Christmas cards

[Adrian Brezhnev]

It's a couple of years since I last bought a whole lot of christmas cards, but decided I'd like to do so this year.

Is it just me or is it traditional these days to send charity christmas cards? I looked in several high street shops on Saturday and in every case all the cards they were selling appeared to be non-charity.

Obviously, I'd do better at the cathedral or charity shops, but I was just wondering if it's a new thing for WHSmith and others to sell boxes of cards where 100% of the money goes to them.

[Steve Lampkins]

I'm so not interested in Christmas cards that it's not even funny. Luckily the wife handles all of that.

I'm such a Scrooge that I wouldn't bother with wrapping presents if I could get away with it. I don't do it anyway - again, the wife does it, or then I slip tuppence to the kids from the local orphanage to do it for me.

[Cerys]

Gah, Christmas cards - the bane of my ... well, Christmas, really.  I don't tend to send any, but then some inconsiderate sod decides to send me one, and I end up feeling all guilty.  Ban 'em, I say.  Or at least produce ones which actually say]/i] 'I like you enough to send you a piece of cardboard tat, but no way am I forking out on a present, you cunt'.  Bah, humbug, etc.

[Almost Yearly]

Yeah it's a woman's business, them and their funny guilt-driven holding society together ways. My female customers get a posh card; if I sent it to the males they'd think I wanted them to bum me under the mistletoe or something. Raarrr.

When I parted company with my old job, I took a couple of hundred identical unused company christmas cards with me. Nice secular painting of a bloke up a ladder giving a big star a fresh coat of yellow paint. I had to chop the bottom inch off all of them, because the company logo and tagline was printed on the inside, and as luck would have it their new square shape perfectly fitted a big stack of square envelopes we already had for reasons unremembered. My family can each expect the same card every year now for about twenty years. It'll be like a running joke or something, I dunno.

I do everything I can to deter friends and neighbours from persisting with the whole birthdays and christmas thing. When I get handed a card I allow my face to show my displeasure. It's about eating and drinking too much and getting the odd surprising snog, for Christ's sake, not buying stamps.

[Big Jack McBastard]

I've been a full on scrooge in that respect for 3 or 4 years now, never send any at all still get loads though.....

If you want them for decoratiion fine, but the principle of sending them out to everyone you know (how lax can your messages get) is pointless. I mean if you're not sending someone cash or the information on where to get some cash they may as well go straight in the bin.

Favourite place?: Bar
Favourite sweets?: Humbugs

[hencole]

My mums started making them on her apple mac. She tends to scan textured things and uses them to make cool collage type designs of xmas tree and crackers. So short story long I'm sending xmas cards for the first time in years, cos there free.

[Captain Crunch]

If you take the tune of Dead Kennedys' Nazi Punks Fuck Off and replace the words Nazi Punks with Christmas Cards to create -

Christmas Cards
Christmas Cards
Christmas Cards
FUCK OFF!!

- then it becomes quite annoying when you get it in your head all afternoon.

I agree with the sentiment though, I bin everything instantly unless it's been hand-crafted / hilariously doctored with Tipp-Ex / spunked on.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

You miserable cunts.

I couldn't give a toss about the birth of Jesus, and Christmas is just a hijacked pagan festival anyway but at least it's some sort of excuse to be cheerful/pissed in the gloom and dank of British winter.

I put a night aside to write out christmas cards for anyone (all winter themed rather than religion-themed) and everyone I know and like is getting one. Even better- I'm delivering them in person to save on stamps and they all have individual messages of cheer, appreciation of friendship, etc and in some cases I've used the inside left for a cartoon/gag. I think cards are a nice way of saying hi to someone you haven't spoken to in a while.

So neerrrrrr, stop dragging us all down into selfish depression. I agree sending cards that are virtually blank out of guilt/obligation is moronic and dishonest. I don't see anything wrong with sending a seasonal message to someone you actually give a fuck about.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I remember it used to be nice getting Christmas cards at high school off the fit girls who never otherwise spoke to me.

I got a pack of Christmas cards the other day, half of them have the usual "Merry Christmas" message, the other ones have "Have a star filled season of joy"...they're the pc ones, it would seem.

[Garam]

When I was in school I always enjoyed sending christmas cards to friends, putting a lot of effort into drawing silly pictures and writing silly jokes on them. Even decorated the envelopes. Used to take up HOURS, it did.


I sound really whimsical and irritating there, but I'm honestly not.

[The Man With Brass Eyes]

check out the new ones in paperchase.  there are some fantastic (dare i say "contemporary") designs in there big time.  really cool.

I only send christmas cards to very close loved ones & parents - mainly women.  I think it's a bit out of touch with "my generation" to send masses of them - I've never really send stacks... it seems a bit touchy-feely, especially to blokes.  I'll drop 'em an e-mail....

[neveragain]

When I was in school I always enjoyed sending christmas cards to friends, putting a lot of effort into drawing silly pictures and writing silly jokes on them. Even decorated the envelopes. Used to take up HOURS, it did.

I sound really whimsical and irritating there, but I'm honestly not.

Hey, yet another meeting of kindred sods!
I still do it incidentally, but no bastard can read my handwriting.

[Morrisfan82]

When I stopped going to school was when I stopped sending Xmas cards.

Writing cards for school friends seemed to fit into 3 categories for me:

1) Cartoon/gag-packed in-joke-a-thons for the mates who helped you through the tedium most that year

2) Comparitively sober 'Alright mate, Happy Christmas' affairs, for people who you're vaguely matey with and would probably be slightly miffed if you excluded them from your cardfest

3) Cards for girls, whom you hoped would stare at the 'x' after your name long enough for the message 'please let me nuzzle into your bra' to appear.

[Jemble Fred]

The thing about xmas cards is that they were invented to wish a merry xmas to people you WEREN'T GOING TO SEE over the festive period, at all. They were made to be posted afar. Actually handing over a card to someone is like saying "Hi, I've got so much to tell you, so I wrote it in a letter. Here it is, now sit down and read it while I stare at you".

In summary, they're only for absent friends.

[ThickAndCreamy]

I hate receiving cards from my close family, e.g. mum and dad. They watch me open it and I have to pretend to be extremely caring, feel loved and generally look extremely grateful but all it really is, is an empty gesture. I wouldn't mind at all if my parents wrote out a short paragraph on how they feel, or literally anything, but buying the typical card with their feelings already printed onto it just feels useless and tacky. It really does mean very little to me and isn't personal in the slightest. It is, however, very difficult to be nasty or hint about actually writing in it instead of the standard "Love from" which is almost meaningless to me.

Why does a huge, expensive card symbolise more love for someone than a carefully written paragraph on how you truly feel detailing your emotions with a touch of personalisation. Basically, I hate most standard cards on all occasions but at Christmas, they just seem that much more pointless.

[Steve Lampkins]

I'm so not interested in Christmas cards that it's not even funny.

I must have become soppy in two years. This year I didn't mind. Maybe because we made cards with pictures of our cute six month old son, dressed in his santa outfit. Yes, I know.

[Omerta]

My cards have a picture of me in the office, leaning on the desk with a hand on my chin.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

The thing about xmas cards is that they were invented to wish a merry xmas to people you WEREN'T GOING TO SEE

This is what I constantly try to tell people. The same can be said for Birthday Cards. If I'm seeing somebody on the day, what use is a piece of card that simply reiterates what I'll say in person? I'd rather spend the extra cash on a better present for them.

I regularly made huge personalised Christmas funpacks - for want of a better word - for my mates. I'd decide on a theme, then really pull out all the stops - for example, one year I made a small newspaper, complete with leaflets that fell out when opened, another year I wrote comic strips.

No one else has ever bothered making anything, but it's got to the point where my friends expect it of me. What started out as something fun has become a logistical nightmare every year.