Eight months ago, we moved into a new house. A lot of people don’t have our new address, so this year’s Christmas card haul was decidedly more sparse than in years past. However, I have noticed that many cards were forwarded from our old address, and these days the post office isn’t as efficient as it used to be. That means WE’RE STILL GETTING CARDS!
And I love them so much.
The Christmas card exchange is one of my favorite holiday traditions. It’s right up there with decorating the tree and opening presents, but it’s also the one that’s most easily discarded. After all, Christmas cards take a ton of time. You’ve got to gather the entire family, set up the perfect picture (everyone smiling!), choose a card, and address the envelopes.
Plus, it’s expensive!
Ironically, the very first Christmas card was sent to directly combat this very issue. In 1843 Sir Henry Cole commissioned a custom card to take care of all the pesky correspondence piling up on his desk over the holiday season. Back in those days, it was considered very rude not to reply to correspondence, so he had this card made and then he sent it out to all his friends through the efficient, newly-formed penny post.
That little card sparked a tradition that would carry on well into the next two centuries.
Nowadays, a lot of people have eschewed the Christmas card in favor of an even more efficient way of communicating with friends—social media.
But I will always be partial to the humble Christmas card.
When I receive one in the mail, especially one that’s been hand-addressed or that includes a scribbled note from the sender, I know I’ve been remembered. It’s a small kindness, but an important one, especially during this season of masked encounters and social distancing.
That’s why we’re keeping our cards out all year. I’ve put a little basket filled with the cards on our kitchen table. Every night at dinner, we’ll choose a card, share a memory about the person who sent it, and pray for their family. Again, it’s a small thing, and most of the people will never even know anything about our new tradition, but I think the ritual will be good for my own heart.
Of course, it’s entirely possible I may be clinging to a lost tradition. Now that I think about it, I don’t think we received as many cards last year as we did the year before that and the year before that and the year before that….
My husband and I always joke about the “old-people” things we find ourselves doing—me, putting on readers before looking at the menu in a restaurant and him ordering a cup of coffee after the evening meal.
One of these Christmases I’m going to wake up and find out that everybody else is no longer sending Christmas cards, but instead transmitting their holiday greetings via hologram on drones that stop in front of our house on Christmas Eve.
If that ever happens, count me in!
But in the meantime, I’m going to be poring over this year’s cards. And who knows? I may even be inspired to send some additional correspondence of my own—in February, or June, or….
Be on the lookout. You might get a surprise this year in the mail!