HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: The fact that I am writing this now is a testament to the reality of what is bound to happen. Or not. I have a selection of holiday cards here, they are really really lovely, and I am so happy with them.
Aren’t they pretty? Here's one (it opens like a 3-part accordion) from the sets I ordered from the Bodleian Library:
And I’m eager to send them out. Someday.
I love getting holiday cards in the mail, the real mail, I mean, not by email, but that is another topic. It is so much fun to open them, and I look at them and save them, and it’s even okay when the glitter falls onto the carpet, never ever to come out.
I can also picture people getting cards from me, and that’s fun, knowing that they know I thought of them, and that I am personally wishing them happy new year and happy everything and I really, truly, mean it. It’s a very sweet thing to send a holiday card – – even the writing of the people’s names and addresses on the envelope makes me picture them and think of them and be grateful to them.
But reds and readers, you are reading this on December 16. And that means I am pushing the deadline.
What I need to do is make an appointment with myself, maybe two hours? And just see how many I can get done. I could do it when watching a Hallmark movie, or something, and I would be so happy to be successful with this. And it is enormous fun to take the finished cards to the post office.
Okay. I’m gonna do it. Probably. Maybe. Soon. How about you, Reds and readers?
JENN McKINLAY: We used to do ridiculous over the top cards for the holidays (the Hooligans spelling out JOY or the four of us as Superheroes) but then the Hooligans moved out and it became impossible to schedule (the idea had to be executed in Nov if we stood a chance of getting it out on time) and I took that as my opportunity to retire from the holiday card conundrum. I had a blast for two decades but I was ready to do other things. No regrets.
LUCY BURDETTE: We love the cards as a way to keep in touch with old friends once a year, so I’m loath to give them up. I have whittled the process down to a photo card with a small amount of text with highlights of the year. (Not the long letters I used to do, and still enjoy reading!) This is my favorite, from the year of the pandemic:
We'd love to show our grandkids,
But the virus kept us tethered.
Instead you've got the two of us,
Slightly worn and weathered.
In 2020 we had no news
Roberta wrote and John enthused.
A little lonely, we formed our pod,
Thus Lottie puppy got the nod.
We miss you all,
we love you dearly.
Pray our doggerel don't come out yearly.
Merry Christmas and thank goodness for 2021!
Love from Roberta, John, T-bone (who is really fine, he simply doesn't like hats), and Lottie
HALLIE EPHRON: Lucy, that is adorable! When it comes to writing Christmas cards, I have (as my mother would have put it) eyes bigger than my stomach. I’d LOVE to write personal notes to catch up with so many people whom I love and have moved away from over the years.
Every year I buy cards and make a list. But my actual output of cards is pathetic. And as Hank points out, it’s getting late. I hand deliver cards to neighbors who, especially this last year or two, have been a life line for me. I’ve been so lucky with who’s moved in next door and across the street.
Jenn, those cards you used to send sound absolutely hilariously wonderful!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Do I have a wonderful collection of cards I purchase every year right after Christmas? I do! Do I have sheets and sheets of Christmas stamps, which I loaded up on back when Forever stamps were 55 cents? I do! Will I have time to write a brief message and send them out to friends and family? God knows! But if I were using a Magic Eight Ball, All Signs Point to No.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: You are asking the person who is still putting up her Christmas decorations, the person who usually ends up wrapping the gifts on Christmas Eve? And, yes, I have quite a few boxes of beautiful, unsent, Christmas cards… I used to do so much better, though. There were the years when I made the cards by hand–including the year when I hand stamped about a hundred gold pears (made the wood block myself, too!) high on painkillers after having major dental work! Then there were the years we sent beautiful photo cards, usually of our dogs or cats or something Christmasy around the house, with detailed notes. Then those became e-cards, and then somehow they never got done. Why did we think we’d have more time when we got older???
The photo is my favorite from one of the photo card years–our cat, Jolly, seen from outside the dining room, with a weird light effect from the point-and-shoot camera. (Remember those?)
HANK: These are all so great..and I always love a shared experience. Or, I guess, a non-experience. How about you, Reddies? Are holiday mailings in the cards for you?
