....With Every Christmas Card I Write

I just got done with my Christmas cards this afternoon. As I mentioned in passing in yesterday's post, I'm old-school like that. It's been said that written correspondence of any sort is a dying art, but there's something about a Christmas card that an email (or even an iCard) won't ever replace.

Ever since the time that I've "come home for Christmas" (i.e. freshman year in college), one of the first things I've done upon my arrival is sat down and read my parents' big basket of cards. It's like a whole bunch of never-ending stories that only have one new chapter released every year. Some of the people I knew when I was little, but some of them (even distant relatives) are just names on the cards, but I read them anyway, because the story wouldn't be the same without them. My parents may not hear from some of these people except at Christmas, but they do maintain a relationship that way.

I wonder if, later on in life, I'll ever have a basket of cards that big. I have no actual basket; but the pile on the mantelpiece numbers ten cards at the moment (which should grow once I send mine out tomorrow, as some of the people I'm sending cards to will send me one back--recipro-cards, if you wish). Granted, some of them came from students sending me late payments, the fraternity headquarters, my insurance agent--and one is from UNT wanting me to send them money--but at least I do have a little pile.

My friends and I will keep in much better touch over the years than a lot of my parents' "card buddies" do, thanks to email and AIM and so on, but it'll be interesting to see if the younger generation embraces the written card at some point in time. (That's one thing about my card demographic: over half of them are older than 50, and nearly all of them are married.) It only took an hour out of my day (and I was watching football at the same time), so as far as I'm concerned, it's well worth the effort, because of the permanence of it all.

So here's a mini-poll: Do you send any real Christmas cards, or is it all e-cards...or just a friendly little IM on the big day itself? Use the comments, of course...