I didn’t send Christmas cards this year.
Does that make me a bum?
Are they absolutely necessary? And because I live in Utah, do I also need to send an obnoxious letter extolling how amazing our lives and we were in 2007?
What if I send out e-cards? Is that tacky or an acceptable alternative?
Responses will be used in an upcoming broadcast of KVNU’s For the People.
-Tom
totally tacky. as tacky as me sending MINE this week?
and check your freaking email!! i need your address so i can send you a card!
I don’t send them out. I always feel a bit of guilt about it…It almost makes me feel like I should turn in my “Girl Card”.
I do like receiving cards. It’s just never been my “Thing”. Hearing from friends and family in cards and newsletters is nice, though.
Sometimes these letters (Usually sent from people I don’t know well at all) can get way out of control and get to the point that reading them causes saccharine-induced nausea.
Fortunately, I don’t get bombarded with this. I only have a few people that send me 6-page tomes consisting of a 12-month rundown of how awesome they, their spawn, careers, pets, house, clothes, academics,church callings and knitting hobbies are. Sometimes I am surprised they can fit it all into six pages, because that is a WHOLE LOT OF AWESOMENESS, after all.
Other people I know are not so lucky. I feel for them.
Sigh.
P.S.
If you are sitting here wondering if you have “Awesome Sender Syndrome”, the chances are high that you don’t. Your wondering proves it, because if you are suffering from “A.S.S” you wouldn’t even consider the possibility. You know…Cause you’re way too awesome for that.
LOL at A.S.S.
i don’t send a tacky newsletter or even sign my cards. you get a photo. you’re lucky if i put my return address on it.
I think all of us card procrastinators should just adopt the Japanese tradition of sending New Year’s cards.
I don’t send them and feel no guilt about it. And yes, Grover, you’re a bum, but for several completely different reasons.
You were right on the mark with the Utah-based “brag card”. They’re always clothed in the language of false humility (i.e. “Tyson was blessed with a 4.0 at Northwestern Law School,” especially when they’re talking about their progeny. And you can’t call them on their exaggerations because you’re not close enough friends to know many details about their lives, it’s simply a way to keep in contact with some guy you knew in college or a sister from your mission or the hundreds of other people you like but have drifted apart from.
Cynical enough for ya? I’m just a great big ray of sunshine. Anyway, for all of you fellow bloggers, 2007 was a tough year as I left my job to start a new business, my business partner was threatened with a lawsuit and eventually sold out to me, and we dealt with the challenges of my older boy’s autism. As we end the year, the business is improving, our boys are happy, and we’re thankful to be able to celebrate Christmas and enjoy relatively easy lives in a country that isn’t ravaged by AIDS or civil unrest, and wish you all the best. That about does it.
From personal experience, I don’t think the “brag card” is in any way restricted to just Utah.
Craig,
Probably so. Utah just does them better and with more zeal.
My wife sent out one of those obnoxious cards to her friends (luckily it was only one page). She asked me if I wanted to send some to mine, but I don’t like getting the brag-card, so I won’t send them. I let her do as she pleases though.
I usually invite friends or family over for some one-on-one time, I value that more than any piece of paper with some holiday greeting written on it by someone else, or the disconnected brag card.
Amen, Tyson. I wish more people would do that. It really doesn’t take much time, and you get to become reacquainted and have some fun with old friends rather than the superficial, sterile form letter.
I sent out Christmas cards one year…it was a picture of my three animals licking their stitches from a recent “neuter-fest.” The response was less than positive, I have never sent them out again.
P.S. There was a witty caption that is NOT F.T.P appropriate