Christmas Cards and Holiday Cards

Have you ever stopped to thinks about the number of traditions that have fallen by the way side? So many things have changed in our society since I was a child. Some things have changed due to technology, others have changed because there are more people, and still others have changed because people have become so self centered. My husband laughs at me because I try to hold on to traditions. I do not care what others think there are some things that I feel are important to continue; things like dressing well for church services, removing caps at the dinner table, saying please and thank you, and celebrating holidays without being politically correct.

I have always loved the Christmas season for a number of reasons. My mother made it a very special family centered time and as a Christian I celebrate the birth of Jesus. To me the holidays are all about my faith and family. I love to share those values with others through holiday cards. I work for a government agency so everything about the holidays needs to remain secular. Any decorations that we display cannot have religious connotations. Holiday cards we send out need to say season’s greetings and depict a winter theme rather than a religious theme. We are to make sure that we do not offend anyone by our holiday greetings. I feel that this is ridiculous. I do not know how someone would be offended by hearing the words Merry Christmas.

Since we are so limited in the type of holiday cards we send at work I have made it a point to send very traditional religious cards to my friends and family members. This is another tradition that people have dropped. We used to get a great number of holiday cards. It was the one time of year that friends and relatives made it a point to be in touch with each other. Now it seems that each year we get fewer cards. We get emails and e-cards, or the dreaded holiday letters that people copy and send out. I still enjoy sending out the holiday cards. I sit in front of our fire place and write a few lines in each card. I hand address the envelopes and order Christmas stamps to mail them with. Many of the recipients of the cards thank us for them and make the statement that they just do not have the time to send cards any more. To me that is part of what makes the holidays special. It is the one time of the year that we should use our time to remember those that are important to us and to let them know this through holiday cards.