To Mail or Not to Mail?

Last week, I walked past a mother and nanny on their front porch trying to coax two towheaded little boys, dressed in Christmas pjs, to smile their best Christmas-card smiles. It wasn’t working.

I remember those days, spending hours getting children dressed and then hoping to catch them both smiling at the same time. Inevitably one child’s eyes were closed, or she was making a funny face, or someone had had enough and went on strike. 

When you have little kids, it is a rite of passage to orchestrate those cards. It used to be that every Thanksgiving turned into a frenzy of parents trying to capture the perfect pictures of their little ones. I say “used to be” because I don’t really know the most current picture-taking strategies of young parents. Your kids eventually reach an age when the pictures aren’t that hard to get. They’re pros from all that time spent on Snapchat and Instagram, after all, much better at all of this than their parents. That’s kind of where we are.

I love the weeks leading up to Christmas when our mailbox fills up with cards from friends near and far, all sporting photos of children and families. I love watching my friends’ children grow from year to year, especially the ones who live far away. I can identify plenty of college friends’ kids I’ve never actually met, but I know what they looked like as babies, and as awkward tweens, and as beautiful young adults. I hope my friends never stop sending the cards.

But I have to wonder for myself: When is it time to shut down the holiday card machine? Except for haircuts and outfits, my kids don’t change that much from year to year anymore. Now, they are pickier about the photos of themselves than I. My idea of their perfect smile hardly ever corresponds with theirs, which is a conflict that generally results in a whole lot of grief in the form of "You seriously used THAT picture?"

Google “when to stop sending holiday cards,” and you’ll see a headline reading, “Why I Refuse to Stop Sending Holiday Cards,” listed just above another that reads, “Christmas cards are wasteful, repetitive, and the least fun part of the holiday.” What’s a veteran card-sender to do?

I have no answer. I said it already: I love receiving the cards. Do I have the energy to organize my twenty-first year of holiday cards? Not sure. 

Even so, I admit that I’ve been perusing the holiday card options online in the past few days. At least someone finally wised up – now there’s an option that says simply, “We tried.”