Times were that sending Christmas cards was a major part of the annual festive preparations. Choosing a box or two of seasonal greeting cards, writing your Christmas card list – or maybe consulting your pre-written yearly one – and settling down for an afternoon’s card writing. Addressing the envelopes and spending a small fortune on stamps before heading out to plop the bundle into the nearest post box, smug and satisfied in the knowledge that the epic task was complete for another year. Nowadays, a question I’m hearing more and more is: should I bother sending Christmas cards this year?
Why are people asking this? If sending and receiving Christmas cards is still a big part of your seasonal celebrations, it can be a real head-scratcher. Let’s have a look at some of the reasons why the tradition of sending Christmas cards may have fallen out of favour with some in recent years.
Environmental Concerns
Environmental factors are a major factor cited by those who are considering not sending traditional paper Christmas cards any more, as well as by those who have actually decided against it full stop.
There are a few reasons why the cards themselves are problematic; the energy and resources required to produce such a global mass of paper Christmas cards, the other materials used in card production (plasticised card and glitter which can’t be recycled), and the fact that people may not recycle the cards which are able to be recycled in any case. Then there’s the additional strain on postal services delivering the cards, through what is already a busy time of year for them, and the additional fuels burned purely for card production and use – from manufacturing down to delivery.
Costs
As well as environmental concerns and cost, people may want to avoid the financial cost of sending Christmas cards. If there’s any way to save money at this traditionally expensive time of year, it’s tempting to choose that route. Although Christmas cards themselves can be purchased at low prices, factoring in the postal costs means that sending cards to your annual list of friends, relatives and work acquaintances leaves a serious dent in your festive budget.
Alternative Greetings
We live in a highly digital age where the majority of people are contactable pretty much instantly via the internet. Email, messaging apps and social media have made it easier than ever before to keep in touch with our friends and relatives. It could be argued that sending Christmas cards in the traditional way, with paper cards through the post or direct letterbox drop, is old-fashioned, outdated and unnecessary.
If alternative Christmas greetings are for you, there’s plenty to choose from. Google and other search engines are full of websites where you can create and bulk-email a digital card to your contacts. Facebook offers seasonal stickers, gifs and other image-based communications you can post to friends’ walls or send to their inbox. Or, you could always go the mass text message route.
In Defence Of Traditional Christmas Cards
I can see the argument from both sides, when it comes to sending Christmas cards. Sure, the potential and actual environmental risks shouldn’t be ignored. Then again, there are so many other novelty, non-recyclable, strictly unnecessary items and purchases at Christmastime.
Plenty of paper Christmas cards these days donate a part of their sale price to charity, providing an identifiably benevolent reason to buy and send them.
Digital seasonal greetings are undoubtedly quicker, friendlier to the planet and cheaper overall… but do they really provide the same warm feeling as a dropped-through-the-letterbox, keeping-to-a-longstanding-tradition, paper Christmas card? Surely the time, effort and cost which goes into sending a Christmas card makes up a great proportion of why the recipient values them so much. Also, many people store Christmas cards as tangible mementos. It’s hard to do that with a Facebook post or text message.
Conclusion
Obviously the final decision about whether or not to send Christmas cards this year (or any year) rests with you alone. As long as paper Christmas cards are still produced and available in shops and to purchase online, they’ll keep being bought, written out and sent. It can be a difficult decision, but a personal one – will you be sending out Christmas cards this year?
