My blogging friends are beginning to put their holiday posts up, soooo... there's this, from December of 2005:
Christmas Cards
Do you send out stacks of Christmas cards? If you do, you're definitely in the mainstream of American life. I was going to put up a post about a dying tradition, but my premise was torpedoed after about five minutes of googling. Consider:
In 1987, the average American household received 29 pieces of Christmas mail, said U.S. Postal Service spokesman Gerry McKiernan. By 1994, the number dropped to 23. In 2002 it bounced back to 27, but a year later fell to fewer than 20 cards per household. In 2004 it rose to 21.6 cards. And this year? It is expected to remain stable at about 21.5 cards, he said. (WaPo)My parents had a huge Christmas card list, and they received like numbers in return. Our house was literally festooned with cards...on the mantle (if the current house had one) and on every table or any other reasonably clear flat surface. Mom dreaded writing the things because it literally took her hours, nay, days, to work through the list. But she did it faithfully...year in, year out... including a mimeographed "family year-end summary" for those folks she only communicated with at Christmas. I used to think the only reason one sent cards at Christmas was to catch up with those folks you never talked to but were still on "the list." That may be true for a lot of people.
I haven't sent a card in years. I quit doing that sometime back in the '90s, probably around the time of my divorce. Nor do I receive cards, with the exception of the one from my broker, who is faithful to the tradition. (2012 update: I DO receive one or two cards a year these days, most notably from Blog-Bud Lou... who sends out her small paintings as cards to select people.) I sorta miss them. Like my parents, I arranged the cards on the mantle and around the Christmas tree. Definitely made the home very Christmasy.
Hallmark has an interesting history of Christmas cards on their web site. Good period illustrations, by decade, going back to the 20s. (2012: That's a dead link, but the WSJ has something similar.)
And then there's this. Thanks, Microsoft. We really need more instruction in political correctness. God save us, one and all. (2012: Yet another dead link. I have NO ideer what that was all about.)
You're not going to get a card from me, but I can still say...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
You'd prolly get something like this from me, if I were to send out Christmas cards:
That's MY kinda card.
So Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus are in the tent?
ReplyDeleteWe send out about 50-60 cards every year. About half of 'em are just to keep in touch with folks we don't see very often, but don't want to lose touch with. . .
So Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus are in the tent?
DeleteIn spirit...
Things are a little upside down around here. Maybe there'll be cards and maybe not.
ReplyDeleteI like what Craig asks about Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.
I can understand the "maybe," Skip. All y'all have a lot on your plate right now.
DeleteI like your kind of card. In the background one should have "I'll Be Home for Christmas" playing.
ReplyDeleteI remember a poster I saw some years back, WWII era. Showed your typical American rural-type home, decorated for the holidays, had a Blue Star Mother's flag in the window. Caption had some of the lyrics for "I'll Be Home for Christmas", in the sky above this lovely holiday setting was a kind of ghostly B-17, symbolizing the kids fighting for their country in the ETO and NOT being home.
Man, I'm getting a little choked up just typing this. But I think you get my drift.
I DO get your drift, Sarge. My father flew with The Mighty Eighth, as you know. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" was one of my parents' favorite Christmas tunes... for the memories that were in it. I can remember Christmas parties in the way, wayback when I was a young child o' eight or nine when my father, and his buddies... all of whom fought in The Big One... would sing that song, and the wives would join in. Talk about poignant...
DeleteSo... yeah.
We used to send out lots of cards, but stopped sometime in the late '80s. We still get a few, mostly commercial ones. I sorta miss them too. And I really like that B-17 card you've put up before. To me, one thing it says is that the Prince of Peace needs a little back up from time to time. :-)
ReplyDeleteAgreed on your last, Dan.
DeleteI wonder how many younger folks who hear "I'll Be Home For Christmas" understand what sort of person is supposed to be singing it? The context was taken for granted in earlier times, but I wonder.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, we usually send out about 45 or 50, get similar in return. Many are just a way of keeping the lines of communication open with good old friends who are far away. In any case, we look forward to opening every single one of them and then arranging them artfully on our door as space permits.
As to your first... I'm thinkin' "not many." It's only us geezers that remember any longer. And some young'uns. ;-)
DeleteI'm glad you uphold the traditions, Jim.
Same here. Without knowledge of the background underlying those songs they lose most of their emotional impact. When we Vietnam-era fossiles depart--the children of the WWII generation--almost no one wuill be left who knows...Christmas can be a bitter sweet time, especially so for the LaFon family..gonna be a helluva Holiday period for them..especially the way lex was lost. Losses in combat, as bad as they are, are to a certain extent expected--one steels one's self aforehand for the possibility--not that it makes the immediate shock of the loss any less painful--and at least one can gain partial consolation in the knowledge that it was for a greater cause. But the very unexpectedness of such a loss in a peace-time training accident seems more unsettling...which just goes to show how truly dangerous even training for wartime conditions can be when one is operating on the margins of the performance envelope which most combat tng does.
Delete(I read somewhere that if a Navy fighter squadron flew carrier ops together straight thru for a 20 year career with no shore/staff duty--which, of course, never happens--the accident rate alone would see 2/3rds dead at the end of the 20 yr period. "Fly the friendly skies" is a nice sounding corporate slogan, however..)
Hate to sound maudlin, gang, I mean, *I* know I'm on the final glide-path at this stage of my life--and I'm ok with that--never expected to make it past 50 with my lifestyle--but ever since the election I fear this nation is also headed down the glide-slope--and that's nothing to lift a "cup of Christmas cheer" to...I (and all my fellow comrads-in-arms) risked--and many sacrificed--our lives for THIS? For Obamaworld? For everything to have been in vain? As has been said, our nation flunked its IQ test this last election. Not a whole helluva lot to be "Merry" about--except for small personal familial triumphs--which is fine in the short-run, but..
LOL, sportsfans, "Cue the suicide watch, Virgil's at it again.."
Speaking of the Lefon family... have you been to The Lexicans lately?
DeleteI'm "on final" too, Virgil. I remain optimistic about our prospects, though. I may be irrational in my dotage, but I see lots of good signs out here in flyover country.
I like getting cards that are unique in some way or personalized. I really hate getting a cheesy card with someone's name stamped inside - can't even sign their names! Toby's aunt (a retired doctor) sent out cards with lots of Christmas stickers inside. When I peeled them off, it turns out that they were sample cards with "your name here" on the inside. Wow, she didn't even buy the cards! Cheap! Why bother?
ReplyDeleteI like my blog buddy, Jo's Christmas ritual. They call people. Better yet, I think it would be fun to get drunk and call people - drinkin' and dialin'
Thanks for the link. I'll be sure and send you a card or call you when I've had too much to drink.
I can't believe Toby's aunt! That's over the top...
DeleteYou can call any time, Lou. But if ya call late you MIGHT find me in the same state of mind.
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" always chokes me up. My parents made sure, when we were little kids, that we knew where that song came from and why. And "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" always gets me as well.
ReplyDeleteI do send out Christmas Cards. The list has been at around 40-45 for years now; that doesn't count the ones I send to my friends at work. That adds another 10-15 to the list. But they get different cards and they are mailed thru the internal mail system. I've noticed the number of cards we get has gone down in recent years but that's fine; I'll still send mine out anyway.
I'd prolly still be sending cards if I were still married. Or mebbe not. TSMP ain't the same woman now as the one I married.
Delete