Do you send/ give Chrismas cards?

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If you celebrate Christmas, do you send Christmas cards to friends and family? Or did you in the past and no longer do? I know some people who previously sent cards have now stopped this custom, some because they just consider it a waste of time and money, and some because they consider it a wasteful and non-eco-friendly use of resources. But I still send them (at least I normally do! This year is a different story). So why, you may wonder, do I continue to indulge in such a wasteful and expensive tradition? Well for me I don’t see it that way. As far as expense goes, I always buy charity cards so I know my money is going to support a good cause. And I make sure they actually come direct from whatever organisation I choose, not just the so-called ‘charity cards’ where 5% of the price goes to a selection of charities. And on top of that I generally buy most of them in January when they are 50% off! And as regards the wasteful use of resources making the cards just to throw them away – well as you would expect from me I don’t just throw them away. First of all they are all hung up to decorate our home over Christmas. Then afterwards they are cut up and the pictures used to make gift tags for next year, or for other decorative uses. Plain scraps of card and the backs of envelopes are saved to use for shopping lists and the like (for which we would use other paper if we didn’t have these). So in my opinion sending Christmas cards is no more wasteful than any other use of paper, and receiving a real card (as opposed to an e-card) is a permanent and tangible thing. Sure I could send e-cards, and sometimes do, and they can often be much fancier and more technologically-advanced than a simple piece of card – but the fact is that you have to be sitting at your computer or using your phone to see an e-card, while a simple old-fashioned card can be stuck up somewhere and every time you look up, there it is to remind you that someone thought of you, no technology required. So yes I’m going to carry on sending cards for the foreseeable future, what about you? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.