Quillan Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 I don't like them. I think there is a much more personal touch to selecting and sending a paper card than an email one. We seem to get more and more each year. Anyone feel the same? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex H Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 [quote user="Quillan"] Anyone feel the same?[/quote]Yes. But, at upwards of 3€ to buy and send one card from France, what do you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Ice-ni Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Not I. But I have never understood the need to buy more than 1 design of card each year.True friends know that I think of them at all times and do not need a tacky seasonal reminder - the rest don't matter.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 46p for UK inland postage (no, I don't use 2nd class) and £1.10 for the US - I had a nasty PO bill this year.......More people may get Jacquie Lawson cards next year......they are beautifully done even if you can't hang them up ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 ditto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Hate. But better than nothing. The worst thing are those people who cheerfully tell me they've given up sending cards at all and thus I have to speculate each year whether they're dead yet or not! I have plenty of good friends whom I don't talk to regularly but I do like to know that they're well and cards are great. It's once a year, so what's a couple of hundred quid or so once a year for cards and stamps?Everybody gets Injured Jockeys Fund or Motorsport Safety Fund cards from me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 [quote user="cooperlola"]Hate. But better than nothing. The worst thing are those people who cheerfully tell me they've given up sending cards at all and thus I have to speculate each year whether they're dead yet or not! I have plenty of good friends whom I don't talk to regularly but I do like to know that they're well and cards are great. It's once a year, so what's a couple of hundred quid or so once a year for cards and stamps?Everybody gets Injured Jockeys Fund or Motorsport Safety Fund cards from me. [/quote]Exactly.We also include a brief note (Mrs Q types it up) of what we have been up to over the last year and we normally get one by return. Once you get to a 'certain age' it's nice to know people are still with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 [quote user="cooperlola"]Hate. But better than nothing. The worst thing are those people who cheerfully tell me they've given up sending cards at all and thus I have to speculate each year whether they're dead yet or not! I have plenty of good friends whom I don't talk to regularly but I do like to know that they're well and cards are great. It's once a year, so what's a couple of hundred quid or so once a year for cards and stamps?Everybody gets Injured Jockeys Fund or Motorsport Safety Fund cards from me. [/quote]We haven't sent Christmas cards for about 20 years but we do pick the 'phone up to everyone around this time and spend our money on having a really good chinwag with those that we don't see on a regular basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 If the friends who can't be bothered with cards did that I'd be more than happy, Benjamin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 [quote user="Russethouse"]46p for UK inland postage (no, I don't use 2nd class) and £1.10 for the US - I had a nasty PO bill this year.......More people may get Jacquie Lawson cards next year......they are beautifully done even if you can't hang them up ![/quote]Ditto! I send quite a number of real cards, some with a longer message as Quillan mentions, about the ups and downs of the year - luckily more ups this year than for quite a while! But I also send quite a few Jacqui Lawson cards, mostly to virtual friends, some to people in our French group etc. Beautifully done, as Russethouse says. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex H Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 [quote user="cooperlola"]so what's a couple of hundred quid or so once a year for cards and stamps?[/quote]Clearly, you and I live on different planets :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 [quote user="Alex H"][quote user="cooperlola"]so what's a couple of hundred quid or so once a year for cards and stamps?[/quote]Clearly, you and I live on different planets :-)[/quote]By my poor arithmetic, that's something like 65p a day to keep friendship alive (I sent 130 cards this year) and tell people I still value them. Cheap at ten tiimes the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSKS Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 If the only contact is the annual Xmas card, are they really friends? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 I don't think Christmas cards is a French thing.I get cartes de voeux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 [quote user="JK"]If the only contact is the annual Xmas card, are they really friends?[/quote]Put it this way, as an example, a friend I have only communicated with via Chrismas card for about 30 years, put me up for a week not long ago and it was as though we'd never had any sort of break, we got on just as we did at school. Without the cards we might have lost touch and that would have been sad. There are many other examples like that and now that I'm older and also tied to the house more than I used to be, I like to know that they're there. Yes, they are all genuine lifelong friends to me.(Whether they feel the same way about me of course[Www], I can't say, but the fact that I get cards back - if I don't hear for two years in a row they get crossed off the list - seems to suggest that they do.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 I have a couple of lifetime friends, a few in the UK and one in Norway. We only get together at reunions (UK ones) and every couple of years for the Norwegian friend so Christmas cards are an ideal medium just to swap updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pommier Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 I was impressed to see in SuperU's promo leaflet today that they're selling charity Christmas cards at €2,50 for a pack of 10. Far too late for me though as I posted the cards over a week ago, but definate progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 We also include a brief note (Mrs Q types it up) of what we have been up to over the last year I hope you mean you send everyone a different one - if there is one thing guarenteed to make me lose festive cheer its those notes ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frecossais Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 I don't hate them, I'm trying to find some to send to my Book group, my two French groups and the French people I'm in internet touch with.I send real cards to family and friends, but I often wonder why I'm writing them to friends who live close by, but whom I haven't seen all year because neither of us has bothered to get in touch. However cards are ritually exchanged and at least there is still contact there. I suppose I believe that you have to work to keep friendships alive in these increasingly busy lives we lead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 [quote user="Russethouse"] We also include a brief note (Mrs Q types it up) of what we have been up to over the last year I hope you mean you send everyone a different one - if there is one thing guarenteed to make me lose festive cheer its those notes ![/quote]Well said RH, I couldn't agree more [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekJ Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 I don't like them. If not a physical card I'd rather an email from a friend than a ecard. There's nothing personal at all about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 The problem with sending real Xmas cards to old friends is that you're obliged to include a word or three about how we are both well, that the cat is still alive, and so on. Problem is, after years of typing everything on a computer, my handwriting is now virtually illegible. Mrs Sunday likes to send everyone a "proper" Xmas card, but at the moment, she's got a problem with the nerves in her hand so her handwriting is even worse than mine. God knows how people will understand our gobbledegook.....[:-))] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 This year, having the same problem as Mrs SD (I can type but not write) and having many friends who go back a long, long way, but who you just cannot keep in weekly / monthly contact even by email - if they have it -sending Christmas greetings has always been my way to keep in touch. This year, most have had a typewritten letter (rather than a card) as after 30 mins of addressing cards and signing them my thumb gave up!) or (very soon - as the cards only went today - the latest I have ever been) they will have a very detailed letter with pics of our year, by email. And quite a year it has been! These are sent to people who I want to keep in contact with, and who I hope to see soon, or at some future date, or with whom I have lots of past memories - but who I could not keep up with on a regular basis.I have also resorted to Jacquie Lawson - the best of the several email cards - I think, better that, than nothing, and finding a card which says something you want to say, which is not too twee or naff here in France is impossible. Most people are happy that you have remembered their birthday or anniversary - and in the end, is that not what is important, rather than the means of relaying it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Sorry but you can not put an E card on the mantle place .You can not sit and read the few lines that someone has sent having taken the time and the trouble to show that they are thinking of you at this time of the year. You can not pass an E card to other family members . And lets face it ... would they want to wait while you seek out the email and open the thing .I look at them as convenient cop out .. Benjamin has the right idea ... Give those you are thinking about some of your time if cards and postage are a cost that has to be considered by calling them .I have had cards from people out of the UK this year with UK stamps on I suspect an address book list has been sent to a UK contact who has bought and posted on their behalf ...I can understand and accept that if lots have to bought and posted at great expense from outside the UK..It still shows we are being thought of . Email Xmas cards..... No not for me ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 It is years since I have put cards up. However, I love the news we get with cards and we do see people from time to time and the number of years since we have seen them doesn't matter. I was actually quite, well, upset, maybe not the right word, but put out a better word, when I heard some horrible comments about people getting 'round robin' letters with their cards. I loved the news when we lived in France. Initially everyone would get a handwritten letter, or a note on the card, always something. Later it was a typed letter, but each individually edited or a note in the card. We get ecards, but there is no news with them, so I don't like them. And saying that I have put few messages on cards this year, just our new address and phone number and have seen or called just about everyone. And it feels strange getting xmas cards from people I see regularly, but they think it strange not to give them. And I suppose they put them up, where as I don't. I love a mid winter fete. I don't care what it is about, I just think that there should be a couple to brighten up the dark nights. And even alone I would celebrate with some gourmandise or other,that I usually cannot justify buying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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