<p>We send out a few dozen Chanukah and holiday cards every year. Instead of a enclosed letter, we maintain an annual home page on Google that I update early each December (good reminder - time to update). Then we include a sticker on each card with the web site and if anyone is interested they can go look at a few pictures and read how our year went.</p>
<p>We have done cards for about 25 years along with a letter. A couple of years ago I thought we had enough email & FB contact to stop the cards as it was getting more and more difficult to get the whole family together and get a good photo. Last year no cards and there was actually whining from old friends, by email!</p>
<p>This year I think we will do photos, but no letter. Last year was depressing with deaths & cancer near miss etc. DH & I were exhausted and did not feel festive. This year has been great, but no one wants to do the letter, and I don’t want to send it unless it is amusing.</p>
<p>I have written the family letter for the last umpteen years. This year I am sending cards only, and there was not that much to say, or things to report…we are all well and moving along through life (knock on wood). With Facebook, those folks with whom I am in touch know what they need to know. Others are family members who are also informed. My economy this season: instead of buying stamps, I went through the stamp drawer and added up enough postage for $.44 on each card. I tried to match the stamps with the interests of the recipients, too. They probably will not realize that is a small holiday gift to them. Oh, well. Less $$ put out.</p>
<p>As I am reading this thread I got an email from Shutterfly saying that my holiday card was “in production” and should arrive by the 14th. I was hoping for sooner but since Chanukah is not until the 20th this year, I guess it is ok. I always do a photo card, since so many of our family and friends live in different states and haven’t seen the kids in awhile. This year I did the two sided 5x7 (never did that before). I am now realizing my mistake in that it is going to need extra postage! Anyone know how much (so I can stock up for my marathon addressing weekend)? I usually send out about 75 cards and I give a card to each of my son’s HS teachers with a small gift certificate enclosed.</p>
<p>I have also done (with variations in size, format, numbers of photos) a Shutterfly photo card for a long while. People always say they like them. We do a letter only every few years. Not really feeling it this year, so probably won’t! I do enjoy reading them from others. Hand written addresses on the envelopes and most of the cards with a personal note of varying length. This was the first year that I did not have a family photo with all 5 of us, or even one with the 3 kids together:( Part of the collage is a “recycled” casual Christmas photo from last year of the kids by the mantle. As someone else mentioned, it really doesn’t matter since they are old enough to not change much from year to year!</p>
<p>I send out the photo cards. Since it is harder to get a good picture of all 3 of them I went with a multi-photo card (from Snapfish) the past 2 years. I send out a letter. I always keep it to one page and I bend over backwards to not brag, and I try to make it funny. People say they really like it, so I hope they do. Instead of talking about straight A’s and how well my kids get along (NOT!) I have talked about S2’s team’s decisions to get mohawks right before Winter Formal or S3’s unflattering basketball nickname (Turnover Thomas). </p>
<p>I really like getting photo cards and I put them up on a wall in the dining room.</p>
<p>wdaveo -</p>
<p>Despite my best intentions to work on them throughout the year, I usually usually find myself spending lots of time finishing them up in December. So far I’ve completed bout 60, so I’m in pretty good shape! Overall I probably spend about 75 hours designing, making and addressing all the cards.</p>
<p>I love getting holiday cards. I love getting holiday letters. (Even the boring ones.) every year I get fewer of them and it makes me sad. I love getting pictures of the family. I am Facebook friends with a very small subset of my life, and don’t consider it a substitute.</p>
<p>Our cards nearly always have a picture of us, or at least the kids, and usually some sort of theme for the year. (Santa dressed in Lederhosen, our baby in a Christmas box, S2’s photo of the Golden temple with golden wishes, a tartan card the year our oldest got into Carnegie Mellon.) I thought this year we’ll do something with our faces in the Google logo to celebrate our oldest’s new job. Our Christmas letter is very short - it has to fit on the card so it’s about half a page long. It’s usually at least somewhat humorous. I send about 50.</p>
<p>We’ve sent out photo cards for as long as I can remember. Always a photo of ALL of us, never just the kids. Always have to include the dog(s) too. I love receiving photo cards too, but always enjoy seeing the whole family.</p>
<p>I send the 4X8 flat photo cards. I have a short message printed on front the card but sign them by hand. Last year I discovered the “stationery” cards, which are printed on cardstock (it’s like a papery finish; not glossy). You can have a message printed on the back. So on the back, I put something to the effect of “We’d love to hear from you…” and give my email address / facebook contact info.</p>
<p>We have one relative that includes a letter which gives week by week detail of every activity throughout the year. “On January 2 we went to church, and after that, had lunch with the Smiths. On January 9, I came down with a cold, but felt better by January 13 when we attended a birthday dinner for Susy Jones.”</p>
<p>Wow, I didn’t read every word of this thread (but most!) - am I the first to DESPISE the job of sending out holiday cards??!!! Last time I sent them was about4 or 5 years ago - and even then I dreaded doing every one. Just not my kind of task!</p>
<p>We don’t have tons of family nor lots of friends far from us. I just decided that sending cards should be something you WANT to do, not HAVE to do. </p>
<p>As far as getting them, I’m ok either way - getting them or not. I do enjoy photo cards of family/friends that have small children and seeing them grow.</p>
<p>I love getting cards and newsletters. I too find it sad that fewer seem to be sent every year. I hang them on my french patio door and enjoy seeing them and then re-reading them.</p>
<p>Many of the recipients of mine are also fb friends, so I’m starting to wonder if it’s redundant. I try to make my letter amusing. Part of the reason I do it is because I want my children and grandchildren to be able to read them decades in the future.</p>
<p>I lament the loss of letter/card writing. I don’t think a couple line email is a substitute. I guess it’s because I’m old-school, but also because I’m a genealogical hound and I treasure the letters my ancestors left behind.</p>
<p>No newsletters. Just cards. We’re sending the Holiday cards out today for the oversea relatives. The ones I receive I hang them on my fireplace but discard them after a year.</p>
<p>I like the tradition of holiday cards, but am increasingly viewing them as a way to keep in touch with those who live at a distance. I do send out cards every year, especially because there are people in my life (college roommates and former colleagues) who live far away and we have made the card exchange how we keep in touch. I like hearing how these people are doing and few are fb friends.</p>
<p>I always send a hand-written note, personalized to the individual and never wanted to consider a pre-printed newsletter or a quickly signed card. I don’t mind when others send newletters and enjoy the updates in whatever form they arrive. I am busier this year, and for the first time, typing the note with individual modifications is looking tempting. Why does it feel like such a big decision to abandon my initial reluctance to do this?</p>
<p>We all feel differently about how we present ourselves to others.
I think writing the little personal note in each card can be less of a commitment, and the tone and content can be changed to suit the recipient. Flexibility may be important for some senders.</p>
<p>I also send out a few religious Christmas cards (with religious stamps) to certain people, such as my uncle who is a priest, but stick to HOLIDAY/WINTRY themed cards for the majority of my very diverse recipients.</p>
<p>One other thing: my mom’s rule was that if you see people regularly, i.e. live in the same town, you do not send a Christmas card. I have stuck to that guideline.</p>
<p>I love receiving holiday cards with pictures and/or a newsy update. I sent out card every year with the kids’ photo. The holiday card “photo shoot” has become the stuff of family lore (or stress). My kids are now post college and settled in different cities. I didn’t send any cards last year because I really think they are so over the whole Christmas card photo thing. After all, they are young self-supporting adults and its feels kind of silly to them. And no…I am not going to send out any photos of just DH and me!</p>
<p>My question to all CCers: when do your kids become “too old” for the family Christmas card?</p>
<p>I think they are young enough when they still come home from school for the holidays. D1 is doing graduate work and as a student is still a kid in terms of cards.</p>
<p>I love getting cards. I always enjoy the pictures and letters. I don’t mind the “brag sheets”, I’m happy that people I know are doing well. I have noticed that fewer people are sending cards every year. Sadly, I will be one of those people this year. I have been very busy and have decided not to send cards this year. Hopefully next year I will be more organized…</p>
<p>Mansfield: I have wondered about that for the last couple years also. I can’t imagine any of my 3 (2 out of college and 1 in) bothering to send cards, so I still include them all both in the photos and “signatures”. Plus, I know the family expects cards and pics, and it seems most of our friends who have young adult kids of similar ages still include the kids as part of their cards.</p>
<p>My aunt and uncle send out a Christmas card with a picture that includes all three of their children, their spouses, and their 6 grandchildren. My mom and her husband sned out a picture of the two of them in Santa hats, each year in a different location.</p>