December 4 – Christmas Cards
Did your family send cards? Did your family display the ones they received? Do you still send Christmas cards? Do you have any cards from your ancestors?
Written for the 2009 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories
As I recall, we did send Christmas cards. The one that survives is one my mom sent out the year (1967) we moved into the house they lived in until her death in 1998. Always the efficient one, she used the opportunity to let her Christmas card list know about our new address. I found this one in my grandmother’s picture box–her mother.
This is the only time I know of that my folks used cards printed with their name. And evidently my South Dakota grandparents were coming south for Christmas. About this time they started spending winters in Texas and Oklahoma with my folks and with my aunt and uncle who lived in Oklahoma. Avoiding South Dakota winters only made good sense as they got a little older. Or maybe we were traveling up to visit them–I loved having Christmas in South Dakota because we could almost always be assured of having a white Christmas.
At home, when we displayed cards, we usually just set them under the tree or on another flat surface. I don’t remember taping them up or hanging them. But I do remember going through them and enjoying reading what friends had written.
A few years ago, one the librarians I worked with had a collection of Christmas cards from one of her aunts. She said she didn’t know anyone else who would appreciate them so she gave them to me. What a treasure. They are from the 1910s and 1920s–they are wonderful. They remind me a little bit of New Yorker cartoons. I’ve enjoyed looking at these through the years and have tried to think of ways to use them. I wish I could find them for this post–but they aren’t in any of the 6 boxes of Christmas stuff that’s migrated in from the garage.
Through the years, I’ve sent cards, I”ve made and sent cards, I’ve sent Christmas newsletters, and I’ve not sent cards. I’m always happier with myself when I make the effort but sometimes it just isn’t possible. And, by the way, I vote FOR newsletters–I love them!