Sunday 6 December 2009

Christmas cards

A non-food blog, for once.

Tonight marked the first time in my life when I've actually sent Christmas cards, properly, to all my scattered people across the planet. It's something I don't normally bother with; mainly as not many people do it, and partially because I've always thought it was a bit of a waste of resources. This year is different, somehow. Earlier this week I got to thinking about friends of mine, close and distant, and the fact that I'm now in touch with wider members of my family that I haven't been in touch with before. Christmas cards, a small, personal token of regard, are a little way of saying 'I've thought of you in the last few weeks, I'm glad we're in touch and I'd like to keep it that way'. Particularly with the growing number of friends of mine who are now living overseas.

Part of this is also how exciting it is to receive proper post - rather than the usual round of bills, payslips and circulars. I put myself in the shoes of a friend in Japan who would not be expecting a card - and included a long personal note inside about how my year has gone, and some questions about his, in his card.

This is not a paean to the round robin. Actually, I can't imagine anything I'd rather less receive than an update on so and so's sister who's had a boob job, and whose child now has a swanky job at a merchant bank. It's not that I wouldn't like to hear those things - just that I'd rather not hear them in a letter written as blandly as possible so as not to upset any elderly relations reading it, photocopied on the office copier and shoved into an envelope with two handwritten words on the card itself (name of sender and recipient). Let's either do christmas cards properly, or not at all.

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