My Holiday Complaint
December 16, 2009 2 Comments
Like many families we get a fair number of Christmas cards over the holidays. We like them because they let us know we are thought of and they also make us a little guilty because we never send any out ourselves. Also like many families we display all our cards in a public place in our house, further proving to guests that yes, we are cool and have friends that care enough to send us a card. Our chosen display area is the mantle above our fireplace. It always looks great by Christmas day when it is filled with a colorful assortment of season’s greetings.
The problem that has arisen this year is the increasing popularity of the do-it-yourself photo cards. You know what I’m talking about. You go to Shutterfly or Snapfish, upload some adorable pictures of your kiddies in their best holiday apparel or a candid shot of them picking their nose under the mistletoe, then you ‘create’ a card using their provided template and send it out to your friends and families. Sounds delightful? Not so much. Here’s why:
- The paper is not card stock but photo paper. You could spend more money and get the card stock, or spend less and send it to an additional 10 people, most of whom haven’t seen your kids since last year’s card. Since the photo paper has no body, the only way you can display it is to provide some kind of backing, or scotch tape them on the front door like my dad used to do and then spend the rest of the month re-taping them every time they fall off.
- Single page cards. Actually, I don’t even know if they qualify as cards when they are only one sheet and not folded. I don’t know why people do this. All you see is a huge picture of their kids and one crummy sentence which is usually designed to be as un-offensive as possible (don’t you dare mention Christ or your friends will think you’ve become a Pentecostal). Is this because a folding card screams out for a personal message on the inside and that is waaaaay too much trouble? Whatever the reason, no fold means less stability. I don’t have an engineering degree but even I know two legs are better than one.
- Very tall, single page cards on photo paper. This is the ultimate triumph in poor engineering for the free-standing Christmas card display. Here is an example that I took off the internet (I’m sure the Pattersons are lovely but their card choice sucks).
See how tall this baby is? Even if it was card stock, it would be tough for it to make it a month on display without some structural failing. There would be a slight bow by Christmas and if you leave these out until New Year’s…it will fall. Now if this is made from cheap photo paper, my only advice from day one is not to put it near one of your cinnamon-scented holiday candles, unless you’re keeping a fire extinguisher on standby. These things will completely lay over and play dead from the day they come in the mail.
We’re lucky in that we have a large framed photo on our mantle which gives these crummy Christmas greetings some support, but in lieu of that, I guess they would go in a shoebox. One or two nosey guests might look at them and ask who the kids are. It seems liek a real waste of your online card-creation skills. So folks, I know these things are cute, but if you really want to send some holiday cheer, send a card that can hold itself up. It’s a small price to pay to keep your kids out of the shoebox.
Funny. I noticed the same trend about 5 years ago. I think it was directly related to the fact that most of our circle of friends were well into their parenting years by then, and the kids were “pose-able” and not just smily, drooly, little lumps of love. We taped them up to the side of our pantry, and had quite a fascinating sociological study of breeding trends in 21st century America. 2.2 kids being the statistical norm.
The Christmas card tradition has been going through quite the evolution. I was one of the last holdouts of the personalized card, where I wrote by hand a personal message in each and every one. This lasted until about 2003. After that we reverted to sending signed cards without a message. In 2007, my wife discovered shutterfly, and followed the example of our friends.
The past few years we’ve seen a steady decline in Christmas cards. This year, we weaseled out and didn’t send any. We also have only received about 4 so far. I’m not sure what to make of it. Either the kids have grown to big to bother posing in front of the tree, or they are no longer cute enough to warrant the effort. Or, maybe it’s the explosion of Facebook, which seems to be the preferred method of communication among 30-50 something wives. Or, the fact that we don’t mail anything anymore. We do all our billing, and communicating online. The times they are a changing. Me thinks Christmas cards will join, caroling, sleigh rides, and fruit cake, in the collective memory of Christmases past.
I stick those picture/photo ones on my fridge. I have lots of magnets. Honestly, I never display my Christmas cards. I get them and *gasp* file them away. I also don’t send out cards … why should I spend $4 to $5 on a piece of paper which is going to get thrown away within the next month?
Bah humbug.