Given the cost of even 2nd class postage these days I think more people will use Moonpig or Funky Pigeon, but having never availed myself of these online services I have no idea how much they cost. Also, at our age, some of the friends and acquaintances my wife and I did have in our thoughts at Christmas are no longer with us so the list get shorter every year.

Edited By Chris Crew on 17/07/2023 07:15:40

I have never sent a Christmas card in my life, my wife has a long list and composes the dreaded news letter which the recipients say they enjoy, they may just be polite though. The present thing is also wasted on me, I can’t think of anything I actually want as anything in the normal range of presents I will already have. My wife insists that presents must be a surprise but I have long ago confirmed my belief that I am useless at choosing a present so don’t bother.
Mike

A friend of mine used a website that had a selection of video animations for all occasions, including Christmas. The videos had music to suit the mood, and you could add a personal message. I don't tnink she had to pay anything, but I could be wrong.

I am afraid that mister misery here is very much a fan of the beloved Christmas character, Scrooge. When my sisters ask me what I want for Christmas my reply is.

What I want, you can't afford. And what you can afford, I don't want.

Happy Humbug!

" Bah, Humbug! "

There are at least one ruddy-awful electronic "card" e-post agents about. I have received two of these horrible greetings-by-data-base things, the first making me think it an elaborate scam until I read the names and message somewhat obscured by the surrounding digital artwork.

I don't know their costs. I might reduce the number of cards and can deliver some to friends by hand anyway, but I would not touch these electronic things with a barge-mouse.

I think them tawdry and cheapskate by showing no imagination, little respect and an obvious desire to get the chore done with by the sender.

Yes, postage costs brass you might thing better spent on brass, but to be honest the price of a second-hand stamp is ridiculously low for what it does. It only looks a shock when you post a batch of letters or cards at one go.

Well spotted, Phil!

Err, I did mean second-class…..

Is the idea to remove the need for franking, which itself is designed to mark the stamp as used? Most sorting is now highly automated, and has been for years; but I have occasionally seen stamps that missed being cancelled.

.

"snow flakes"…

Be these the pretty water-crystal types floating softly from the sky over the Norwegian mountains, or the USA sort with "wrong" opinions? Both?

We just received one of those automated cards through the post to "celebrate" an anniversary. It should be overstamped "untouched by human hand".

And John, I must remember not to send you our family Christmas letter. I tell it like it really is, but with humour. From a purely selfish point of view it saves writing the same thing, or a sub-set of it, multiple times. And, after nearly forty years the collected letters make an interesting family history.

George

John. Here are a few things for you. I generally find Christmas the most boring and dull day/time of the year. I feel as though I have to just hang around the house and can't really just slope off to my shed. Turkey is boring it's just a roast with a big chicken. Lee Webster described the present thing better than I ever could. Crackers are crap and just make a mess. Christmas pudding, gross. Brandy Butter no thanks Vodka Margarine would probably taste better. Wifey puts money in the cards to the Nieces and Nephews who are in there 20s with jobs and half of them never say thank you. Crap on the telly. Crap like Slade on the radio. Shops starting Christmas in September. Supermarket queues. Round robin letters, who cares (only the person who wrote it). And how many people are actually religious or go to church anyway nowdays. Go on somebody say Bah humbug to me again.

Buffer –

"Bah Humbug!" There you are: quoted it again for you. Chas. D. has a lot to answer for!

The foods are literally a matter of taste of course, but you don't need watch the telly.

Nor do you need listen to Radio One (though these days Slade is probably Radio Two): try Three or Four. The former does celebrate the religious aspect of this mix of old Christian and pagan turn-of-year festivals, with such broadcasts as the Nine Lessons & Carols, and the EBU's European tour of live, mainly church, music.

I do agree though about the supermarket's nonsense, the Christmas stuff interrupted briefly by the horrible pseudo-Hallowe'en rubbish imported from the United States of Disney. It is usually possible to avoid the busiest times though.

I have long had round-robins from two couples. One is just a bland "look-what-we-and-our-[now grown-up]- children-have done" designed to make the recipient feel inadequate. When I learnt MS 'Access' I was tempted to create as an exercise, a database designed to create such letters as Reports from drop-down menus!

The other couple though is quite different. Similar family history but much less self-conscious and with lots of humour. Not only that, but the letter's A4 sheet is folded to form an A6-size "card", illustrated with a church identified by its name and town, drawn by the husband. He is a retired architectural-historian, so hand-drawing buildings was part of his professional skill. So although the same card to all, it is one made with a lot of personal thought and care.

Oh – and my grand-nephews and nieces do thank me – but these are young children! We adults don't exchange presents beyond immediate-sibling level (four of us).

.

My Christmas Day In the First Year of the Plague was the first I'd ever spent alone! Very pleasant too. An hour or so in the workshop, then chatting in the sunshine to my neighbour over the garden wall. A leisurely nominal Christmas Dinner with chicken (our family always had chicken not turkey, and anyway it's goose in English rather than US tradition) and a µ-wave Christmas Pud. Lazy afternoon with a bottle of beer, and the calm, non-patronising friendliness of BBC Radio Three. (No TV? I have no TV!)

.

Dave –

Cards to verify existence? Oh dear!

Most of mine are not family ones despite ours being quite extended by now, but to and from friends; and total around thirty. I can hand-deliver two batches, in my two caving-clubs. One is based 300 miles away in Yorkshire, but its Annual Dinner in November is a convenient opportunity for card-exchanging.

I never feel them a waste of time but I have reduced humorous cards relevant in some way to the intended recipient. Not sense of humour failure, but they are more expensive than "ordinary" cards. I am an RNLI "Supporter" though use some of that charity's cards, especially those illustrated with Giles cartoons!

Tricky one is a card to one of my nephews. He's probably secular, from our largely non-religious family with Anglican background, but he's married a Muslim. What to wish them?

'''''''

'Ere, 'ang on! Christmas/Yuletide/Hogmanay? 'Tis still the middle of Summer – still mid-Rally Season!