Least Favorite Style of Holiday Cards

[honeychile]

Yes, I said "Holiday". Seems that sending a Christmas cards is akin to sending tracts these days. But surely there's one style that you hate. Let's hear about it/they.

[Xidelt]

Holiday letters typed in size 4 font. Your life isn't that freakin' interesting. Cards with loose glitter or confetti inside. I didn't really want to sweep again. Updates about your twenty-something kids. Shouldn't they send out their own cards at this point?

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by Xidelt

Holiday letters typed in size 4 font. Your life isn't that freakin' interesting. Cards with loose glitter or confetti inside. I didn't really want to sweep again. Updates about your twenty-something kids. Shouldn't they send out their own cards at this point?

OMG...Yes to all of the above!

[kddani]

At first I want to say the wacky holiday letters, but at the same time they provide SO much amusement.

I hate it when people send cards that are so old that they've yellowed. Way to show off your garage sale purchase! (and it's not like they're old, beautiful cards. We're talking cheap back when they were new)

[AnchorAlumna]

I hate to receive just a card with a signature....and especially an illegible signaturre.

I love Christmas newsletters. Hate writing them, but love reading them. They're usually from friends and family members that we rarely see anymore. And yes, I do want to know about what their 20-something and 30-something and even 40-something kids are up to, because we knew them when they were born but don't get cards from them.
Hardly anybody sends Christmas cards anymore, anyway. It's Dec. 5 and I've received 1. Ten years ago I would have received 10 or 15 by now.

But...it's all good. We keep up on Facebook now.

[carnation]

Ditto, AnchorAlumna!

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

I hate to receive just a card with a signature....and especially an illegible signaturre.

I love Christmas newsletters. Hate writing them, but love reading them. They're usually from friends and family members that we rarely see anymore. And yes, I do want to know about what their 20-something and 30-something and even 40-something kids are up to, because we knew them when they were born but don't get cards from them.
Hardly anybody sends Christmas cards anymore, anyway. It's Dec. 5 and I've received 1. Ten years ago I would have received 10 or 15 by now.

But...it's all good. We keep up on Facebook now.

I like the card with a quick note and a signature. The point is the pretty card. Mine get sent out tomorrow. Last year I didn't start getting mine back until less than a week before Christmas, and I got more than 30...thanks to FB.

[ASTalumna06]

When it comes to sending out weird/inappropriate Christmas cards, my stepmom takes the cake.

Last year, she sent this card:



... which contained a printed poem in it about "giving a little Jesus" this Christmas. I'm sure you could probably find the poem online if you Googled it. I'm not very religious, and I understand that she is... but is it me? Is this not weird? What I loved most is that she wrote in my name above the poem, and then signed underneath it "Love Dad and Stepmom" (using her actual name, which I won't post here). Nothing else. I'd hate to see what they did for people who aren't their children..

Originally Posted by Xidelt

Updates about your twenty-something kids. Shouldn't they send out their own cards at this point?

Worse than receiving updates about the twenty-something kids... receiving one of those picture cards with the twenty-something kids on it. I don't see or talk to my dad and stepmom much, and yet this year, they sent a card with a picture of the two of them and me and my brother together.. from my brother's basic training graduation. We're both in our mid-to-late twenties, and besides that, I'm sending out my own Christmas cards this year.

This is something that you do when your kids are 4 and 6.. Not 24 and 26...

[agzg]

I haven't sent mine yet because I only had two leftover from last year, so I had to go buy more.

I'm also waiting on my new address labels to come.

I'm also procrastinating and will probably send them out in like 2 weeks.

[Gusteau]

Add me to the list of glitter haters. I also get peeved when people send cards, especially those picture cards, with no actual written note.

My mother is a Christmas Card Nazi - I one day aspire to be on her level.

[KSUViolet06]

The ones that are from a FAMILY but the picture is of JUST THE KIDS.

Ex: Let's say that the Miltons = Mom, Dad, and their daughters Suzie and Jenny.

I opened the Milton family Christmas card and the Christmas card pic is their youngest daughter's holiday-themed baby modeling photos-- not a nice family photo.

[AGDee]

I like the holiday letters too because they help me keep up on what's going on in their lives. I do a holiday letter but it only goes to the people who I know care about what my kids are doing... like aunts and uncles, my mom's cousins, my cousins, and my best friends from grade school. I send out about 40 cards and the holiday letter goes into maybe half of those.

I also don't like when everything is pre-printed. There are a few people who aren't on Facebook and who don't write anything extra who I would really like to hear more from. The glitter/confetti ones are definitely annoying.

[Low C Sharp]

I HATE when people use the letter as an excuse to brag about their kids.

THANK YOU!! An update is not the same as a resume. "Susie is still enjoying her dance involvement" is an update. "Susie placed fourth in the statewide snowflake competition and won the trophy for Best Pirouette and first runner-up in Arabesque technique" is NOT an update, it's bragging. Also, no one cares.

Ditto the contrast between "Billy is looking forward to enrolling at Duke next fall" and "Billy had such a tough time deciding between Duke, Dartmouth, Georgetown, and a full scholarship at Vanderbilt that blah blah blah..." In brief, we're so blessed, and you're not.
________
Avandia attorney

[kddani]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

THANK YOU!! An update is not the same as a resume. "Susie is still enjoying her dance involvement" is an update. "Susie placed fourth in the statewide snowflake competition and won the trophy for Best Pirouette and first runner-up in Arabesque technique" is NOT an update, it's bragging. Also, no one cares.

Ditto the contrast between "Billy is looking forward to enrolling at Duke next fall" and "Billy had such a tough time deciding between Duke, Dartmouth, Georgetown, and a full scholarship at Vanderbilt that blah blah blah..." In brief, we're so blessed, and you're not.

That's part of the reasons I hate those letters, they're so show-offy and competitive.

Also, who cares if little Jimmy got braces or had a difficult time adjusting to middle school? And btw, I can see the braces in the picture, so really, leave the poor kid to his braces hell.

[agzg]

Have any of you read the Holiday Newsletter from David Sedaris' Holidays on Ice?

He also reads it in an episode of This American Life. It's episode #87, "A Very Special Sedaris Christmas."

It's the second story AFTER Ira's intro. Starts at roughly 14:50.