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E-cards and Generic "Christmas Letters": Are they Worth It?

Posted by MidwestMom • 12/03/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: christmas cards, correspondence, generic christmas letters, letter-writing, writing

As a firm believer in the hand-written Christmas note, and as a mom with an ever-growing list of people to whom we send family Christmas cards, I'm in a quandary.

To resort to the generic Christmas Letter or even -gasp- e-cards, or not?

If you send Christmas cards to friends and family, do you include a printed "one-size-fits-all" Christmas update? Do you appreciate receiving those? Do you find them annoying? If you swear by the "Christmas letter", tell me why. Because my christmas card list is growing faster than the federal deficit, I'm willing to be convinced. (maybe)

Or, if you're committed to hand-written communication, state your case. My tired hands could use all the support they can get.

User Comments

12/03/08

Theresa111

I believe that when people we care about think of spending a bit of their time to send us anything, that it makes us feel cared about. It is the gift, not the packaging that matters the most. When your family and friends receive your words of love and cheer, they will appreciate your message.

I guarantee it!

[reply]
1. 12/03/08
  
  MidwestMom
  
  That's a great way of looking at it.
  
  I'll be sure to share that with my sore hand.
12/03/08

jan4insight

I'll be using a combination of ingredients this year ~ some handwritten, some sent through the mail using a service like Send Out Cards, and some e-mailed.

The thing with e-cards is, keep them simple! Fancy graphics, flash, and animations take a long time to load and can crash an older computer (I've had this happen in the old days, and sometimes even now). Not everyone can load pdf files (I can't because my Adobe reader is on the fritz). You don't want to make folks on your e-mail list go to a lot of work to get their greetings!

For these reasons, a nice picture and short & sweet greeting wins the day.

[reply]
1. 12/03/08
  
  MidwestMom
  
  Good advice, Jan. We usually have done a combination, too.
  
  I make a photo collage of family pictures with minimal text and then write a hand-written note to go along with it, more or less 'newsy', depending on the recipient. It's just getting to be quite a long list!
  
  I will keep e-cards in mind, though, especially for friends I've met this year while blogging. Thanks!
12/03/08

MadameX

I have a friend from law school with whom I haven't kept in close touch who sends lovely Christmas letters every year. Through them I've learned when he married, seen pictures of his children when they were babies and as they grew, cheered the good work he does on behalf of death penalty clients, and laughed out loud at anecdotes that would never have come up in our brief, occasional contacts. Every time I receive one, I wish that everyone (myself included) sent them out so reliably.

[reply]
1. 12/03/08
  
  MidwestMom
  
  Thanks for sharing that. I was always under the impression that if I printed out a letter and sent it to everyone, it would somehow seem less personal. I'm discovering that may not be the case.
12/03/08

jan4insight

Hi, Mom - think what you do with your picture collage and hand-written note is super. And you can do the same thing to make you own e-cards. For example, Google's new update of Picasa (Picasa 3) has a lot of features that make this task super-easy.

[reply]
12/03/08

PetLvr

If you want - I have an eCard site ... PetLvr.com/ecards/ ... you can send one ecard up to 10 different emails at a time. If you want a special image uploaded, I've done that already for another - until all have picked up the card - where I could delete it afterwards, or leave it in the site and give you a permanent link in the footer.

HART

[reply]
1. 12/04/08
  
  MidwestMom
  
  Thanks! That is really helpful (and saves postage and paper!)