I love the Christmas Cards I get in the mail, but haven’t sent out Christmas Cards myself in ages. I always mean to, but the days fly by so quickly that before I know it Christmas has come and gone before I get them fixed and in the mail.
Granny always sends out Christmas Cards and she always gets tons of them in the mail.
Granny displays every card she gets.
She used to tape them to the door or around the arch way between the kitchen and living room. For the last few years she’s hung the cards over the windows on a crocheted rope she made. After Christmas Granny packs each of those cards away in a box and keeps them-forever.
Do you display your Christmas Cards? I lean mine along the back edge of the buffet in the kitchen.
Tipper
Appalachia Through My Eyes – A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.
I send cards religiously. This year I even have a few extra as with help from the www, I’ve been able to locate some dear old friends that I thought I had lost.
We tape the ones we receive on the sides of the entertainment center which we decorate like it’s a fireplace with our little tree on top and our stockings hung on the front.
God bless.
RB
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We send Christmas cards every year. I write a letter in each one; not a long letter, but at least long enough to wish everyone well and a few Christmas words. Our cards are always a celebration of Jesus’ birth; I don’t mean this as a sermon but we refuse to send secularly-themed cards.
Used to be, people would sign up with some company to sell their Christmas cards and usually they would solicit (pester) family members to buy from them and the rub came when other family members or neighbors were selling Christmas cards, too and you either bought from everybody or had to face the awkwardness of telling somebody no.
We definitely send cards. At first we make faces because it’s important to find the perfect card. In past years, we’ve made our own with photos of our “kids” (our dogs), but this year we opted for cards that had the best sentiment. Looked through many. We display ours on a breakfront in our dining room. I just love hearing from family and friends from home. Gives me a warm, homey feeling.
I too still send out cards and love getting them especially from friends and relatives that we don’t get to see very often. I know it is expensive with the high cost of postage but with so much e-mail, phone calls etc. it’s so nice to get a card in the mail. Sometimes I don’t get them done until the last minute but it just wouldn’t be Christmas without doing them.
Bet you don’t remember when children used to make Christmas cards at school from sheets of paper the teacher ran off on the mimeograph machine. Everyone picked out different scenes and colored them for the teacher, their parents and special friends.
Now you can go to Staples and buy card stock and run them through your HP Color LaserJet 3600 and make personalized cards that are as good as bought ones. But, it just ain’t the same.
Tipper, I don’t send cards any more. Just seem to never get it done.
I do agree the cards are beautiful and meaningful.
I did do Christmas cards this year, but I’ve decided to do it differently next year. I was sitting there with writer’s cramp thinking it was kind of silly to put so much effort into sending cards to people who won’t pay that much attention to them & that we see all the time, anyway. So next year we’re gonna buy a big fancy box & send them to shut-ins & the disabled. Judging the reaction we got from Mitchell’s autistic nephew this year, I think we’re on the right track!
Tipper: we sent a lot of cards over the years, but now prefer to call all the relatives who live away. the plus in sending them we would find out who was still alive if they sent one back.its hard to try to keep up with everyone. still we love to say merry Christmas to all friends and family blessings to you and yours. k.o.h
Tipper,
Granny’s window sure looks nice all decorated with Christmas Cards. I don’t send them either
anymore, but one time I tried to
have some made by two companies
that said I could make up my own
verse inside. That didn’t go over
with them because they refused to
print “Merry Christmas”. They lost
that order! So, MERRY CHRISTMAS to
everyone…Ken
We always send out Christmas cards but we don’t get as many as we used too sad to say.
its hard tosend cards when youhave just your name to put on it, i know this is my first yr to have to do that , its depressing as we are just recovering from my husbands death , i use to have a small rope like thing that went around the door frame from the kitchen to the l/roon , it had small clothes pins to pin the cards on , worked quite well but i,m foregoing that for this year
hope everyone has a nice and safe christmas. oh one more thing , you know those cards that have the X mas on them ?well i dont go for that ,it leaves CHRIST out so…..
i TakE out the HOLIDAY and put CCHRISTMAS
I rarely send cards anymore, only to people who I don’t get to see through the years. So I guess that’s the reason we don’t get too many either. Most of the cards we get now are really not about Christmas but rather photos of peoples children, grandchildren or dogs. I miss the old-fashioned cards.
Tipper,
You know I save Christmas cards like my Mother did…The song Little Old Ladies that Paul sings always brings tears to my eyes…I took my Mothers Christmas cards all the way back from the 30’s and made Scrapbooks of the ones from Grandmothers etc…The later ones I cut fronts off and made new cards last year…I also saved any old pieces I couldn’t use to adorn tags and packages…Most people wouldn’t fool with it…but it’s in my blood and Art is where the home is…
Thanks Tipper…Everyone should listen to Paul sing Little Old Ladies…and think about those aging lonely ladies…
I only send to people out of town. The ones I receive this year are displayed on wire photo holders that I made via online instructions. The special ones are kept forever-like the one you sent a while back with drawing of an angel and star.
Our “annual Christmas letter” was a must for Grover and me from many years back. We sent out a summary of our family’s activities and highlights during the year, together with an original poem I wrote. It was hard for me to do this year, having to sign with just my name–since my dear husband died in January after a long illness. But I felt like he would want me to keep in touch with far-flung kin and friends, so I’ve sent out many (and still mailing some every day!). Whatever your means of keeping in touch, remember that family relationships and friendships flourish with heart-felt communication.
Spread abroad some Christmas light
Declaring Christ’s great love;
Angels’ songs will fill your night,
Messengers from God above.
May the giving spirit warm each heart
Attuned to Christ the King;
By His love–we love impart
And with the angels sing!
Have a blessed Christmas!
Ethelene Dyer Jones
I used to send out Christmas cards faithfully every year. It is one of those things that I mean to do, but can’t seem to get around to getting done lately. We receive several cards and I display them on my entertainment center. I have a huge box of old cards that I have received, because I just can’t bring myself to throw them away. Some of them are just so beautiful and I think that someday I will use them to make something.
Tipper, love the display of Christmas cards. My grandmother used to do them just like that. She and other ladies had a competition for bragging rights about who got the most cards. I still send them every year. Yes, it is time-consuming and a little expensive, but I think it is worth it to make somebody smile in a stressful time.
Ours get hung over the archway between the kitchen and the dinning room. We made cards last year, it doesn’t look like we’re gonna get to it this year…..but you never know!
Most years I do send cards. The cards I receive I display along the front of my buffet on ribbon. I keep the really pretty ones from year to year.
We are very sporadic about what years we send out cards and what years we don’t. We’ll probably send some out next year. I’m counting on 2012 to be better than 2011. But we do display cards we get. We tape them around the huge frame in our foyer. And I made a card display earlier this year. So far, we’ve received only two cards. My guess is a lot of people are busy and a few can’t remember the cost of stamps. 😉
In regards to displaying Christmas cards I did when my kids were young–doing the same as your granny did and my Mom did taping them to the door way framing–In years past I have slacked off on sending!??
I enjoy sending Christmas cards each year as it is my way of keeping in touch, that is, even just to wish those in my list of names a wonderful year. As I age I realize that life is too short not to at least let those of days past or present that they are being thought about. It is a personal chore for me each Christmas season. Merry Christmas to you and all your fans! May each of you have a happy and healthy 2012!
I too love cards, I do display mine. We actually found a card display a few years back that is just perfect.
My list is dwindling though as it seems to be something that fewer and fewer people do.
My mom always tapes hers to the casing around the doorway between the kitchen and living room and my wife and I have always done the same everywhere we have lived. When my mother-in-law passed I think I found every Christmas card she ever received. Additionally, we have NEVER sent out generic “Seaons Greetings” or “Happy Holiday” cards, nor has my mom. Christ’s birth is recognized year after year. We have a Christmas Book that we started in 1993, which has a place to paste the card you sent, a family picture, and space to put all of the events that occured during the year. We make an outline of our hand, the boys as well, with our name and date. We always take a picture of the family in front of the tree. It’s a great piece of family history and helps us remember what happened when.
We don’t seem to send as many as in years past and I don’t think we receive as many either. We keep ours in a basket that is decorated/painted to resemble a snowy day on a log cabin with a picket fence around it. I like the idea of displaying them.
Tipper that sounds like me, I have good intentions just never get around to it, but we always get lots of them in the mail, and like “Granny” yea we save each one of them and always have. Not real sure why that we do that, but my grandmother always saved them from year to year. Guess that is a tradition that we still hold onto.
I have a basket that I put my cards in and then put it under the tree for everyone to look through. I do send a few cards, but not like I used to, and it seems less and less people are sending them nowadays.
i stopped sending cards about 15 years ago, i still get about 6 from family members who still send them. mother always hung hers on her mantle and stood them on it also. she loved them. this year i did send a few cards to the blogger s but that was a one time thing. mother kept all her cards in boxes, ALL of them. mine i lay on the counter for a few days and then trash them, so it feels like a waste to get them.
I have a card holder sitting on a shelf that holds all the cards so people can flip through them.
I love sending Christmas cards as much as I do receiving them!
I love Christmas cards & I usually send out a lot of them. I do live near a Dayspring outlet store & get my cards really cheap & that helps.
I display mine in a swag over my window, a swag over the entry to my kitchen & if I still have more cards, on my cabinet doors.
A tip for deciding what to keep – Each yr, when I receive a new card, I toss the last card that person sent to me. That way, I have the last card people send to me for the past 25 yrs. It’s become such a special tradition to pull out those last cards from people I love who are no longer with me, & read their last Christmas wish to me.
I haven’t sent “real” Christmas cards in years. I still get a few, but not many. I cut up the front of them and make gift tags for Christmas gifts. My mother always did that.
Now I send e-cards like many people do.
I love the magic of opening those envelopes and seeing the beautiful Christmas card inside. I display mine along the window sill and on my old buffet.
I still send Christmas cards. I display mine by taping them around the large opening between my family room and living room. My mom used to get tons of Christmas cards. I am a sentimental pack rat and I also keep all of my Christmas cards that I have received down through the years.
I used to send cards. We would tape them on the door frame when we got them. So far this year, I’ve recieved one card and sent out Zero. It’s really sad this tradition has stopped for most folks. I loved getting mail, even the long boring Christmas letters some send out.
Thanks for the shout out about the craft show. I really enjoyed meeting Runy. It was great seeing you and the girls.
I haven’t sent any yet this year. I havent’ recevied many either. Changes in church will do that. I usualy sit them around or tape them up along a wall. I love Christmas cards. But I dont’ keep them afterwards.
Tipper: Yesterday I stood in line at the post office to buy ‘Christmas’ stamps to mail 30+ cards. We will send more as we hear from folks all over the world! Those Aussies are so quick to send their greetings early along with a LONG letter about their interesting year. This year the news was about bad storms and also some good news!
I use the Christmas cards to display all over the entrance/living area of our house. They are so beautiful! There is no mess and the QUICK CLEAN UP after the holidays makes them a PLUS!!! One we got yesterday is HAND MADE BY PATTI. Each year her card is such a treasure I stow it away for the next Christmas.
I hope your holiday season is near perfect!
Eva Nell
I do send cards, most all are late, but they do get sent finally. I also keep my cards but I use them when my hand allow I’ll make little boxes out of them, I have a poem that I tie to it. Gee,now I wonder if I should try to make some always present gifts this year!
I have displayed them in the past, but I’ve been too lazy this year. I do send out cards every year!
Like you, i don’t send cards anymore. Love to get them but it seems like most folks i know just don’t send many. I suspose the added expense plus folks being too busy is the reason.