It amuses me that some of my festive tastes and habits are apparently controversial: I like tinsel (I don’t overdo it but the abhorrence that others have for the stuff baffles me); I dislike lights on trees (my horrified colleagues were rendered speechless when I mentioned this recently); ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ may well be the greatest Christmas song ever and I think nothing of mixing it up with ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’.
Each to their own, of course; and before anyone gets too
indignant about my views, I know I can be opinionated – even controversial,
perhaps – but it’s never without openness to and respect for other views and
readiness to admit I’m wrong. There’s
great value in being made to think differently; it’s why I like to share my
opinions and why I like to have them challenged. So here goes …
I believe in the power of the Christmas card and the replacement
greeting that commonly gets posted on social media these days leaves me a bit
cold.
This year (as every year), I sought out the cards that (in
the absence of something crafted by my own fair hand, which I assure you would
be ghastly) somehow best represented me and my Christmas beliefs. I hand-wrote them to friends and family, many
of whom I have only seen once or twice this year and some who I haven’t seen
for many years. In the frantic advent
rush to get everything done, I missed the Christmas post deadline and kept my
fingers crossed that the Royal Mail would once again work its miracle and
deliver my cards on time (which seems to have worked).
With all the pressures of the festive season, I wondered
once again why I do it. Is this one
tradition that I (like many others) could give up?
I count myself lucky to receive a good number of cards each
year (though fewer than once upon a time).
I enjoy comparing the designs and choosing my favourite. I sense special thought in my name, written
in someone else’s hand. I’m touched by
the sentiment in the personalised message to me.
It’s not hard to imagine the smile my own cards bring to the
faces of my friends and family-members who receive them. Indeed, every year a handful of them get in
touch to let me know how pleased they were to get their card. Of course, it’s an opportunity to send a
personalised message they may not otherwise have received – a chance to let
someone know you’ve thought about them on an individual level. There’s something about old-fashioned
handwriting for that. Time is precious
(not least in the run-up to Christmas) and sending cards has become expensive
but I believe both are a worthwhile investment.
It’s a way of sharing love that the Facebook post can not achieve.
The problem with the generic social media post is that it
lacks everything that makes the Christmas card special. Generally, it has the feel of something just
copied and pasted from year to year, or from someone else’s post. There’s no personalisation to it – none of
that oh-so-special handwriting. It may
be accompanied by a lovely family picture, but probably one that has already
been posted. I really do understand that
the cost of sending Christmas cards is prohibitive for some – especially in an
age of austerity. It’s unfortunate,
however, because the replacement message doesn’t elicit the same smile or that
warm sense of being special to someone.
Perhaps many of those who write their annual explanation for
the absence of their Christmas card would never have sent me one anyway, in
which case, whilst the charitable donations and social and environmental awareness they often also promote are admirable, if their main purpose was to
wish me a merry Christmas, maybe they should have done so without reference to my
missing Christmas card and the lengths to which they might have gone for me –
but didn’t!
Perhaps the authors of those posts never imagined I would
actually read them – and certainly not think about them so deeply! And that makes me wonder: will anyone
actually read this and what is the point of it?
Is this just my own long-winded, twenty-first century, social media way
of sending season’s greetings – my own Christmas card back-up?
If you’ve got this far, thank you for enduring my ramblings. If you sent me a card, thank you for it; you now
know how much it means to me. Whether or
not I sent you one, I really do wish you a very merry Christmas, a happy new
year and peace, prosperity and joy in 2023.
And if I missed you off my Christmas card list, DM me your
postal address then wait and see what happens!
No comments:
Post a Comment