At this time of year I always get hugely excited by the prospect of receiving Christmas cards in the post, largely because the internet has taken away a lot of the more personal form of communication and many people simply don't go to the trouble of writing a simple letter or card anymore. Christmas, it seems for now, is different and we still get quite a number of Christmas cards. The excitement of receiving a batch each day in the post is a lovely distraction from the usual plethora of junk mail/bills. And, likewise, I really enjoy writing Christmas cards. Sometimes, it does seem a bit of a chore, but I try to imagine how it would be if every person feeling this way decided to stop sending them altogether and they slowly stopped landing on the doormat (in our case, a wooden box outside). So, I keep writing them every year and it gets me well and truly in the Christmas spirit.
However, as I was writing a batch yesterday, it occurred to me that I have developed a rather simple 'class' system when it comes to writing a card for a person. I don't just buy one huge batch of the same cards and send them to every person on the list. Rather, I buy cards depending on how well I know the person, their age, their personality etc. If they are very close family members, then they often receive a card that has been sold as an individual (you know, the ones that say 'Happy Christmas, Mum'). I seem to be incapable of writing or buying cards any other way, and, although it can be fun to select each card based on the person receiving it, it does seem to add an element of stress to the act of giving, and at times, can take away from the 'joy of giving'.
