mean it’s right in front of your eyes if you opened it. What if they wrote a short note? You don’t read that either?
They’re definitely overpriced. I don’t think anybody keeps them except in rare instances. I’ve kept a couple going-away cards from work because a small percentage of the signers said something heartfelt that I wanted to remember. I doubt I’ve ever kept a birthday or Christmas card. Most of them I put in the trash immediately.
I occasionally send them, like to my brother on another continent, to whom I am not sending a real gift. He never seems to read my emails.
Most of my life I’ve adhered to the policy of never sending a card without writing in an individual message to the recipient. The exception was the time one of my aunts I barely knew died, and my mother insisted I send a card. I protested that I wouldn’t know what to say and couldn’t come up with anything to write inside. My mom insisted I send one anyway and just sign it. So I caved in and did it. [sarcasm]I’m sure it was very meaningful to my cousins to receive that card[/sarcasm].
Actually, the wife and I always give each other cards for birthday, anniversary, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. We’ve got a bunch saved up. We always date them and include a nice thought. Sort of documents our years together.
I like getting them. It is a little surprise in my mailbox. It is nice to know that someone is thinking of me. An email isn’t quite the same, although also nice.
I “get” cards. I seem to have inherited the practice of saving them. I have a bag of cards in the closet - all the cards I’ve received from my wife and her family on birthdays, Valentines Days, Christmases, etc. I have all the anniversary cards my wife has given me. They all have a special message in them. I still have some from my mom, who has been departed for 12 years. They’re the only things I own with her handwriting on them. They’re one of my few remaining connections to the past.
I’m a girl and I don’t read the pre-printed glurge. I can’t help noticing the handwriting, but it usually just says “Happy birthday”, same as I’m given to understand the front of the card probably says. I don’t buy greeting cards. I don’t send greeting cards. I get an “ooh, I should be touched by this, but I’m really appalled” icky guilt/revulsion feeling when I open a greeting card or watch anyone else open one. I do write long, newsy, funny emails. I have good stationery on which I write newsy, funny or sympathetic (as appropriate) letters of moderate length. I guess I’m so big on homemade sentiment that the store-bought variety seems inadequate to me. And I don’t necessarily expect the same level of commitment to correspondence from others, but I’d rather not receive pre-fab correspondence.
I’ve stopped sending cards to a few inlaws, it always bothered me to receive a birthday card from them when the rest of the year they couldnt be bothered to call or get together (we would call and try to arrange a get together for the sake of our kids to see their cousins) or give a shit about me and my family. I think they just continued sending them to me because it kept up appearances. And the cards they sent me I looked at for about 3 secs, saw who scribbled their name inside and then I would throw it out. I finally told the SO they are your brothers so send your brothers a card. He doesnt. Now I do not and I do not send a card to the wives either.
I still send them xmas cards, just to keep up appearances though for my MIL.
