I have just finished a book I would highly recommend:
(image from Amazon.com)
Mr. Flood’s Last Resort, by Jess Kidd
Most of the books I get from the library are ones that catch my attention when I’m supposed to be reshelving them, and that’s how I found this book. It has some bad/crude language, a lot of humor, some violence, some grossness I found mostly avoidable, a narrator who is not exactly unreliable but not exactly reliable either. She is capable in a way I find soothing to read about: I like imagining what it might be like to be someone who isn’t always so THROWN by everything. There is a layer of the story in which the various elements may or may not be supernatural. There are mysteries to gradually reveal/solve; my one disappointment is that I guessed some things (I prefer to be mystified and then amazed). I found it really fun to read and I badly want a sequel.
One reason I particularly enjoyed it is that the main character is an in-home elder caregiver, which is a job I did awhile back. She’s been assigned to a swearing, yelling, difficult old man who is also a hoarder, and I found it satisfying to read about her competence dealing with both the house and the man. I also enjoyed the Irish slang.
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I am on Year Two of using up scraps of boxes of Christmas cards I already had, rather than buying new ones, and I can see how this clearly indicates I’ve had a little bit of a PROBLEM buying TOO MANY cards in the past, but ALSO I LIKE TO and I don’t plan to stop. (I had THREE boxes of cards in my cart at the store this past week, and it took a STRONG override mechanism to make myself put them back. One set was pink. PINK. PINK CHRISTMAS CARDS. If I see them again I may weaken.)
Anyway, the issue this year is that LAST year I laid out all the boxes of cards, and for each recipient I chose what I thought was the best card for them, forcing myself not to care if I might have sent them that same card in a previous year. And since I don’t REMEMBER which card I thought was best LAST year, THIS year I am in danger of sending each person the same exact card as last year—which, since these were already extras, might be cards they have in fact received TWICE before. I am all for “not worrying about it” and “who even notices, anyway,” but we are truly testing the limits of those philosophies at this point.
So this year my strategy is to choose the WRONG card for each person. It is quite fun, as it turns out. For my serious conservative keep-the-Christ-in-Christmas aunt and uncle, I happen to remember that last year I chose a traditional gold-and-holly Hope Peace Joy card; I intended it to reflect my election-outcome-related feelings—but they could of course interpret those sentiments however they pleased. THIS year I am sending them the bright and whimsical reindeer card I KNOW I have not sent them before. (Reindeer are representatives of SECULAR Christmas.)
Their daughter, my cousin, is super cheerful and happy and perhaps halfway to escaping her conservative evangelical Republican upbringing and becoming a progressive Democrat and I love that journey for her. I would LIKELY have sent her the bright and whimsical reindeer card last year, or else one or my other cheerful cards, perhaps the “Merry and Bright!” one with Christmas lights, or the Victorian cats one. So THIS year I will send her one of my more serious/traditional cards—which still fall within my own standards for what is a good card, so they’re not TOO serious/traditional. She’s not going to think “Whoa, what happened here?,” she is just going to see a typical Christmas card.
And so on! It gets trickier with the in-between people. My former high school classmate. My former college roommate. Our pediatrician. But it doesn’t really MATTER in any case; it’s just a fun game for choosing cards in the hopes of not sending anyone the same card three times. Which, if I DID do that, it would be fine. COMPLETELY FINE!
Speaking of buying cards. When my mom lived locally, she and I had a fun annual shopping quest, which was to find specifically-religious-Christian-Christmas cards she could bear to send. She had some strict standards (some of which I considered OVERLY strict and would campaign for exceptions to: e.g., the inside sentiment could not begin with “May…”) but also some standards that should not have been difficult to meet and yet were surprisingly difficult to meet (e.g., Mary and Jesus cannot be blondes; the text inside the card cannot be insufferably self-righteous and preachy).
Similar: my quest to find Happy Holidays cards. It is a fun quest, but surprisingly challenging. I want to like them in the same way I usually like cards I choose: i.e., I want to like the look of them, I want to like what they say on the inside, etc. But also, they cannot say “Happy Holidays!” alongside exclusively Christmas symbols (Christmas trees, Christmas ornaments/lights, etc.). It’s a low-pressure quest because I think 98% of my holiday card list celebrates Christmas, so as long as I have ONE box of cards that are, like, a nice winter scene (NO PINE TREES WITH STARS ON TOP!) and/or woodland animals (NO SANTA HATS! NO STANDING AROUND A PINE TREE WITH A STAR ON TOP!) and/or glittery snowflakes, I’m all set. I can still buy the pink cards with Christmas trees on them for everyone else. But my IDEAL would be finding Inclusive Holiday Cards for All, and so it’s a fun shopping mission.
This is where you should feel free to tell me how you choose your holiday cards: what you look for, what you avoid. Also, whether you send everyone the same card every year or whether you have a bunch to choose from (or both, like where you send everyone the same card, but then every X years you have a year when you send out all the leftover cards). I love that kind of talk.
Thank you for caring about the pictures associated with Happy Holidays cards. I am happy to accept a Christmas card even though I don’t celebrate Christmas but I find a Christmas scene behind non-Christmas words to be silly. Pick a version and don’t apologize – either be generic or go all in.
I don’t send holiday cards, but I do receive a few and they are all the pre-printed ones with photos that you order on Shutterfly or similar places. Are those popular with your family/friends?
Same here. And then I feel guilty throwing them away. It’s a family photo! But it says Merry Christmas across it and that’s not something I’m hanging up all year! Aack!
Here’s a fun idea I found which I think I’ve only ever had the energy to do once, but I like in theory: take a picture of the Christmas card, then set that as their profile picture in your contacts. That way you get to see the picture whenever they contact you, and you can throw the cards away guilt-free!
Poof! You just blew my mind! Great idea!!!
I look for glitter and I usually want a card with peace, love, hope sentiment. I don’t think I pay attention to whether the card has Christian and secular sentiments. In general, though, I gravitate towards happy holidays vs merry Christmas.
Two years ago I did a picture card even though I am single and it felt kind of silly. I did one with lots of pictures and had one picture of me, several pictures with friends and with my siblings and parents. There were also several scenic pictures of places that I had been that year. I’m thinking of doing it again this year.
Swistle, I am so curious: Do you write separate holiday messages for everyone on your holiday card list? Or is it a quick sign-and-tuck-a-photo-in? How many people do you send cards to (if you care to share)? This can be an interesting discussion I find!
I am normally VERY GUNG-HO about Christmas cards (I do a photo on one side and a yearly review on the other, yes it’s very Pinterest of me) and send almost 100, but this year A GOOD NUMBER of people have found themselves off my Christmas card list because of their anti-vaxx sentiments (yes I am that petty!) and honestly I can barely muster the oomph for any of the entire scenario. We had a friend take a decent family photo a few weeks ago, but have I done anything with it yet? I have not.
Anyway, I do send a few CARD-cards with handwritten messages, and here are my requirements: no glitter (the herpes of the stationery world), designs I like, envelopes big enough to fit the 5×7 photo card into.
For people I’m only really in touch with once a year but am glad for the chance to exchange updates on our lives (my aunt/uncle/cousin, a former teacher, my former college roommate, etc.), I write an update on the inside/back of the card: usually a sentence or two about each kid, a sentence or two about Paul/me, a sentence or two about anything else newsy/significant (my parents moved, I have a new nephew, we had a milestone wedding anniversary, etc.). For most everyone else, I write “Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!” and sign it “The Thistle family.” Then I usually write on the back of the photo—typically names/ages of kids, and the year, but this is my first collage-photo year and I’ve been labeling it with what’s happening in each picture (“Edward, 16, driver’s license,” etc.). There are also a few to doctors and charities and our beloved car mechanic and so forth, where I write something thanking them for all their work/care that year or whatever, and in the case of charities I enclose a check instead of a photo. I have about 70 recipients on my card list currently; I lost some in The Great Purges of 2016 and 2020.
I am a big fan of this fun quest for non-christmas cards! I found these that you might enjoy, which don’t quite meet the requirements (lots of twinkle lights in those trees in the background) BUT! Ice skating cats! And they support Animal Rescue charities! Love!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/893613713/skating-cats-holiday-card-supporting?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=winter+cards&ref=sr_gallery-1-8&frs=1&bes=1
Jewish here! Thinking about the mix of cards that I receive. I don’t mind Happy Holidays With a Christmas Tree, because I figure that’s just how it is in this country, but I do tend to hide Merry Christmas with Red and Green Plaid in the back row on the mantel. I very rarely get any explicitly religious manger scenes or similar.
To be honest, reading your post was the first time it occurred to me that a couple of the folks who typically send me cards are probably carefully choosing not to send those to me! Now I know why I got the same glittery woodland scene from my aunt (Christian side of the family) two years in a row! Knowing her family, she probably has very few folks who get a non-Christmasy card, so I guess she buys one box of those and then they last for two years. (Give it another month, and we’ll know if they last for three.) And for what it’s worth, I only noticed the duplicate because it was so pretty that I stuck it right in front, so it looked noticeably familiar a year later.
Before I had kids, it was a real struggle to find good Happy Holidays Without Christmas Stuff cards. Now I send Happy New Year’s photo cards instead. I suppose my ultra-religious Jewish cousins might not approve, but what can you do.
Now I feel strangely invested in finding out whether you get the same card again this year! I hope you report back.
Right? Maybe Swistle can do a grab-bag post-holiday roundup post where we report back.
Cardmaking is a hobby of mine so for the last…four?…years I have made cards. So trust me if I send you a holiday card it’s because YOU ARE WORTH IT. I include a pic of the family and make them all sign the card, but there is no other writing happening. I do try to be mindful of non-Christmas-pictures and sentiments for my non-Christmas celebrating friends.
I think you will already know that I LEAPED to comment, considering that I love holiday cards with my whole heart. Your choosing process is fascinating, and I find myself wanting to know your mother’s entire list of requirements.
At least half of my family’s card recipients are Jewish, so I am always looking for NON Christmassy cards. We do a single card, with photos printed on the card. My husband used to be even more restrictive about what constituted “Christmassy,” but he has grown lenient in his dotage. (Last year, he allowed a LOT of secular Christmas imagery to creep in; I was surprised, but it was a unique year all around.) We also avoid the words “peace” and “hope,” although we are fine with “joy” and “joyful.” It is much less easy than it should be to find cards that are truly non-Christmassy, for all the star-topped Santa-hatted holly-printed reasons you mentioned.
We use a photo card on its own and usually print out a letter so everyone gets the same thing. I do challenge myself to pick a Happy Holidays all-inclusive photo card option.
I have the most fun choosing a stamp. Santa, reindeer, angel, snowman, whatever – each one is carefully selected by me for a multitude of reasons that only I understand.
I used to work in a bookstore in Brooklyn, and we sold cards by the artist of the one at the link. Pen and ink drawings of a Brooklyn winter street scene. I loved them.
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/e7/da/41/e7da4140d1b269491d906d4342b48fcd–pen-and-ink-winter-style.jpg
OH! I FOUND HIS WEBSITE!!! https://irasperipheralvisions.com/christmas__cards_pen_and_ink.htm
Those are so lovely, thanks for sharing!
Seconding that. Wow!
We use Walmart.com and put photo(s) on a card. The photos are mostly because a lot of the recipients don’t see us often and we don’t use social media.
We buy 80 but this year we have more than 80 on the list so we will buy some one-off cards for bosses, etc instead.
The absolute hardest part to me is thinking of what to write.
I’d never list terrible things that have happened in a Christmas card, good things sound like a humble brag, getting too religious alienates some, ugh.
I might over-think it.
We don’t mail out Christmas cards but I have totally stolen your idea of giving nothing but Target gift cards to teachers, newspaper delivery drivers, etc (I have my kids make cards to enclose the gift cards). This year, I was excited about choosing the style, but then stymied. I didn’t want to get a “Merry Christmas” card, but I’m not personally on the “Happy Holidays” bus, so those two were out. There was a holly pattern, the aforementioned woodland animals in Santa hats, and maybe snowflakes? For some reason everything seasonal failed to please. I ended up getting a non-seasonal gift card with a picture of a wrapped present on it. It doesn’t make my socks roll up and down but IT WILL DO and I hope everyone enjoys their nice crisp plastic money.
“It doesn’t make my socks roll up and down” might be my new favorite saying! :-D
I have found that the sending of Christmas cards has almost completely disappeared here (Australia) in the last 10 years. However this post has inspired me to pull out all of my array of old cards / handmade cards and think about who I might send them to. I even have leftovers of photo cards from when my now 14/16YOs were toddlers so maybe I’ll even send them. Surely everyone loves getting a card right, regardless of how odd it may be?!
I tend to do a photo postcard with some sort of family picture/collage. Postcard because cheaper postage, still room for writing, NO ENVELOPE WASTE!
But I REALLY REALLY am not liking my household at the moment plus I always do all of the holidays/birthdays/gift occasions and I’m also over that completely. So we might bah humbug the whole thing.
This year for the first time maybe ever I ordered photo cards, though not lots (25) and certainly intend to send them. I started @ Shutterfly, which I have used in the past happily for prints and calendars, and got so frustrated by (a) their setup and (b) the prefab-ishness of all their design options that I left and ended up at somewhere called “collage.com” where I was able to put my 5 pictures all on an otherwise blank card, add some text on top (I went with “Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,” definitely focused on shaking things up here %)) and just go. Are they the prettiest/fanciest cards ever? No. Do they show people who may be vaguely interested in this, what my family’s been up to this year? Yes. Are they devoid of annoyingly prefab/unsuitable (for our household) stuff? Yes. If I remember anyone I want to send non-Christmas oriented cards to, I’ll dig through the old stuff or choose an ordinary notecard from my selection and write a note.
I do like the “send the wrong card!” idea though, it’s very funny, even just as a virtual observer.
We do a photo card and a letter and everyone gets the same of those… I do tend to stay away from “Merry Christmas” on the cards – this year the colors are red and green but the message is of the “Merry Everything” variety. For our letter I try to choose paper that is also wintery versus Christmas-y but some years I do better than others w/ that. I did Christmas sweater themed paper once and hoped that was acceptable bc of the whimsy.
BUT I also put stickers and stamps on the outside of the cards and I choose those, to the best of my ability, based on what people celebrate – so Santas are fine for the Christmas celebrators, but others will get snowy otters this year for stamps.
You cannot even imagine how fast I beetled over to the USPS site to look up the snowy otter stamps. SNOWY OTTERS!!!
I always love choosing the stamps! Last year they had Ezra Jack Keats’ A Snowy Day stamps and I loved them so much. This year I will order half otters, half Santa.
I stock up on cards at thrift stores so I often have a very random assortment to choose from, especially since my favorite thrift store often packages several cards together but you can only see the top one. Luckily I have a wide range of recipients, so the weird ones usually find a home.
I wrote a Christmas letter last year and got lots of nice responses about it. I think we were just so desperate for connection. Not sure if I will be inspired this year or not.
I like including a funny picture of my family on our holiday cards to show our quirkiness and to kind of make fun of perfect family photos. Nothing outrageous, just along the lines of my kids wearing cute hats or sunglasses, or my kids have slightly goofy expressions or I’ll be holding our not-so-tiny dog. I like it when I receive slightly goofy family photos on cards, too.
If I send holiday cards (which I usually don’t), I send New Years cards— all the spirit with none of the religious challenges!
I need to know…. What is the objection to “may….”?
She dislikes the pompous, unnatural sound of it. Like, we don’t say things that way in real life to each other. It’s mostly used for the benediction at the end of church services—and in Christmas cards!
I am HERE for this.
I create a photo card every year and I am a bit fussy about it. I like it to be folded, and I try to put a photo of Barkley on the back as well (this might be the last year, sniff). I used to have “Merry and Bright” and “Let your heart be light” printed on the card, but in 2020, that felt weird and inappropriate. So now I have “peace love joy” type messaging. I always choose a messaging about the holiday season, without mentioning Christmas specifically.
For my yoga students and for people who I need a last-minute card (like, if someone sends me one who never has before and I’m out of photo cards) I buy a few boxes every year, still with the Peace Love Joy type messaging on them, and usually with something pretty like a tree or a winter scene.
Around here it seems like EVERYONE does the photo-printed-on-a-card, so I alternate between wanting very badly to be part of that “cool” crowd, and also wanting to buck the system by NOT doing that. Some years I do it, and some years I don’t. When I don’t, I try to find a smaller card, they’re so cute (good options at Barnes & Noble, and I like they way they display them on a table). I used to look for a “singing” scene if I could, like little cherubs/angels or animals in a choir (I myself was a chorister until 2020). They’re hard to find. I like a message of “the joy of the season,” for my friends who don’t celebrate Christmas. And I try to write something on each card, but not a whole letter. I don’t usually include a photo if it’s not a photo-card year.
I usually only use the leftovers when I run out of the year’s new cards, which I guess means the people at the end of the alphabet might get repeats of my cards. But usually it’s not the very next year.
This whole conversation makes me feel like I’m behind already.
My approach is very similar…a photo card every 2-3 years to a wide circle of family and friends. On the other years, i tend to handwrite a more newsy card to the select people on the list who would most appreciate it (that would be older aunts in the family, mainly).
For the non photo card years, I try to have a couple of different boxes of cards on hand to appeal to the different demographics on my list. I’m sure I’ve sent repeat cards to some people at times.
My list has dwindled a lot. Since having kids I have done photo cards, as we get professional photos taken each fall. Last year, I think I really only sent them out because we had just moved and I wanted to send everyone our new address, and I got some very cheap cute address labels with the cards. I have not ordered any this year and not sure I will.
I will say that I mail school pics to a couple of family members, and find random leftover Christmas card scraps to be perfect for doing so. They are stiff so the photo is less likely to get bent, they already have envelopes, etc. I don’t know if the recipients enjoy it, but I do! I also sometimes use them for the grandparents/aunt that live locally, because handing someone a school photo to stuff in their purse isn’t great.
This post inspired me to give away my old, virtually untouched boxes of Christmas cards from my woefully optimistic past. Still looking mournfully at the photo cards. I wonder if someone needs to pretend they have have a family? The CIA is pretty close to the Beltway . . . .
I went to look up the book on Libby, which was quick to ask “Do you mean this?” and I did! And then Libby told me that no, my library did not have it. Psych!
We did a bulk card purchase last year (sent cards+stamps to a local nursing home under lockdown on the theory that residents might like it), and it was shockingly hard to find not-white nativity cards (we tried for a mix of religious/secular/not-Christmas with both the stamps and the cards, figuring the residents would have that mix of preferences).
(Also tried for cards with *some* diversity of skin tone where there was more than one person depicted on the card. Also appallingly hard. WHY? Why would a Middle-Eastern family and visiting Middle Eastern shepherds all have pasty skin, and why are our Christmas cards so extremely white except for the specifically African American Lines Of Cards? [some of which were *awesome* I would note and would recommend looking under that search heading])
Anyway. Hello, racism in the card industry, which may mostly be reflecting the racism of card-purchasers, but either way: hello, systemic racism, I am not a fan…
For me, everyone gets the same card. It’s not usually more wintery than Christmassy (most definitely not preachy), and it needs to be big enough to hold a 4×6 picture of our family that I put in each one.
A couple years ago I decided to stop sending cards to people who don’t send them to me, except for a very few, very rare cases where I want to keep in touch regardless (friends in other states, mostly). This has greatly simplified the whole process and made it way more manageable. A++++ would highly recommend.
We do cards where photo is printed on the card (Highly recommended MPIX). We have photos taken of the kids every year and get lovely feedback on our cards. We send and receive a ridiculous number of cards. I always do a big photo on the front – I feel like sometimes the photo collages are hard to see. The back I may do a collage.
I am currently searching for 8X10 photo albums – one pic per page with transparent pockets because I want to be able to see both sides. My plan is to make an album for each kid of family photo cards. I think it will be fun to look back on for future holidays. I have just enough leftover cards from years past.
We usually just do a photo card. I don’t write things except to my elderly aunts and uncles. This year though, I didn’t schedule or take any family pics. My daughter has been very into digital art, so I asked her to design a card with all of us in her anime/digital style. I have no idea what it is going to turn out like, but she was very flattered to be asked and is working very hard on it.
I ordered these beautiful rainbow tree cards from an acquaintance who started dabbling in watercolor during the pandemic to use for teacher/staff gift card giving. I LOVE them! https://www.zazzle.com/rainbow_christmas_tree_card-256020620828800372
I also like her holly berries, but the rainbow tree spoke to me this year.
I’m loving your mom’s list of requirements for religious cards. No blonde Jesus/Mary is my FAVORITE thing I’ve read!
I love the idea of having your daughter design the card. I think that makes it very special!
I send out 20-30 cards every Christmas, and if I’m lucky I get maybe 5. I’m kind of bitter about the imbalance, but I don’t want to give up that connection to friends and relatives, especially the ones who aren’t on social media. I pick up cards on clearance after Christmas has passed. They have to fit a 4×6 family picture inside, and not be religious. Those are pretty much my only criteria. I do save the cards I like best for the people who I think would appreciate them most. I did pay full price for a set of cards that had a drawing of dogs with their tongues happily lolling out the windows of a camper van last year, but, I mean, who could possibly NOT buy that!?! And I only have a couple of people on my list I deemed worthy of those particular cards, so I’ve only used up 2 of them. I’ve got a couple of one-offs still to send (like the one that apparently has to have a recipe enclosed because that’s what the person asked for), but I’m done the bulk of my cards as of this week.
My father in-law is deeply offended by the “political correctness” every time he receives a card that says anything but Merry Christmas, but I I send cards to a variety of people and so rarely buy cards that say that, so I just write “Merry Christmas” inside his card and stick in a family picture, which I hope makes up for it.
Oh gosh, my husband’s dad’s family are all Jewish, and tbh we send them whatever Christmas card we have floating around, or a personalised one if I’m feeling super organised, and I just write ‘Happy holidays’ in the message. Of course I’m aware that ‘Christmas’ isn’t something they celebrate… but the thing is in the UK it’s just not a religious holiday at all for most people, and certainly not for our family. More a pagan midwinter opportunity to be merry and bright. So I suppose I’ve never fully put enough thought into my choices of card!
I should add that none of his family are Jewish in the religious sense of the word, nobody attends temple or anything. His aunt sends Christmas gifts to my kids for example. But still. My husband’s not great at explaining these things to me, I’m going to have to sit him down and pick his brain over appropriate etiquette (his answer will 100% be to just not send one…. at all)
I am delighted and intrigued by the idea of sending the wrong card to someone. I started keeping a little list inside partial boxes so I could keep track of who I sent that design to, but your system sounds way more fun! Dying to see the pink card design!
Requested Mr. Flood!
I’m lazy when it comes to Christmas cards. I do a shutterfly photo card of the kids, I usually choose Happy Holidays and something with lights/snow/generic winter, not-too- christmasy. I have our return address printed on the cards. I have recipient addresses saved on the computer and I print them up on labels to put in the envelopes. Takes me about ten minutes total to address and stuff the envelopes and send them out. I never realized until a few year ago that people might be bothered that I don’t hand-write personal messages on them, but I just never have the energy for that. I also know some people dislike a picture of just the kids but not the parents, but I hate seeing pictures of myself.
I’m always very conflicted about how to handle non-Xmas-celebrating friends to whom I mail cards. I’ve had some Jewish friends express that they love getting to “participate” in this one aspect of Christmas by receiving lots of fun cards from friends, but I know not everyone feels that way.
I’ve ultimately come to the stance of “I cannot be held responsible for your feelings about receiving a photo card of my children if the presence of Christmas imagery will ruin it for you.” Especially since I personally am EXTREMELY non-religious, so I feel sure my friends are not, like, inferring any Christ-like sentiments being pushed on them from me via any card I send ;-)
I bought a big box of mixed glittery cards from Hallmark when they were buy one get one free, and then of course when I got out my Christmas decorations I found four boxes from last year when I did the exact same thing. So I will perpetually be a year ahead.
My Christmas card methodology is almost exactly like yours – buy too many cards, have to use up previous year’s cards, worry I’m sending someone the same card as last year – but I still bought two new boxes this year. I don’t buy religious picture cards at all, but I have a book club friend who for years did this amazing thing with her husband where they’d buy cards with big religious or secular scenes (lots of people, preferably) and then cut up magazines and comics and remake the cards into hilarious works of art and absurdity, so those cards always make me think of that. I sent out a record number of cards last year under the auspices of ‘things are shitty, we all need some happy mail’. Not sure if I can maintain that number this year, but I will try (email me your address if you’d like one).
I’m in the strange situation of living in a country away from all of our family and friends and after tearing my hair out trying to figure out how to mail custom photo cards (we had a baby that everyone wanted photos of and custom photo cards are not a thing where we are) internationally I just said screw it and sent Ink cards via their app which worked beautifully! I chose three different styles: MERRY CHRISTMAAAAS for the portion of my family that feels personally offended by Starbucks “holiday” cups, Happy Holidays for the folks on our list who like us celebrate secular Christmas, and Happy New Year for the various friends and relations that we have who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, combo, etc.
My spouse and I have toyed with the idea of ONLY doing Happy New Year cards because everyone is in on New Years and it’s kind of nice to get some happy mail in January!
I buy beautiful cards, intend to organize my lists & address them at Thanksgiving, fail to do so. Send a sprinkling of cards willy nilly hours before Christmas. Wish I could find “Happy New Year” cards but usually only find individual letterpress ones, too fancy/expensive. Donate cards I can bear to stop hoarding when someone at work collects cards and stamps to give to incarcerated people (for them to send). Vow to send Valentines to all the nice people who still send me Christmas cards. Fail. Rinse. Repeat.
I am an atheist living in the northern-ish part of the Bible Belt (so we get things like Christian praying by the team + coaches before sportsball games) and dislike sending Christmas holiday cards (even though we celebrate secular Christmas). I have solved this in the past (when we lived in a northern state) by looking for holiday cards with a winter scene, but now we live somewhere with little to no snow ever, I send New Year’s cards. This is helpful for me in SO MANY WAYS, not the least of which is we already have family birthdays October-January with one of my sons in December, so I’m very burned out each year by mid-December. I like using the week after Christmas to write and send the New Year’s cards.
This is my favourite, but only a few choice recipients qualified to receive it: https://twitter.com/thedailymash/status/399908629089775616?s=21
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has boxes of holiday cards with their art on it. They used to have two different boxes, one with mostly religious/angel/baby and Wise Men art, and one with things like Tokyo in the snow/ Monet’s snowy haystacks/ cat playing with bell/ etc. I got one box of each for years, but last year they only had one type. I haven’t looked yet this year.
I always love these posts of yours!
The last two years I’ve purchased the Ricardo Levins Morales Liberation calendar, and I love it so much. I don’t examine the art closely in advance, so each month is a pleasant surprise. Also, I happen to know he does important organizing work in Minneapolis. 💜
https://www.rlmartstudio.com/product/2022-rlm-liberation-calendar/
Well, I apparently commented on the wrong post. Which is representative of holiday cards from us. Two (maybe three) years in a row I ordered photo cards, received them, and then…didn’t mail them. Ever. I just really struggle with mailing things! Ugh. So l haven’t ordered any the last two years.