I remember that last year this topic came up and many felt they were receiving fewer and fewer cards.

This has happened to us. I'm Jewish and my DH is Catholic. In years past he has enjoyed sending and receiving cards. But, he has noticed that people have stopped sending, even if they are sent a card, they don't reciprocate. He actually called a few to see if everything was okay. They said they just decided not to send cards.

Honestly, I can understand sending to those who are not local, to those who you had a connection with and want to keep in touch, a distant relative etc. I don't really get sending to neighbors or relatives that you will see during the holiday season.

With certain people, we will write a little synopsis of what is new. With others, it's just a card. I'l leave it up to DH to figure out the list this year.

It certainly makes more sense to have an actual conversation.

I am thinking of sending only to distant friends. Eventually, I think I will give it up altogether.

I gave it up years ago. I would rather spend the time I would writing out cards for baking and spending time with family. I do cookie plates for the neighbors. The few relatives I have living don't do cards either and I stay connected on Facebook with distant friends. I send cards to the grand kids because little ones like getting their own mail.

I LOVE to receive cards from my friends and family and will be sad if they decide I am not worthy of a joyful greeting and being remembered. Each card I send has a note and a memory and some get a picture. The cards are not sent to keep forever, they are sent to wish folks Peace Love and Joy. I guess it's 'easier' to call, heck why not just send an email and bcc - talk about easy. SMH with a :(

I try to send a few less every year. However, to me it is important to do for people we don't talk with during the year, just to send a few "catch-up" lines. I hope I can cut some back again this year.

Yes, I love sending and receiving cards--my very favorite part of Christmas; however, I send cards all through the year for birthdays, for sympathy, for get well wishes or when I know someone needs a morale boost. It makes me smile when I open the mailbox and find a card. The sender took the time to brighten my day and I hope that my card does the same for them.

I will stop when my stash is depleted. I loved buying them on sale so I built an inventory. cant seem to throw them away so I will use til gone. Still, I think this lovely tradition is slowly dying. curiously, though, Have you noticed how large the card sections are at the stores. If everybody claims they're reducing what they send, who is buying the ever increasing selection.

Sweet Betsy....oh I am a huge card sender!...sympathy, birthday, thank you, get well, thinking of you, etc....I will never give up sending those, but if I am not in often contact with someone, I love to just have a chat at Christmas time to see how their year has been and wish them a Merry Christmas and blessings in the New Year! For some, this was the last time I heard their voice and I am so thankful we had that time together.

My girls and my nieces still send out Christmas cards, but they have children and they enclose pictures and I am always glad to see the changes in of the kids. But they say that in their generation, they get very few Christmas cards.....they keep up on friends via Facebook.

Sweet Betsy and phoggie, I am the same as both of you. I make all of my cards, love sending them for "all" occasions and love receiving cards.

Linda and Phoggie, I began making cards this year and made all of mine for Christmas. It is a fun and relaxing hobby and will be a way to pass the winter when I can't get out and garden. I am still learning what works best.

Audrey, my sentiments exactly.

I noticed last year that I was sending cards to people I had not heard from in a few years so have decided that this year, with a few exceptions, I will just send to those I receive a card from. I know it probably sounds a little tit for tat but it's frustrating to make the effort and never hear back.

I enjoy cards. I even enjoy the proverbial "Christmas letter" provided it's short, factual and not braggy. I know a lot of people dislike receiving them, but why hand write the same thing over and over? I always make sure to hand write a few words along with the letter.

I do think this is a dying tradition due to social media and I expect I will also give it up at some point. Kind of sad. I remember my father spending every Saturday and Sunday between TG and Christmas writing the same news and addressing about 200 cards.

It is a dying tradition. I looked for cards at TJ Maxx and they didn't have any, so if I send it will be ones from other years. My kids don't send and haven't for many years and don't get cards either.

I'm old school. I'll be sending out cards to old friends and relatives. Its my way of maintaining contact. Several of these recipients do not have email. If I get around to it, I will include an update page about my past year. Sadly, my list gets shorter each year due to members of my circle passing away. I have gone to 4 funerals in the past year.

I send out some cards but I always add a note or letter with them, I can't see sending a card with just a signature on it.

I send fewer cards each year, and this one won't be an exception, in fact, it's getting closer to the last year..... To our many nieces and nephews (some are now grandparents themselves) I include a photo in a portrait card of an ancestor (I'm the genealogist in the family) and a bio of the individual/s so they can have pictures of their great-grand's, great-great grand's and great-great-great grand's, or other relation.

I'm down to the "free" cards sent in packets from organizations soliciting a donation, and I make the portrait cards with my stock of hand-made paper I make using junk mail (a little hobby of mine).

To everything there comes a season....

I used to get a lot of cards but now only very few. Don't really hear from anyone anymore. Just people saying "Merry Christmas" to the masses on Facebook. I still send them to family but I think that this year will be the last year I bother.

I'm with AAA on this one. Cards mean a lot to me. I also send them through the year, for occasions (both good and sad). I still have all the cards sent to me when I lost my son--they provided more comfort than the senders could have imagined. They are definitely a hug, when a "real" hug isn't possible.

I also enjoy Christmas letters, if their tone is one of sharing, rather than bragging.

Of course I will be sending cards! I did not get to last year as my husband had his stroke and was in the hospital and we had to travel every day a good way to be there. I almost always send a letter in with my cards and many do the same for me. I just got a new box of Lean'in Tree cards, thanks to daughter Cheryl. She knows I like those. I have enough cards on hand to send for ten more years probably, ha, ha. I send around fifty cards at Christmas. All my girls send cards.

Sue

We buy cards every year and then never get around to sending them. This year we are sending cards!

Ditto Audrey. I love sending and receiving Christmas cards, and people have told me they look forward to mine every year.

They get expensive, especially if I design my own, which I did again this year, but the expense is worth it to me because I enjoy doing it so much. This year I created a collage of pictures of me and my grandchildren and will enclose 4x6 photos of it with most of my cards. In past years I've made 8.5 x 11 collages of photos of the whole family, with captions, and made color prints at Staples. And I always enclose a letter. Sometimes it talks about family news, but other times it's quite different.

Like Lily, I used to get great cards at TJ Maxx, but haven't seen any interesting ones there in a long time. I didn't think I'd be able to afford to create my own cards this year, but then Mpix.com had a 1/2-price sale in the fall. Yay!

for years I used to run to places like CVS the day after Christmas to get the leftover cards to save for the following year. Well, they now clear off the shelves and wither get to return them or maybe they save them.

I did get some at Marshall's.

My Christmas cards usually come from a place like Tractor Supply. I love the art work on them.

Sue

I will be sending cards again this year and I absolutely love receiving them! For me, it's like a visit back home with loved ones and I know that some of those people are elderly and in ill health. Those cards are cherished and I will continue to send them.

I used to send lots of cards to family and friends near and far and include a little update letter with what happened in our lives this year. Everyone said they loved getting them and we usually always got cards from them in return. After our last move I quit sending out cards except to immediate family. It was too hard for me to try to write with my hands to sign and address the cards. My husband never participated so he was no help. I get fewer cards now too. I do send out Merry Christmas emails to lots of people on my email list, not the card type just a little personal note saying Merry Christmas.

I'm still looking for some cute/pretty/unusual cards. :-(

rhizo, do you have a Tuesday Morning near you? They had some really cute cards. Barnes and Nobel does too.

I have a Jacquie Lawson account, and use it for all my cards, including Christmas. They are very well done, and fun to watch as they come together.

I used to send lots of cards out all the time and contact with some at this time of year only and now its no one sends cards out and I miss that alot, loved it at this time year and receiving cards daily in mailbox, now nothing.

And also this special place that had beautiful good cards from England and prices fantastically low priced and would buy up lots on sale each year and lost that store twice, it was bought and then that was sold. We lost good place for cards.

Also postage here is too expensive for me to do anything like that and its hard but why send out when they won't send back to you and so I gave up then.

Enjoy your cards you all that receive them and give them out.

kathy

For those that miss receiving cards, why didn't you sign up for the card exchange?

I still enjoy sending cards. A friend taught me years ago how to print designs on the outside of the plain envelopes and people always comment on how they look forward to receiving them.

I'm like you joaniepoanie in that if I haven't heard from someone in three years, I take them off the list. Between George and I we have many people we only hear from at this time of year. I don't feel it's a tit for tat thing at all.

I try and enclose a brief note in each card, typewritten. My handwriting is so bad and I know how frustrating it can be trying to read it. I keep them simple and newsy.

Recently I was Cleaning cupboards...including a box of 'saved cards' and I spent most of a day reliving so many past wonderful times. Birthday, Christmas and 'just keeping in contact with' letters and cards. Priceless! It reminded me of how so many people thought so well of me during all those years....and also how many of them have been long neglected by me. I wish every 80+ year old person was able to be reminded, as I have been, of the love that has been shared for so long. Bottle it! Greatest Present ever! And, yes, I am intending to send cards (including shaky notes) to those I love and care about....even if it is only a once in a year event.

To me, every card I send out is like sending that person a hug in an envelope and I feel the same way with the cards I receive.

Yes, less and less people are sending out cards these days.

However, this year (due to the broken leg), cards I receive from others will be the only seasonal decor that I will be putting up. I love seeing them up on my wall unit, and I regret they are coming less and less frequently. I love the sense of thought they entail.

I will be mailing out mine in a day or three. I have a stash of unused ones from previous years.

I wasn't sure I would feel up to doing cards this year, but I have done a few (18). Not as many as I have done in the past. with the cost of postage, and the cards it just gets too expensive. I do try to send to people I don't hear from throughout the year and my relatives. I have noticed that the younger relatives rarely send cards anymore. I enjoy reading about the nieces and nephews are doing especially with their children. I always display my cards when I receive them. I have a nice wire display that looks like a tree where I hang the cards.

Linda, you said it just right--a beautiful sentiment and just the way I feel about it.

Thanks Betsy. I make and send cards all year long, not just at Christmas. If receiving a card from me brightens a person's day then my mission was accomplished. I've made and sent cards to complete strangers when a card was requested by someone, and through just doing that, I've made new friends. We all get bills, but what a day brightener a card is, knowing someone was thinking about you and cared enough to take the time to send a card.

I send out about 50 cards each year but they aren't personalized It hurts my hand to write very much so I use computer printed address labels and this year I printed my signature onto clear labels to stick inside the cards.