Who needs Christmas Cards? (I do)

Here's a thought:  in order to save some money this holiday season, why not pare down the holiday card list?  Or do away with it altogether?  I first seriously considered it last year, when I was sweating and swearing while getting the kids to pose for Christmas photos in mid-October (we left for an extended vacation on December 5th and I had to get everything done extra-early).  I'm thinking about it again this year now that I've given up my gym membership and canceled our Christmas cookie party and set the kids' presents budget to $20 per person. 

Our christmas card list runs at one hundred and twenty people, give or take.  I usually order 150 because I don't want to run out (my kids sometimes mess up their signatures so badly I need to throw some away, and I'm sure there are at least 10 families I've overlooked and won't remember until I receive a card from them).   At Costco, it costs $199 for 150 nice folded cards I always want to order and $38.95 for the plain flimsy photo cards I always end up ordering.  (And if anyone can figure out a way to come up with 150 cards for less than $38.95, I'd like to know about it).

I can usually hand out about 20 of those cards to teachers, pediatricians and the relatives we get to see in December, but the rest are sent via snail mail.  Forty-five of those go overseas to relatives in England and the Philippines.  So at ninety-four cents for international postage and forty-two cents for local (I really wanted to go all cutesy and get photo stamps but that would double the cost), that's $65 for stamps.

So that's at least a hundred bucks for the cards, maybe more (I'm no longer counting the extra $200 or more to book a photo session with a great kids' photographer who can get your kids to sit still and pose, and actually make them look so sweet that everyone forgets how bratty they can actually be -- these past three years we've taken our own photos and Photoshopped the inevitable crying kid away, replacing him with a better version from another photo).  That's a nice dinner for you and your husband, a couple of extra toys in the kids' stockings, a tiny bit saved for another rainy day.   Who needs holiday cards anyway?  They get looked at, propped up on the mantel for a couple of weeks and thrown away.  I can always email a holiday greeting anyway.

But Christmas cards are a huge, big deal in England.  There would be hell to pay if we sent a card to Alfie's mum but not to his sister.  Or to his mum's best friend.  And cousin.  And so on.  Plus, many of my relatives send not only cards in the mail, but presents as well; it seems rude not to send at least a card to say thank you and Merry Christmas, right?  Quite a few of our relatives check their email only a couple of times a month; many don't have emails at all.  And the reasons go on.  I guess I'm not really serious about doing away with the Christmas Card list.  Besides, I kind of like getting cards in the mail myself.  With our family and friends scattered all over the world, it's a nice way to feel close to them over the holidays.  We string the cards up all over the house and it looks colorful and merry and all that.   At least we don't have to buy any Christmas decorations. 

For this year, anyway, I guess I'll need to find another way to save that hundred bucks.

Original SV Moms Post.  This holiday you'll find Bonggamom working to pare her card list down to 75.  For everyone else, she will post a virtual Christmas card over on her personal blog, Finding Bonggamom.