Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped sending cards last year. I'm so sick of photo cards ( and I have cute kids who can pose for cards too) but they are so overdone. Won't send cards this year and don't care about getting them... Labels computer generated and no personal message.. Might as well be junk mail. I talk to and see the people I want to keep in touch with.

I don't quite see the point in sending these if they don't contain a message much less a signature. We received one last year - photo - from Smiths and dog - but no return address and no last name. I had no idea who the sender was. Into the circular file.

We got one last year with just a (blurry) picture of a kid. No first OR last names and mailed by a service so the postmark didn't even help narrow it down. We did eventually figure it out and we're pretty sure they were stoned when they ordered their cards.

Only one of our friends does a letter, and it's not braggy, but it is so unbelievably boring. The wife of the couple is super sweet, and I like them a lot, but she just has no idea how to write engagingly. It is just a (very long, 2 pages single space) sequential recap of their year.

In January we did this. In February we went here and did this...In September larla started 2nd grade. In October we did this..

But I always read it and I'd still rather get the letter than get nothing. I love mail.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped sending cards last year. I'm so sick of photo cards ( and I have cute kids who can pose for cards too) but they are so overdone. Won't send cards this year and don't care about getting them... Labels computer generated and no personal message.. Might as well be junk mail. I talk to and see the people I want to keep in touch with.

Yep. Straight to the trash.

Boo. I like receiving these. It's festive and I like to see how my friends' and relatives' kids -- who I care about but don't get to see that often -- are growing. Plus they look cute on my shelf for a month. Card senders, don't listen to the haters.

+1

Anonymous wrote:I did mine and talked about travel in Asia we did this year and a few highlights about each family member.. I don't think of it as bragging; in fact I think older relatives enjoy reading about that and looking at the pictures. But really I keep them year after year. They are a nice sweet record of our lives. I love looking back at the ones my mom did of us when we were young.

straight into the circular file with cards like these

I just sent ours out yesterday. It was a real card with a photo (of just DD) on the front. It was not a computerized/TinyPrints/etc. type of card. The envelopes were hand-addressed as was the greeting inside the card. Our last name was pluralized correctly. It did not have a "newsletter" sort of thing enclosed. I hope people like it and don't tear it apart!

This year, I'm sending a card to about 75 people. It have our last name pluralized correctly. (No "the Smith's", although I would love a card from Morrissey.)

It does have a photo of us in matching-ish outfits, but that's because it's one of the only if not the only photo of the family together. It was taken at the beach this summer and my MIL decreed what we were wearing, and I'm not posing for another picture.

Personally, I like to see the photos of my friends, and not just their kids. I like a plain card too but the ones I like best are the ones of the sender with their photos on it.

I may (gasp) use labels or a stamp for my own address but I will probably handwrite people's addresses. I don't care if I get a computer-labeled envelope (it makes it easier!) or no "personal" note with the card.

I like looking at the cards, and I hope others like looking at mine but if not, just throw it away I'll never know.

Lastly, it's funny how some of my friends get a card and some are strictly non-card, not because we are not close but just because they are not card people, woudln't like it, would feel like they'd have to send me one, etc. There've been years I haven't sent one out, it's not really a big deal either way.

The letters make me laugh.

Never seen a Christmas letter. I first heard about them on an episode of everybody loves Raymond. I had no idea they were so common.

Anonymous wrote:I especially enjoy personalized cards emblazoned with

Merry Christmas from The Smith's!

or, worse, Smith's/Smith's/Smith's printed in an artful pattern.

Is it the lack of heartfelt wishes you dislike? Or is it the improper use of an apostrophe?

My sister in law writes full brag Christmas letters. It is kind of funny because the letter is not at all representative of what the family is really like.

Friends of my parents write a Christmas letter every year. Now their 3 kids are in their 20s and they still write the letter.From the letter you would think the older two are about to receive the Nobel prize. "Sarah decided to take a year off school and end child hunger. She has spent the last 6 months saving children from dying and has given away all her possessions to pay for surgery for forty children who would otherwise have died." Their other daughter is also saving the world through education (she is a teacher in a low income school). The best part is that they have a 3rd child who gets almost no mention! He probably spends his life playing video games in the basement.

Anonymous wrote:The fuck? Are we talking about Christmas letters or the photo cards? Please tell me poopy diapers do not make a debut on either.

Likely holiday letters folded into the envelope that contains the family photo card/collage.

Anonymous wrote:I stopped sending cards last year. I'm so sick of photo cards ( and I have cute kids who can pose for cards too) but they are so overdone. Won't send cards this year and don't care about getting them... Labels computer generated and no personal message.. Might as well be junk mail. I talk to and see the people I want to keep in touch with.

I don't quite see the point in sending these if they don't contain a message much less a signature. We received one last year - photo - from Smiths and dog - but no return address and no last name. I had no idea who the sender was. Into the circular file.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The beach photo cards in the matching denim and white shirts are awful.

+1000. Awful.

I really hate these. And they come right after Thanksgiving just to prove what a dolt I am about not sending out anything!

The fuck? Are we talking about Christmas letters or the photo cards? Please tell me poopy diapers do not make a debut on either.

Anonymous wrote:Words and phrases that should never, ever appear in a Christmas/holiday letter:

continued from last year (referencing last year's single-spaced, wall of text, printed letter)

page two

colonoscopy

placenta previa

high blood pressure

stroke

butt(ocks)

polyp

And constipation, poopy diapers, anything gastrointestinal.

Anonymous wrote:The beach photo cards in the matching denim and white shirts are awful.

+1000. Awful.