It’s that time of year again: time to start sending out the Christmas cards.
Our Christmas card list began as our wedding invitation list — and does, in fact, still live on a tab in an Excel workbook entitled “Wedding Planner.” It’s morphed over the years, of course; friends have been added over the past 5+ years, and acquaintances have been axed as we’ve grown apart.
The list seems to have three main categories:
- Family. His and mine. They get a card every year, regardless.
- Close friends. Most of these people we communicate with on a regular basis, and we could save a stamp with many of them by just giving them their card when we see them next.
- Used-to-be-close friends. We now only touch base with these people via Christmas cards, which is really kind of sad.
Not everyone reciprocates the Christmas card “exchange,” though. Since Christmas of 2006, I’ve been keeping track of who has sent us Christmas cards in return. Maybe I’m channeling the Scrooge within, but I’m seriously considering a Three Strikes, You’re Out policy: we send you a card for three years, you don’t send us one, we assume you don’t give a shit and will stop sending you these damn cards. Shallow? Perhaps. So be it.
If you send us a card, though, we’ll send you one. There’s something special about getting a tangible token of goodwill in this age of electronic communication. Even if you just took the time to print it out, and didn’t write a personal message (which we also frequently omit), at least you took the time to think about us and how we might appreciate a card.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the quality of our custom-printed cards this year, so I think I might do something a little more special and involved (read: scrapbooky and crafty) next year. That’s still a long way away, though…