Shmoliday Cards

To send or not to send…(cards, that is). It seems that the printed holiday card is facing extinction—to the point where I am inclined to declare them officially “out” this year—and I can’t say I am unhappy about it at all. I myself have never been a big one for sending out 100’s of cards to people I never see (mainly because I am too disorganized to have an updated address list, let’s face it). But as much as I would like to take credit for spearheading this social change, it appears there are larger forces at work that have likely contributed to the holiday card halt.

• E-cards – We can’t put them up on the mantle, but we can be clever and witty when we customize them ourselves FOR FREE. If we’re lucky it might get forwarded around to people we don’t know (online equivalent to the mantle exposure).
• The New Eco-onomy – Now that we have all taken a long hard look at what we are spending money on and how much we are wasting, it’s tough to justify the paper, the expense and frankly, the time that goes into sending these cards.
• Facebook and other social networks – It used to be that people would send an annual picture of the family accompanied by a update on what each child is doing that year. Hello, Facebook? Now we have the ability to provide minute by minute updates on what we’re doing, saying, eating, etc. Imagine the possibilities for updating friends and fam with pictures, videos and such. What are you doing now?

There will always be those who cherish the handwritten note, a beautiful picture on a lovely card or a clever holiday message to send out in the mail. To those people we say thank you for sending. To the rest of us, we say thank goodness there is one less thing on our list this season!

Here is our savvy solution to the Holiday card conundrum. It’s not like were being a scrooge about it!