I believe it’s a dying art that may have come to end, or at least it seems that way in recent years.
Giving and receiving Christmas cards with family photos and letters are all but gone. And how I miss them. Debbie and I have received three cards this year. One from an Iowa cousin, who sends pictures of her family every year, one from a Montezuma family and the other from the financial fellow at the bank. We might have one or two more trickle in, but that is about it. I used to gets lots of Christmas cards back in the day and loved reading all the letters and looking at the family and dog and cat photos. When I was kid, my mom had a felt Santa on a hanger with sparkly glitter with a large pouch like a Santa toy bag where she placed all of our cards. It hung by the front door on a nail stuffed full of Christmas cards. I don’t even know if folks still write Christmas letters these days. I admit, it’s a lot of work to write a letter. And with stamps being nearly 75 cents, it’s much easier to take to social media or skip it all together. Debbie and I haven’t mailed out a Christmas letter since pre-Covid. We used to do some really nice ones, giving a detailed list of life happenings. One year we did a collage of photos in our letter. We have good intentions, but never seem to get around to it. Several years ago we didn’t mail our Christmas cards out to the end of January. It was the thought that counted. I love reading the letters and I also enjoyed writing my own letter and sending them out. I’d stop at Walmart and pick up some festive holiday paper and print out the letters, sign them with Debbie and put them in a card to be sent to friends and family. Actually, I bought the paper and Debbie wrote the letter and addressed the envelopes. Having Christmas cards is not the problem. I think we have a tub full of them in the basement that we picked up at after Christmas sales. The biggest issue is taking the time to put everything together. But it is worth it to stay connected. As a blog writer wrote on the Internet, the best part of sending out Christmas cards is reconnecting with friends and family. I think that is what I miss the most. It seems like when you send out a Christmas card, you get one back or vise-versa. If you haven’t sent a friend or family member a card in several years, I think it’s easy to take your name of the list. My aunt Alice, who lived in Fayetteville, Ark., always sent us a Christmas card. It was a simple card usually with a manger scene on the front and was always signed, Aunt Alice. But unfortunately, Aunt Alice, my mom’s younger sister, passed in January at the age of 83. She and my late Uncle Ronnie owned a chicken farm where they raised fryers for Tyson and other big chicken companies. They had two large chicken houses that held 16,000 chickens each. I used to drive from Tulsa about once a month to spend a couple days with Aunt Alice and Uncle Ronnie. Aunt Alice made the best homemade shrimp pizza and we’d always spend one evening playing cut throat rummy, a card game consisting of sets and runs using three decks of cards. Jokers and twos were wild. And I loved going bowling with Uncle Ronnie, who was next to impossible to beat. I miss her a lot and I miss her Christmas cards and occasional calls. Next year for sure, Debbie and I will get our ducks in a row and send out Christmas cards. I might have to resort to sending a few out this year via social media or at least posting some type of letter on my Facebook page. Experts in the Christmas card department say the prime time to send out Christmas cards is early December. That gives folks time to read your letter and return the favor. We all have a story to tell as life is a story. Life is not mundane or boring, it is exciting with opportunities to use your talents to bless others. I encourage you to write down or keep a journal of all of life’s blessings. There are so many things in life to be thankful for in the past and in the present. At the end of the year, you won’t need to rack your brains to remember what you did in January and February. Let’s get back to sending out Christmas cards and keeping in touch with our friends and family the old fashioned way. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.
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