STEPHIE'S BEADS AND BAUBLES

I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about Christmas cards. The lack there of. It seems to be a tradition that is very quickly disappearing.

What could be the cause of this ? I think many things factor in to why I and many others both are not receiving or sending many cards.

Social media. We tend to share everything on our Facebook and blogs now, twitter, instagram, pinterest are where we spend our free time. We can now keep up with the friends online that we used to only hear from once a year in their card and that is is not a bad thing. I love keeping up with friends and family that I used to not hear much from. Letters are time-consuming and people are less and less using snail mail to communicate which is a bit sad too. There is still nothing like getting a card, letter or package from a loved one , especially unexpected !!! No email or social media can compete with that thrill !! So, it is bittersweet, in many ways. Wonderful we now can follow friends and family, see what they are up to, view pictures and see what they enjoy on pinterest, but those cards were pretty special and something I always looked for ward to !!

I think as the older generations pass on, we will see cards really decline more. It is a tradition that younger people do not really know anything about. There is no passing it down as us baby boomers are busy and not taking the time anymore to send out cards so we have not passed that tradition on to our kids. I am on the younger end of the baby boomer generation and  I know that few people I know are sending out more than a few cards and most of those are gift cards, with a check or store gift card inside.  We are not just losing our beloved parents and grandparents as they leave us, we are losing a lot of elegant and lovely traditions, like Christmas cards.

Another reason is time. People are very busy today. Both parents work, kids have lots of after school activities and even those without kids, or grown kids, life is just busy. Who has time to sit down anymore and write out a few dozen cards and address them.  People have often chosen to have them personalized so they do not have to sign them, something I am not really fond of, but you still have to at least write the address of the person you are sending them too, even if you have a return address stamp or label.

Is there really less time in our lives, or do we just perceive we have less time ? We have so many gadgets and appliances to make our lives easier, quicker meals, easier clean up, laundry aids and helps and people have a lot more clothes and go longer between washes, so why less time ? I think we fill our time up , sort of like how a gold-fish will grow to fit his bowl, our activities and interests and busyness will fill our time full too. How many times have I sat here reading blogs, or Facebook or answering emails and time has flown by and before I know it hours have gone by ? Too many probably. Did I have less time, no. I used time I could have used for other things and played.  Candy Crush does not help either, although I never pay to play, lol !! That means I am stuck for months, but so be it. I have gotten to where I use the games on Facebook to keep my hands busy while I am on the phone, I cannot just sit on the phone and talk, but sometimes it is hard to do much housework because you are on the phone and noise is an issue, washing dishes, vacuuming and sweeping are all difficult when on the phone, or is that an excuse I use ? Hmm, need to think about that !!!

Any other reasons for Christmas cards to be disappearing off our radar, money. It is not cheap to buy nice cards and then stamps are going up a lot and people , myself included often worry if one stamp is enough for those big fancy cards, but you do not want to put two  if not needed , but  who wants to take them to the post office to find out, so that can be a factor too.

People moving is another problem. People move a lot more than they used to and most of the time  mail  gets forwarded, but sometimes people are afraid to mail to you without your new address so they just do not send one because they forget to get your new address and then the next year the list gets shorter, and so on.

I think sometimes it just boils down to either, oops, I forgot or just, I do not want to bother with it !! I have bought cards more than once and never got them filled out, or even filled out and never got the stamps, so it does happen a lot !!

What is my excuse this year, a combo of all the above. I am getting used to doing everything on Facebook and with texts and simply forgot, and then with us all being sick, just never got out to buy any and now, less than a week away, forget it now !!

So, I think we are just going to have to get used to a world with increasingly less Christmas cards. I mentioned to my friend in the not so distant future, we will be seeing a  Facebook  “remember this ” with a picture of a Christmas card !! That will be sad !!!

So, I am wishing people a Merry Christmas this year from this blog and my Facebook account !! This is not my official Merry Christmas but it is my first !! I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, enjoy this card I got from a free Christmas image download site !! !