Anybody get Christmas cards with those "family updates" where each person in the family writes a paragraph on what they've been doing with the last year of their life? Those things always seem to make everyone come off so self-absorbed and braggy.

 

We sent out a handful of Christmas cards this year...maybe 15 in total. Instead of including a letter listing all of our accomplishments, we sent out a very tongue and cheek letter of all our failures and shortcomings in 2014. It seems to have given everyone who got one a pretty good laugh.

Oh yeah, those. I hate those. :lol2:

Mrs. TAC makes the little Tacsters get thier pic taken and does those Walgreens post card things.

 

One warning for anyone sending me a card, be ready for the stink eye if your card has glitter on it!

I admit it, I feel a little guilty that we dropped the ball this time. I'm not one to do things because it is expected of me, and I am a bit of a non conformist. That is why I am surprised that I'm bummed about this, I feel like we have let our friends down somehow.

 

Maybe we will send out Valentine's cards this year to make up for it.

We always sent them, but last year was the 1st year we didn't. I think the twins were tired of being on Christmas cards. We didn't send any again this year either, and I hate that we haven't for 2 years now.

Years ago in my early 20s when I had my first apartment, I jumped at the chance to carry on the tradition from my parents about sending out tons of cards.

 

I hadn't even considered that some people actually would rather not get one, for now they felt pressured into sending one back.

 

Of course there are many people who love to get them.

 

My list grew and grew, and year after year it started to feel a bit like a chore.

 

There were even a handful of Jewish folk on my list that I had to make sure to send holiday appropriate cards to, because the Christmas ones didn't fit the bill.

 

A wise old guy who I roped into sending me one because I had sent him one, diplomatically told me that he only sends card to those you send cards to him first with the hopes that he can keep his list at a minimum.

 

I admire those who enjoy sending them, but his words resonated with me because by this time I had actually started wishing that I hadn't developed such a large list and was hoping somehow to decrease it.

 

It's taken years, but little by little I have gotten my list down to a minimal few, and now only receive just about 10.

 

Of those 10, I only send back a few, and worry a little with a sense of guilt that the ones that I don't send back to find me to lack holiday cheer, and am a Christmas Scrooge.

 

I do my best to phone them during the season in an effort to offset not sending a card with he hopes I can pacify them somehow to not feel ill of me.

 

I'm happy that I've managed to eliminate for the most part what came to feel like an added chore, but the yearly sense of guilt somehow continues to hover over my holiday season.

 

I'm thinking that many are glad that I quit so that they too could also, and some have long forgotten to the point it's a non issue, but Christmas is a funny thing that no matter how much effort you put into trying not to step on any toes, if you even step on one pair of toes before the season is over, it's those toes that seem to be magnified in your mind and can make the holiday seem a bit tarnished.

 

Nothing against those who send them, but ultimately I'm glad that I've managed to reduce this yearly tradition to an insignificant number, and am sure that i will do my very best to keep it that way for the rest of my life.

 

Merry Christmas everybody and please don't hate me if you don't get a card from me. I promise that my holiday heart is in the right place, but the card thing is just not how I care to play it anymore.

I've never sent them out, but I got a few this year and I always like it. A friend of mine from college and his wife sent one that unfolded into a beautiful triptych painting of the holy family that hangs in a church in Belgium. I can definitely appreciate that.

I got this nice one from my buddy Randy yesterday.

I got this nice one from my buddy Randy yesterday.

You serious Clark?

A tradition that will never end, always providing a Christmas wish and kind word for the New Year accompanied with a few pics on the card of our family.

 

Not a fan of the multi paragraph family updates with card. Leave those to a phone call, or face to face conversation. :thumb:

 

Guess I'm "old school" that way...Have a blessed and Merry Christmas folks!

I admit it, I feel a little guilty that we dropped the ball this time. I'm not one to do things because it is expected of me, and I am a bit of a non conformist. That is why I am surprised that I'm bummed about this, I feel like we have let our friends down somehow.

 

Maybe we will send out Valentine's cards this year to make up for it.

 

My Aunt will ask tomorrow where the cute boy with red hair is...I'd bet you a doughnut. She spends over an hour going card to card in our kitchen. Don't judge, everyone has an aunt like that. :bunny:

Because I am bad at sitting down to send them out I choose to call people I do not frequently see. Personal touch.