The Beautiful Letdown

A breastfeeding blog that dabbles in tandem, extended nursing, gentle parenting and much more

Thoughts on Christmas Cards

December21

My first thought is that I love Christ­mas cards! I look for­ward to the week­end after Thanks­giv­ing, because my cousin’s wife usu­ally sends us our first card either Fri­day or Sat­ur­day. I love read­ing the let­ters and see­ing how peo­ple have changed, either their looks or their lives. I also like hav­ing a chance to recon­nect a lit­tle with all of our friends and family.

Then, I started putting ours together. It wasn’t the time or the effort that it took that made me start think­ing about Christ­mas cards. I started won­der­ing just how many resources were used to cre­ate and deliver a card. Then, I won­dered what peo­ple do with them after Christ­mas is over. I keep mine, but I don’t know if every­one else does.

So, I thought back to the begin­ning of our Christ­mas cards, and here is what I came up with. First, I ordered the boys’ clothes off the inter­net for the pic­tures. Of course, their clothes are made in China. Ship­ping to US and to me. Then, we drove 70 miles (each way) to my sister-in-law’s house for the pic­tures. Then, we drove another 140 miles to pick up the pic­tures. That’s almost a tank of gas for us. After that, I drove 20 miles (ten each way) to pick out Christ­mas cards. They, too, were made in China. I am not tak­ing into account the address labels or return labels, because I didn’t make spe­cial trips any­where for them, but using 85 of them on our Christ­mas cards means that we won’t be using them on 85 let­ters in the future.

I know that paper will break down, but if half of the peo­ple throw away the cards, then it seems to me that I have used quite a few resources for just a few days of enjoy­ment. I could send the cards out before the week of Christ­mas, and then peo­ple would be able to enjoy them for 3 weeks, but that’s another topic for another day. :-)

Jason and I were talk­ing the other night, and we have some ideas for changes in our lifestyle for 2009, so don’t be sur­prised if Christ­mas cards are one of the things that we change. I love love LOVE send­ing and receiv­ing them, so please don’t think I’m say­ing any­thing else. I am cur­rently brain­storm­ing ways to make that a more envi­ron­men­tally friendly process.

posted under Christmas cards, Healthy living
3 Comments to

“Thoughts on Christmas Cards”

  1. On December 21st, 2008 at 11:10 pm Michelle Fry Says:

    I love Christ­mas cards! I, too, keep all the cards, let­ters, and pic­tures we receive this time of year. My inten­tion is to put them all into a scrap­book (my sister-in-law does that, and it’s so neat!), but I haven’t taken the time yet to put an album together.

    We were look­ing for a more cost-friendly way to do cards this year, so we will be emailing/facebooking out a let­ter and pic­ture to most peo­ple, sav­ing the hard copies for imme­di­ate fam­ily and those who do not use the Inter­net. This way, if peo­ple really want a hard copy, they can print it from their own com­puter! I was a lit­tle sad I didn’t send out home­made cards this year, but to be hon­est, I really didn’t have time!

  2. On December 23rd, 2008 at 1:41 am Rachel Says:

    I’m not doing Christ­mas cards due to the eco­nomic impact on our bud­get. :)

    But last year I wrote a newslet­ter style let­ter with pic­tures and updates on each of us–two pages full color printed–for those who don’t use elec­tronic media.

    Every­one else got an email with a link to my blog. I hoped it would drive traf­fic, but I think it added my aunt as a reader. That’s it.

  3. On December 8th, 2009 at 3:46 pm Cathy Says:

    I love Christ­mas but don’t do Christ­mas cards. I think some peo­ple think this makes me a bit of a yule­tide killjoy but I just feel they are a waste of time, effort, money and resources. I try and see most of the peo­ple I love so I can wish them sea­sons greet­ings in per­son. Any­one else you can phone or e-mail. My 3 yr old daugh­ter has today received some store bought cards from kids in her pre-school — writ­ten out by their moms. Mad­ness! I say ditch the cards — and per­haps make a dona­tion to char­ity with the money you would have spent on cards.