Greeting cards have all been sent … Or haven’t they?
I’ll admit that I’m a hopelessly nostalgic geriatric Millennial. One of my earliest memories of the holiday season was helping my mother pick out which box of Christmas cards would be sent to family and friends.
I got to pick out Hanukkah cards for my father’s side of the family, too.
In middle school, I finally got my own cards to send. (This was also the same year the stamps were on the wrong side; you really can’t trust a middle schooler.) There was something so “grown-up” about the whole experience, I recall.
I kept up the practice through high school and college. But cards never came back, at least not from among my age groups.
If I sent out 20, I’d maybe get two. But weren’t we supposed to be all grown up now?
Where were my cards!
“ Helloooo in there”. (Charlie Brown Christmas). I say this every single time I open the mailbox. pic.twitter.com/xC4BjKU9Cs
— D. Patrick Peterson (@PatrickP747) August 13, 2021
Then I realized it wasn’t about growing up, it was a generational difference. Young people weren’t sending cards.
Then something changed. Something big arrived. That thing was Shutterfly hitting the mainstream. With a few clicks, people could create their own personalized photo cards of themselves with their families or significant others — and for not a lot of money.
This, of course, is commonplace now, but go back over two decades, when personalized greeting cards with dressed up families was not exactly a middle class thing, at least not in my circles.
The practice seemed reserved for the upper middle class and wealthy.
These “cards” might as well have said:
“Look at my beautiful family, professional photos and card stock. You know I’m doing well!”
They were impressive to see.
Then, suddenly, I started receiving an abundance of these photo cards. I really enjoyed seeing my generation getting into sending mail and getting creative around the holidays.
Eventually other web-based photo service sites popped up, from Zazzle to Walgreens, even Walmart.
This all helped make the personalized greeting card attainable for most budgets. I saw this as a positive. I’ve even sent a few myself.
What I never expected was for the photo card to totally eclipse traditional greeting cards.
JOYFUL
— Shutterfly (@Shutterfly) October 22, 2022
/joy·ful/
adjective
feeling, expressing, or causing great pleasure and happiness. 🍂 🍁 #Fall #Autumn #Cards #Cozy #Love pic.twitter.com/sY76Lc45Fg
And I can’t help but feeling that something has been lost, with the loss of the “greeting cards” Karen Carpenter would sing about every December.
Case in point, this shortened holiday season, with Thanksgiving arriving so late. I heard so many people panicking about “not getting their cards done in time.” Mind you, it was only the first week of December.
But when you have to choose or shop for outfits, perhaps book a photographer or arrange for a holiday scene, design and order your cards, it does become a much longer ordeal. Plus if you don’t do all of this early enough, like before Thanksgiving, it is a lot pricier to ship them in time. A couple weeks isn’t enough, especially amid decorating the home, getting a tree and holiday shopping.
So what are many people doing now? Nothing, it appears. As if there are no other options.
You know what I did?
I went to The Paper Store, picked up a box of adorable iceskating snowman cards and was done with about two dozen personalized notes to friends and relatives in under an hour.
Best of all, it was stress-free, cost efficient and, of course, nostalgic.
(Especially with the Carpenters Christmas Portrait album playing in the background.)
Alas, as of today, Dec. 13, my card tree has a meager three cards on it. It’s usually so full that it’s falling over.
Now, I either royally pissed off everyone this past year, or I suspect that many people are feeling the squeeze of the shortened holiday season and will get their cards out later than usual, if at all.
And I just ask, is all this work with the photos necessary? After all, isn’t the whole point of a greeting card to let people know we’re thinking of them during the holidays?
I feel like the only people sending cards this year are the car dealerships.
The old-fashioned practice of sending a Christmas letter is gone for good, and now it appears the practice of sending greeting cards is fading, too.
People keep saying Christmas doesn’t feel like Christmas anymore, maybe this is one way to bring back those old feelings.
Here’s Marge Simpson writing a Christmas letter in 1989, a largely dead practice:
“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” aired 34 years ago today. pic.twitter.com/wgUWKEI9SZ
— 🎄 The Simpsons 🎅 (@Simpsons_tweets) December 17, 2023
Photo credit: Shutterfly on Facebook
