Quote:
Originally Posted by WishfulThinker66
My extended family does not exchange gifts - but we do get together for a wonderful holiday. There are a lot of traditions in my extended family so we don't get caught up in which religion we should be observing. Instead we gather together to celebrate family.
I have had my nose out of joint in years past when my children have chosen to spend the holiday with their father (and even some years with their step father). I just won't rant about that again. I will take whatever I will get of their time and not waste valuable energy on it.
I do want to comment though on the giving of greeting cards. I was raised on this. I was also raised on writing thank you notes. Both now seem lost arts - and it is a shame. I chalk this up to yet another failure to teach our children etiquette. Again, a real shame.
There was a time when I sent out dozens. Last year I reduced it again - each with a lovely personalised hand written note - to about a dozen. I got only one in return. All it had was my name on it.
I know that most out there will entirely disagree with me but I feel I must comment on what has become the replacement - the block email greeting. Just don't send me one. They are crass, totally impersonal, and (sorry) lazy. I have thought if you can't be bothered to write me a personal greeting then don't bother at all.
also cringe worthy? The lengthy family diary full of far too much personal information.
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Ah, I just had to reply to this. When I was a child the card exchange was one of my favorite traditions. I guess my parents were pretty popular in the community and with work because we go hundreds of cards. Every closet door in the house was filled with cards. I was an arts and crafts child so I loved the cards which later my mother let me use to cut up for art projects like bookmarks and stuff.
For awhile, as an adult, I still got a lot of cards but over the years it has dwindled.
When I see all the beautiful boxes of cards in the stores I really wonder who is buying them.
Email generic crowd greetings? Sheez, they should be banned.
The Christmas diaries used to be a big tradition. I never did that but my ex and I used to get a lot of them. We would read them aloud and make fun of them. We also made fun of photos people sent with a few hundred of their relatives.
I think last year I got two cards. Another nice tradition dies.