GETTING CARDED

My Ohio friend (and former neighbor) Debbie McCray enjoys creating greeting cards year-round. This is her 2017 Christmas card, handmade, and hand-colored.

Well, I was wrong.

I thought most of my loved ones were starting to think that Christmas cards were remnants of the past; that social media platforms and cell phone texts had taken the place of trips to the store to select cards, then to the post office to choose theme stamps  and taking the time to look up addresses and mail off cards.

I thought this last year. So I quietly decided that instead of spending a month of Sundays getting cards ready, I vowed to send cards only to those who sent them to us first. For a while there, things were going as expected. There were a few die-hards, greetings from my kindergarten teacher Miss Kalter in Ohio and Brian's Aunt Janis in Louisiana. Probably the other regulars, though, had similar thoughts to mine. So, I continued to hold out. I put together cards for my Bible study friends and a card for a friend in Ohio whose hobby is card-making. 

If mail call continued as expected, I'd finish my few cards and be done.

But as Christmas neared, the mailbox filled up daily. There were so many cards, some with long, detailed letters about accomplishments of everyone in the family, some written on beautiful holiday paper. The cards snowballed like a January snowstorm and with Christmas fast approaching on a Sunday, and prep needing done for the big day, I found myself out of time.

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Another friend, Marilyn Sullivan, handstiches Christmas cards for our church life group members, The Midlife Moms. She outdid herself again this year.

I briefly considered sending cards late, once everything settled down. But to me, a late Christmas card is like carving a pumpkin on Nov. 1 or getting a Christmas tree on Dec. 26. So I did what to some of you will find rude: I let it go.

This year I thought perhaps our friends and loved ones whose cards were not reciprocated last year would scratch us from their address books. But no! The cards are coming again. They come from a range of age groups from those in their early 30s all the way to those in their 80s. 
It appears that rumors of the Christmas card's demise have been greatly exaggerated. I went out and bought a fresh box the other day. There's enough in there that will allow me to finish carding everyone who cards us first.

Perhaps next year I'll return to my old ways. In the old days, picking out the cards was a ritual. Then I I tucked them with Christmas stamps and the address book  into a tote bag and worked on the addressing whenever I had a little time. Chilly Sunday afternoons and weeknight evenings found me working on cards with updates and greetings tailored to each family. My goal was to have them all mail-ready by Black Friday.

I have reached the conclusion that for the most part, my people are card-carrying people.
There's something sweet about that.

This is a reprint from Donna Cronk's column in the Christmas Eve 2017 New Castle Courier-Times. where she is Neighbors and Her magazine editor.

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Christmas cards ready to address, along with a holiday container holding cards received.