It's in the Cards
You know, you'd think that the holiday season would be a great one for writers, what with all this card writing nonsense (one of the few realms left where snail mail rules), but man. I get more and more tired of doing Christmas cards every year.
My hand gets in a cramp from old-fashioned pen-and-ink handwriting, and I get utterly frustrated by the people who I realize have moved within the last year or two, who I need to hunt down addresses for. Then there are the people who are procreating and I (shamefully) have forgotten the names of their new offspring. Meanwhile, it gets harder and harder to think of something creative and interesting to say so each card becomes in effect a form letter.
It's too bad. Maybe I should start thinking about starting the whole process in say, October. (Like when I should start my Christmas shopping, but never do!) Maybe then each card could have some heartfelt message written with the utmost hand-written care. (We all know this is not going to happen.)
Do you guys send out holiday cards? I know that a lot of people have given up on it in this day and age. However, I have to admit, I always enjoy finding cards that I like to send. (This year, I was very excited to have found Edward Gorey Christmas cards, to put in my lineup. Of course, that was the box I ran out of quickly.)
In the end, there are always the people whose cards still remain unaddressed who I am trying to find out their addresses (I have a few of those now). And of course there are the tons of people who aren't in my address book to begin with, so I just have to hope they know I am wishing them happy holidays. Why do I torment myself with this year after year? Okay, I sort of enjoy it and like getting cards. It's the spirit of Christmas.
Write on,
LLB
My hand gets in a cramp from old-fashioned pen-and-ink handwriting, and I get utterly frustrated by the people who I realize have moved within the last year or two, who I need to hunt down addresses for. Then there are the people who are procreating and I (shamefully) have forgotten the names of their new offspring. Meanwhile, it gets harder and harder to think of something creative and interesting to say so each card becomes in effect a form letter.
It's too bad. Maybe I should start thinking about starting the whole process in say, October. (Like when I should start my Christmas shopping, but never do!) Maybe then each card could have some heartfelt message written with the utmost hand-written care. (We all know this is not going to happen.)
Do you guys send out holiday cards? I know that a lot of people have given up on it in this day and age. However, I have to admit, I always enjoy finding cards that I like to send. (This year, I was very excited to have found Edward Gorey Christmas cards, to put in my lineup. Of course, that was the box I ran out of quickly.)
In the end, there are always the people whose cards still remain unaddressed who I am trying to find out their addresses (I have a few of those now). And of course there are the tons of people who aren't in my address book to begin with, so I just have to hope they know I am wishing them happy holidays. Why do I torment myself with this year after year? Okay, I sort of enjoy it and like getting cards. It's the spirit of Christmas.
Write on,
LLB
posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 1:03 PM
10 Comments:
Wow. Edward Gorey cards would be great. I have a box of Curious George I'm still working through. I don't send many out, so it takes awhile for me to go through a box.
I find I get ecards from people more and more now. But then I stay in touch with people more over email than by phone, so it works out.
Haha, yeah, I have Curious George cards too! Edward Gorey cards are generally pretty hard to find, which would explain my excitement over that find. I don't think the stores stock very large inventories of them -- I think it's definitely a pretty small market for them.
I also had a box of Grinch cards that are all sent too. That cracked me up, that they make Grinch Christmas cards.
I do think ecards are often the way to go.
Where did you find the Gorey cards?
Believe it or not, I found the Gorey cards in (gasp!) Borders. I would not have thought they'd be available in anything but an independent card store.
If you're a Gorey fan, I ran across regular, non-holiday Gorey stationary in Olssens, in a really cool box. I totally coveted that stationary but also realized that I'd have to revitalize the lost art of snail mail correspondence to justify the expense of buying a box, so I didn't splurge. They're really super cool though.
I’m awful, I know it, but really don’t care. No box of Christmas cards is needed by me. This year only sent out three cards – to the people who are truly most important to me. Two of them were children. Kathleen
Hi Kathleen, no, that's not awful at all! I think in the case of cards, to each his or her own. Like I said, I know a lot of people who don't do it, and I'm sure if I stopped doing it people wouldn't notice too much. It is one more thing that can certainly put stress into the holidays!
I sent out Christmas cards for work-related people. That makes me a real schmoozer, no?
I used to enjoy writing letters and all, but nobody writes back or they send out boring one-liners. Sigh. I got quite a few sent to me this year though. I used to also paint my own cards but it's grown to be far too labour intensive, since I also needed to specially cut the papers so they would have frayed edges, add my Chinese seal to them (I lived in Asia for 5 years hence the Asianness of the whole affair), glue them onto card stock, add a message...when you get to about 100 cards it's really time-consuming. One of my friends ordered some cards from me, but just too busy this year to start painting...
Edward Gorey cards?
!!!!!
Actually, I love mailing cards (and I have cards for you and for Maktaaq with no addresses. I'll give you yours at our dinner after the New Year--the ladies of fiction are getting together! I will send Maktaaq's by carrier pigeon.)
Hey Jen, that sounds like an excellent idea as I dont have your address either. It's a date!
I wish the carrier pigeon could bring Maktaaq back after delivering her card to have dinner with us! :)
/ blog has all kinds of really cool stuff in it. www.christmas-mall-online.com
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