I'm generally a person who's pretty good with a card. I send birthday cards, thank you cards, sympathy cards - you name it, I'll card it. And this means that, come Christmas time, I generally have a lot of cards to send. Total this year came to around 80, while Isabel sent 36, so well over 100 went out from our house. I even managed to post them all pretty early.
However, now comes the etiquette issue. I've already, to my great irritation, received cards from people I didn't send cards to. Do I quickly scrabble around to get a reciprocal card out? Or just put them on the list for next year? And how much should one write in a card - just a quick "love from..." or a full blown message? This year I took the rather cheesy step of putting a little sticker in each card with a picture of Isabel and Emily, which I'm sure also breaches some kind of British etiquette rule. Made me feel very American doing this, but I thought it was a nice way of showing everyone how much they'd grown up, and it was a very cute photo. Better, and cheaper, than printing Christmas cards with them on it! Apparently, in the US you can order cards with a photo on the front and a personalised message inside, and then you just address them and post them. Sounds very tempting, but it's not that difficult to spend a couple of hours once a year writing "love from..." in each card. I think the sticker idea is as far as I'll go down that particular road for now....but I may be tempted if the number of cards I have to send goes well into triple figures!
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Ivan Klimes: a founder of modern science, journal, publishing
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It has become fashionable recently to praise the work of Robert Maxwell as
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4 days ago
After six years in Spain I've gone full circle with cards. I hardly bother anymore, not many people could be arsed to nip to the Post Office to send me cards or even log online and do it over the internet, no having to wait in line at the PO. (Not bitter at all, oh no!)
ReplyDeletePrior to my blowing Raspberries at the world at large I would only send close friends and family cards and a few old colleagues that I really enjoyed working with. I would probably only have included a picture of off-spring to family and maybe have written a more personal greeting to really close friends etc but I do live in a different country so felt it necessary to go the extra mile.
I quite like it when people send pictures of their kids in cards, but they have to be close friends or family otherwise I would consider it a bit weird.
God I've rambled....