Just How Expensive Is a Card & Stamp?

I still send proper cards, as much of my family lives in different parts of the country, and we don't use social media as such. I have always been in the habit of adding a short, personalised greeting of some sort ( 'hope you are keeping well, and the dog's skin complaint has been cured blah, blah' sort of thing ) more to give an impression I am thinking about what I am doing. more than anything else. With just a few exceptions, the majority of cards I get are just signed 'from X & X' which to me is more of an automated response ( i.e. bit of a pain to do, but needs to be done). Is it a generational thing, or am I being a bit oversensitive? Can't make my mind up on that one.

Am seriously thinking of not bothering next year, but sending a round-robin sort of email

Grumpy pensioner

Mike -

With respect I don't think the comparison with using CAD/CAM methods really works.

After all, our talking about digital greetings cards on an internet chat-site suggests they pose us no technical challenge even if our most sophisticated machine-tool is a Drummond lathe. Such as "card" is only an e-post wrapped in artistic floss provided.

I appreciate some people will genuinely find the cost of posting about twenty cards unwelcome even if using the budget-range cards from the discount shops.

That 20 is my approximate postal count, probably over-estimated. The rest of about 30 were hand-deliveries to a couple of neighbours; enclosed with presents, and within my caving-club whose HQ is 60 miles from home.

I think the main feeling against the electronic ones may be similar to mine - that they seem somehow a lot more impersonal than a card, even a card handwritten with just Fred and Freda from John and Jane xx under the printed solicitation. Bland maybe, but at least showing a bit more effort than merely typing an address-book. You have physically to buy a card and stamp, to hand-write it, to go out and post it. I do add extra notes where appropriate.

The Lawson pattern may cut costs for senders but seems as insincere to me as a physical card with printed "signature" from a commercial organisation. Receiving an e-card of that form suggests your friend or relative thinks wishing you Happy Christmas a duty, a chore. It's not helped by the web-site sending you an automatic reply-demand as if from the DVLA. I find them rather hurtful.

In that regard, others' suggested home-made "e-cards" with ones' own photographs do also show consideration, in fact taking some effort to demonstrate actually caring about the recipient.

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I feel this all the more so if I were to send a card to someone fairly recently bereaved, or very ill. In those cases I seek cards with a scenic or indeed religious picture, but blank inside so I can write a more thoughtful message. I have occasionally found cards already printed "Thinking of you", but they are unusual and anyway the situation demand a bit more thought. It's certainly not the place for greetings-by-database.

You don't have to be religious to enjoy Christmas !

It probably has only very tenuous links to religion anyway nowadays; it is a festival, and an occasion. Send each other real cards, decorate your house, walk to a cosy pub, have some time together. Try not to get too caught-up in the commercialisation. Individual cards can cost several pounds each, which is too much, but Charity shops usually sell packs of Christmas cards at very reasonable prices.

I don't really 'get' why people drive miles on Christmas Day to see relatives they never normally visit, or vice versa, and I was always very p*ssed off that I had to work on Christmas Eve/Day/Boxing Day to fly people to other countries for similar reasons. I treat Christmas as a time to bunker down at home, with good books, jigsaws, chocolate, fine wine, and cosy togetherness with my nearest and dearest. I ring the bells at the Cathedral and enjoy the occasion.

One of the most magical Christmases I remember was staying with friends and walking a mile or so to a lovely local pub in the deep snow, and having a great evening. Then walking back through deserted, snowy streets. Absolutely magical.