The future of Christmas cards

Norkie

Norkie

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We received a Christmas card today from a friend and included was a note that said they won’t be posting cards anymore because the cost is excessive, £1.65 (£3.70 in old money) for a stamp and a couple of quid or more for a card.

I think we may be joining the club!

We usually cycle around and hand delivery our cards, but I don’t think we will be posting twenty or thirty cards next year :(
 
I agree that the cost is excessive but I don't see where you get £3.70 from
£1.65 is £1 13s 0d
 
We "opted out" of posting cards a few years ago and send seasonal greetings by e-mail or by hand. The saving on postage goes to the local Hospicecare charity who looked after Dad for his last month or so. The cards themselves come from charity shops.
 
Card can be much cheaper. 25 for £3 or something.

But yes, I get very few now. Bit of a shame
 
I only send about 7 or 8 a year these days, due to having not much family and being a bit billy-no=-mates except for a small group of old school friends. Living over the water now means it's either post or email and for this number, a cost of around £30 a year is not worth worrying about for the chance to stay in some sort of contact, as it's probably the most connection we have left with these folks.
We barely receive that number back too, although who knows as the years go by?
 
Suvv said:
I agree that the cost is excessive but I don't see where you get £3.70 from
£1.65 is £1 13s 0d
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Yeh, sorry Kev! Not sure where that came from :)
 
One of my wife's hobbies is making cards and has just stamped 20 ready to post on Monday. We bulk brought about 100 stamps before the last price rise. We have cut down on the cards we post.

If my wife didn't make the cards, we would have stopped sending cards by now
 
My nearly 90yr old Mum said to me today

"I have to send cards because otherwise people will think I am dead."

She has a point!
 
My wife used to send dozens of cards. This year it will certainly be less than a dozen, and they will be paid for by replacement stamps we received from old ones we found in a drawer and sent for replacements.
 
we still send some cards probaly about 20/30 a year and have just posed 10 xmas cards but i suspect we are in our last few years of that
my wife does watercolour paintings so quite a few are hand made
 
Covid and Royal Mail. We’ve received far fewer in the last few years. More electronic ones. That we remember to read sometime in January.

Quite a few cards we send are electronic. You can’t stick an electronic one on the wall.
 
The ones I'm sending this year were bought at a craft fair yesterday and are all prints of original artwork by the person selling them.
 
Norkie said:
We received a Christmas card today from a friend and included was a note that said they won’t be posting cards anymore because the cost is excessive, £1.65 (£3.70 in old money) for a stamp and a couple of quid or more for a card.

I think we may be joining the club!

We usually cycle around and hand delivery our cards, but I don’t think we will be posting twenty or thirty cards next year :(
Click to expand...
Could send them 2nd class @85p
 
As a Royal Mail pensioner I would have encourage everyone to send more cards so that the money is there for my pension but as the Conservative Government took over the pension liability so that they could sell Royal Mail on the cheap my pension now comes from the Cabinet Office.
Now I just have to worry about a future government changing all the rules
 
Suvv said:
As a Royal Mail pensioner I would have encourage everyone to send more cards so that the money is there for my pension but as the Conservative Government took over the pension liability so that they could sell Royal Mail on the cheap my pension now comes from the Cabinet Office.
Now I just have to worry about a future government changing all the rules
Click to expand...
Well at least that pension is guaranteed :)
 
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Tigger.ufo said:
My nearly 90yr old Mum said to me today

"I have to send cards because otherwise people will think I am dead."

She has a point!
Click to expand...
That’s literally how my elderly neighbour used to run her Christmas card system, she always knew who had gone that year as she didn’t get a card from them!

She now no longer sends cards herself!
 
We bought ours from a charity that supports our son's condition. They sent an envelope with a catalogue of "aids" but no cards. After an email, they acknowledged that they had made an error, then we got a note from the Post Office saying that the replacement cards had insufficient postage and we needed to pay a £5.00 fee! I have paid the fee but won't bother next time.
 
My Christmas card list is very short since I've retired, it's basically just family now that get them, and those are given in person...
 
I make my own cards but the number i send is gradually decreasing. As mentioned 2nd class is much cheaper - you would have to be desperate to send them 1st class!

I still don't understand the mentality of Royal Mail. They seem to think that if they continue to put up the price of postage people will still use the service. This is quite clearly bonkers.
 
We’ve cut down drastically on sending cards. Used to be well over a 100, now it’s about 25/30…just family and close friends. The rest get messages or emails.

We moved into our house four years ago now and still get Xmas cards for the previous owner, but he died in 2019. A couple of cards have had a return address or email address inside so we’ve notified the senders, but obviously his son didn’t notify a lot of his friends and family that he’d died. Pretty sad really.
 
I typically send about half a dozen and won't be changing that. One has already gone as it needs to reach Spain, This year I have RNLI charity cards to send, after that Mr Farage that my mum likes promoted their good work in the English Channel (y).
 
The card company "Hallmark" say, worldwide, 1.4billion cards are sent and most end up in landfill. Royal Mail estimate they deliver about 16 million in this country.They should be recycled,of course but most can't because of the glitter sprinkled over them which takes a millenium to biodegrade. They would be classes as 'contaminated' .Fair play to the likes of Waitrose, Morrisons, and John Lewis who have banned glitter this year across their own-brand Christmas products, including cards and wrapping paper. True to "Rip Off Britain, the christmas card industry here is worth £1.7billion higher than anywhere else in the world, so good for those who make their own..and more personal. In the current climate-change eco environment what about all that CO2 pushed out of vehicles involved in the industry, including the Royal Mail ?

"Are we sending a card to Harry and Jean this year ? " I suppose so, ...are they still alive ?.. "Dunno" :D

As a kid, I recall my mother using bleach to erase the ink writing on those we received and put them away for the following year. Hard times :)

M&S have a great oblong christmas cake 7" x 2" which I love and have one in the fridge already but will buy another. I will also be at Lidl on Boxing Day to snap up another favourite. The mini stollencake which they sell off at half-price. Well, if Richard Dawkins enjoys going to a carol service I can indulge in cake you can't get at any other time.
 
Tigger.ufo said:
My nearly 90yr old Mum said to me today

"I have to send cards because otherwise people will think I am dead."

She has a point!
Click to expand...
In the very funny Bagthorpe books the Grandmother sent cards earlier and earlier each year because she did not get as many back as she hoped. Sadly her address book was out of date and many recipients had moved on to where no post would ever reach them.
(I read them as a child and to my son when he was younger)

The Bagthorpe Saga - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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I have a tee shirt (or 2 - couldn't find the first so bought another, only for the first to appear!) featuring artwork by @TheBigYin...
 
A tip from a listener of the "You and Yours" Radio 4 yesterday was to telephone all the people on your list instead. it saved all those expensive stamps.
We have been exchanging cards with a couple we met in Paris in 1981 but with no other contact it does not achieve a lot; we do not really know each other.
I suggested the telephone tip to my wife as the list is still just over 100 but she did not like the idea as she fears that it would be lists of symptoms and tales of woe.

Dave
 
I still like Christmas cards, it's keeps that personal touch and also adds to the decoration in the house.
 
mj4456 said:
I don’t even hand a card to my wife, Bah Humbug is my motto.
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That reminds me I still need to make my wife's Christmas Card. Bar humbug, my ar$e:)
 
"Money's short,
Times are 'ard,
Hence no bleedin'
christmas card!"
 
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