I have never written an annual Christmas letter to include in my Christmas cards to catch my friends and family up on what was going on in my life. I could claim I was too sophisticated for such foolishness or that my life was too busy to spend a day composing the perfect synopsis or I was too modest to publicly extol my family's accomplishments. The truth is I was just never organized enough to do it.
I might have made a few disparaging remarks about the ones we did receive but the fact is I enjoyed reading them. They were like a slice of Facebook before there was Facebook. No one ever posts about a child's bad grade or a teenager's failed romance on Facebook. Likewise, the traditional Christmas letter presented a perfect world of academic success, marital harmony and fiscal solvency. It was a wonderful world.
Oh, there was the year my cousin sent out a letter detailing the agony of having had her mother in law move in with the family. That letter created more intra family phone calls than the Cuban Missle Crisis. It stands as a prototype of what not to write in a holiday letter, it certainly is the exception to the standard.
But this year there was a noticeable decline in cards received, even in cards sent. I was brutal in crossing names off of my list. A few had passed away, naturally they did not merit a card. A couple had stopped sending to us so I retaliated and did not send to them. And a few more had slipped from friend to acquaintance status, they really never were friends at all, and I heartlessly drew a black line through their names. Obviously that same scene was playing out at other breakfast tables where my name was being deleted from someone's address book, and not because I was deceased.
I heard a "talking head" on tv discussing the death of the Christmas card this year. She thought it was partially the cost of postage but more the price of time. In our busy modern life we can compose a holiday message, even order up a lovely animated "card," hit "select all," and zip it off to dozens, even hundreds of our closest friends. We can compose a Facebook message that includes photos and background music and reach our family of friends with the tap of one key. It's too efficient to not do it.
So the art of the Christmas card is on the wane. The first warning sign was the pre-printed signature on the inside of the card. Next came the computer generated addressed envelopes. This year it is the disappearance of the Christmas letter tucked inside the card. Next year, I fear, it will be the card itself.
But only we older baby boomers and great generation folks will notice. The younger generations have already made the emotional break from the card and envelope, stamp and address book. And mostly from the work and time it takes.
I might have made a few disparaging remarks about the ones we did receive but the fact is I enjoyed reading them. They were like a slice of Facebook before there was Facebook. No one ever posts about a child's bad grade or a teenager's failed romance on Facebook. Likewise, the traditional Christmas letter presented a perfect world of academic success, marital harmony and fiscal solvency. It was a wonderful world.
Oh, there was the year my cousin sent out a letter detailing the agony of having had her mother in law move in with the family. That letter created more intra family phone calls than the Cuban Missle Crisis. It stands as a prototype of what not to write in a holiday letter, it certainly is the exception to the standard.
But this year there was a noticeable decline in cards received, even in cards sent. I was brutal in crossing names off of my list. A few had passed away, naturally they did not merit a card. A couple had stopped sending to us so I retaliated and did not send to them. And a few more had slipped from friend to acquaintance status, they really never were friends at all, and I heartlessly drew a black line through their names. Obviously that same scene was playing out at other breakfast tables where my name was being deleted from someone's address book, and not because I was deceased.
I heard a "talking head" on tv discussing the death of the Christmas card this year. She thought it was partially the cost of postage but more the price of time. In our busy modern life we can compose a holiday message, even order up a lovely animated "card," hit "select all," and zip it off to dozens, even hundreds of our closest friends. We can compose a Facebook message that includes photos and background music and reach our family of friends with the tap of one key. It's too efficient to not do it.
So the art of the Christmas card is on the wane. The first warning sign was the pre-printed signature on the inside of the card. Next came the computer generated addressed envelopes. This year it is the disappearance of the Christmas letter tucked inside the card. Next year, I fear, it will be the card itself.
But only we older baby boomers and great generation folks will notice. The younger generations have already made the emotional break from the card and envelope, stamp and address book. And mostly from the work and time it takes.
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