I'm doing my very best to ignore it. Only five days to go and as yet I haven't spent any money on it, except for sending two cards through the post, one for my sister and one for my best friend.
I do wonder if I am being terribly mean though because people have sent me cards, should I send them one back? I go through this every year, wait untill the last minute, then usually give in. I wouldn't mind if no one sent me a card as Christmas is banned in this house. I can't understand why I get cards from people who I haven't seen for twenty years, and we haven't spoken on the phone or emailed each other at all throughout the whole time. Why do they keep wasting their money?
It's not that I don't want to keep in touch. I sometimes think back about people who have popped into my life in the past, and wonder what they are up to. I have tried to keep friendships going with the odd phone call now and then, just to catch up for old times sake. But it has always been me doing the dialling, in the end I just give up.
It bugs me to get a card year after year, with the briefest of greeting, from someone who has moved on, and neither of us has the foggiest idea what each other is doing. Should I be pleased that someone has thought about me? What is the point in keeping up the ritual?
I think I might dig up a few phone numbers in the new year, and give them a call, to to say sorry for not sending them a card. At least I will be making an effort, and it won't cost me any extra if I ring after 6pm. If Royal Mail put up the price of their postage stamps any more, maybe everyone will think more carefully about who to send cards to next year. We all might as well save our money and chat on the phone.
Road salt.
3 hours ago
Instead of the odd cards from long forgotten people you might want to suggest to them to donate a few pounds to your favourite charity instead of wasting their money on paper envelopes and cards that end up in landfill sites after Christmas. I recycle old cards and make new ones each year to give or send, if I have to send. Therefore I feel that I do something to at least minimize the loads of waste that get dumped every week.
ReplyDeleteI held the same view as you - probably more severe actually because it included birthday cards as well. Until it was pointed out to me (by a mate; an unlikely source as he was a giant sized beast of a Fijian rugby player) that for the few moments that someone was writing the card they were thinking of you.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a lovely sentiment so now I spend a bit more time with cards and make the odd one too. One particular card I send every year has been in use since the 1980s; it is returned every year for use the following year with a new date/signature.
Merry Christmas, Brian
I never thought of it like that Brian, thank you. I like the idea of two people sending the same card backwards and forwards, adding a new date and signature. That shows they value the card as a reminder of the person they care about.
ReplyDeleteI have kept a lot of my 'best friend's cards' and have some from 40 years ago. The last couple of years I sent home made ones out and several people said they are keeping them because they are so nice. So that is maybe the way to go. Stop buying them, making them instead, and using the same ones over again.
That idea is very appealing!
ReplyDelete