Christmas Cards - the Mailing of Small Gifts of Good Cheer

It is Sir Henry Cole of England who, in 1843, is credited with sending the very first Christmas card. The inscription simply said, "merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you." Since those humble beginnings, according to the US Census, 1.9 billion Christmas cards are mailed each year. (http://www.census.gov) I contribute about eighty cards to that grand total.

If you ask me, sending a Christmas card is the best small gift that you can give at this time of year. Especially if you make the time to get personal about it and write a short note inside. I enjoy those hand-written messages that tell of the additions to families and the loss of still others. The preprinted cards let me know that the sender is too busy to take time to write me a brief note. Sure, I realize that the holidays are busy but let's be serious - you can't grab a pen and jot a few lines?

There are those friends and relatives who vie for the first-delivered place. They must mail their cards out before Thanksgiving because every year on Black Friday, I get two cards: one from my cousin, Sharon, and the other from my best friend, Ann. They both work full-time and it amazes me that they are so organized and, YES, they both take the time to address the envelopes and write a short note inside. I am in awe of their organization.

The forty-four cent postage is still a bargain by any means. Although I had a conversation with another friend recently that went something like this:

"I'm not sending Christmas cards this year. It's too expensive. Stamps are forty-four cents now and the cards? Whew, the cards are at least ten dollars a box."

The conversation quickly changed gears and she began to tell me how she plunked down six hundred dollars for a Plasma T.V. and was buying her son a new car stereo for about four hundred dollars. Seems to pale in comparison to that forty-four cent postage stamp, doesn't it?

Just a simple card, a hand-written greeting to let those friends and relatives know that you care to send the very best of yourself through the mail. We used to hang those cards around the mantel as a showcase of the love that arrived via the postman. I have memories of reading the cards - hearing about my cousins who lived far away, friends who finally tied the knot and those cards that no longer arrive letting me know that some have left our midst. My list has shrunk through the years as family and friends have stepped from this life into the everlasting.

Even my Jewish friends send us Christmas cards. I think they know it means a lot to me to see the mailman stop and stuff my mailbox. I'm probably one of the last ones on the block who knows the mailman by name. I give him a Christmas card, too.

The years may come and go and traditions may fade, but I'm happy that 1.9 billion cards are mailed each year. It reminds me that a lot of folks still think that sending a Christmas greeting through the mail is a truly important small gift and someone is thinking about someone when they stuff that envelope.

This afternoon when I sit down to write out my cards and address all of the envelopes. I will write to each and everyone a personal note. A note of thanks, of good cheer, a blessing from our house to theirs this Christmas and as I seal each envelope I will add a silent prayer that the card arrives to a happy, healthy home that remembers the spirit of Christmas. Most of all, they feel the love I have mailed to them with that forty-four cent stamp on it.

http://www.allthingschristmas.com

http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/xmascard.asp