I just finished writing all the cards I’ll be sending this year to friends and acquaintances…a total of 43 cards.
Add to that there will be a further bunch to send/get ready to hand over to family.
Now I’m not totally against Christmas cards but it gets more expensive every bloody Christmas, not so bad the 43 as you can get a box of about 50 cards for around £1.50, it’s the family ones that cost.
Plus the postage which wasn’t so bad when I worked for Royal Mail as we got free stamps this time of year.
I sent about 50 cards this year, which is my usual.
Most are just signed but about 10 usually have a note written in them too.
I sat down two nights ago and did them all at once. It took about two and a half hours, as I hand address them and handwrite my return address on the flap of the envelope. I just don’t like using those little labels on any of my mail.
If I could type quickly I’d do the envelopes in my old Royal typewriter, but it would take me forever! Every once in awhile I do a letter like that, though.
We bought 75 this year, “to be safe”, but will probably only send about 60 of them. (They came in increments of 25 so that’s why we got so many.)
We send them to my family, MrWhatsit’s family, and various friends and acquaintances we’ve left behind in our travels across the country. Usually we try to include a Christmas letter (very controversial, I know) but this year I don’t know if we’re going to have time.
I like doing it. But then I like most holiday-related stuff.
None this year but I’ve sent up to 30 at times and I hate just affixing my name so I write a few personalized lines to each recipient, which is the main reason I stopped. It’s hard to tell thirty different people thirty different reasons why you think they’re special.
We just addressed the foreign cards today (mostly to Germany) and spent about $120 just in postage stamps! (60 cards to Europe and the rest in the US.)
We are sending a few people in Europe some Las Vegas calendars that only cost $2.50 each but postage is $5.17 each!
Every year we swear we won’t send out as many cards next year, but when we went through our list we had to pull several names of people who have died this year.
Fuck the postage and time it takes…we realized that we should consider ourselves very lucky to still have so many friends to send cards to every year.
I make all of my cards. I usually mail about 30 and hand deliver another 30. I cheat a little on the ones that get mailed…I address them with the computer. I do hand sign them all and add a line or two to some. I’m almost finished making them. Addressing and mailing them will be done sometime this week.
I send around 2 dozen. I buy the cards after the holiday though, when they are all 50% off, and stock them away with the wrapping paper for the next year.
which wasn’t so bad when I worked for Royal Mail as we got free stamps this time of year.