Friday 5: Yule Never Be Alone

Photo by lauramusikanski at MorgueFile.com

About how many family Christmas photo-cards did you receive this year*?

I get why people do the annual "family photo holiday card," and I'm happy to have photographs of my friends on hand, but it's a tradition that will never appeal to me as a sender.

This year I got at least three photo-cards. I may have gotten one or two more than that, but that's it.


About how many family Christmas newsletters did you receive this year?

This is a holiday tradition I like a little better. Not surprising, I guess, considering my penchant for words and language! I don't ever write one, though. Different people hear from me at differing intervals, so I tend to address holiday cards personally, based on how often I talk to the recipient and how much they know about what's going on in my life.

I didn't receive many "state of the friend" letters in cards this year. I know I got at least two, but there might be one or two I'm forgetting.


What do you do with the Christmas photo-cards and newsletters you get each year?

The newsletters get filed under "correspondence," along with notes from friends or family that get slipped in with care packages and the odd snail mail letter.

The photo-cards get tacked up on the wall next to my desk. This is actually the first year I've received photo-cards (in the past it's been just regular cards). I'm not sure if I'll keep them up, or if I'll file them away somewhere. The nicest cards (according to my arbitrary rules of taste) stay up on the wall. The others I hoard because one day I will make a garland or bunting with the ones that aren't quite as pretty.

I have a couple of artist friends and I love when they send doodles or drawings in the cards. I will always sacrifice a greeting card for the sake of displaying their original art!


What’s a good solution for singles who want to participate in this tradition without coming across as a loser?

Just do it, because there's nothing loser-y about sending out photo-cards or newsletters as a single person?


About how many old-school, hand-addressed Christmas cards did you receive this year?

Oh man, maybe about two dozen? I participate in an online holiday card exchange so I got a lot from strangers and near-strangers, in addition to the ones from my friends.


* Yeah, yeah. It was last year, but you know what I mean