The Last People in America and Maybe the World

This weekend I will write my holiday cards. I love sending holiday cards.

I know. Hardly anybody does that anymore. We may to be last people in America and maybe the world to embrace the tradition wholeheartedly. That makes me sad.

It’s the cost of postage, people say. It’s cost of cards, people say. It all adds up, people say. And that’s true. But, when I see the lengths (and expense!) people go to at this time of year, the cost of holiday cards seems a mere pittance. My far-away family and friends are worth the cost and time it takes to get a card in the mail. My family has trimmed costs in other areas — most notably gift giving — in favor of keeping alive the tradition of sending greetings to friends and relatives we won’t be able to see during the holidays.

To be sure, we adjust our address list a bit each year. After years of never receiving a return greeting of any kind, we are apt to cross a name off our list. If people aren’t interested, well, they aren’t interested. And we certainly do not want to be intrusive with our annual missives. We also add people to our list for various reasons. Our holiday address list is a living thing.

Of course I am speaking of personal holiday cards. Cards that you send to real people you care about. And, with any luck, cards you receive from real people in return. Not the cards that ask for money. And not the cards from your insurance agent or some real estate broker who hopes to list your home someday. I mean cards exchanged between honest-to-goodness people for the sole purpose of exchanging greetings of warmth and care.

When I was young, my parents were devoted to their holiday cards. They ordered cards from various nature organizations — usually cards featuring Canada geese, a favorite bird of my father’s. But, if images of Canada geese were unavailable, then ducks or other birds were happy substitutes. I remember my parents sitting together at the table, each with their own address book, writing out their cards. And I remember the piles of cards that arrived in our mailbox during December.

For much of my adult life, my attention to holiday cards was a bit haphazard. Oh, I enjoyed receiving cards for sure. But I was a bit spasmodic about sending them out. That all changed in 2007, when we moved far enough away from friends and family to disrupt all our holiday traditions. I was a parish minister at the time and had to work during the holidays, most notably on Christmas Eve. Traveling over Christmas when I was leveled by exhaustion was out of the question. I missed my loved ones so much. One way to draw my loved ones close was to send them greetings. With each card I sent, I held the recipients in my heart. My spouse and I have continued the tradition ever since.

In our household, sending holiday cards is a multi-step process. When holiday cards go on sale in January, we buy them at half-price. By the time we pull them out of storage the following December, we usually have forgotten what cards we bought the previous January, and we feel delighted all over again. Win-win!

After Thanksgiving, we write a brief holiday letter using software that allows us to add photos from special events that happened during the year. We keep our letter to one page, printed on two sides, with lots of photos. (We don’t want people to have to labor over our missive!) With each card I write, I think about the far-away people who will receive it and how their presence in my life warms my heart. I post my cards with love and care for the people who will receive them. For me, those moments are a precious part of the holidays.

Here’s what puts the holiday card tradition over the top for me: I save all the cards we receive in the days leading up until Christmas. On Christmas morning, we open the cards while we are gathered around the tree. That brings our loved ones right into the living room with us. For me, that is a highlight of the day.

This year of all years, when people are feeling apprehensive about what lies ahead come January, and when we are being urged to strengthen ties with one another and to build community in all ways possible, well, holiday cards seem like a small investment I can continue to make to hold my beloved far-flung people close to me. I know my spouse and I may be just about the last people in the world to feel that way. But I remain convinced that, as seemingly insignificant as a personal holiday card may seem, it is actually one very good thing indeed.

Love,

Sylvia