I sent my Christmas cards yesterday (though I see now, looking at the church directory, there are probably a couple more I should send).

I still do this. Even though it sometimes seems like a custom leftover from another era - I know people who send exclusively e-cards, either because (a) it's easier, (b) it's cheaper, or (c) it's more "environmentally friendly" because there's no paper, no stuff having to be carried on a mail truck (though I would argue that the ads from "instant credit" places* and flooring stores that I get burn through far more fossil fuels than the cards I get and send, on sheer volume alone)

(*"Mr. Burns: Oh, it's a hobby. I'm not in this for any personal gain, heavens no! By the way, are you acquainted with our state's stringent usury laws?
Homer: Us-ury?
Mr. Burns: Oh, silly me! I must have just made up a word that doesn't exist. Now, what is the purpose of this loan?")

But I like sending cards, probably because I enjoy getting them.

So I send them out every year. I don't send a lot, my list varies somewhere in the vicinity of 20 to 30 cards.

I remember when I was a young teenager, my mom would hire me to type the address labels for the cards. It took forever (though that was good; more funds to buy Christmas presents). I think there were something like 150 names on her list at that time (she's since pared it back). I learned the conventions of etiquette for addressing things that way; that you addressed (at least in those days) cards to couples as "Mr. and Mrs. Hisfirstname Hislastname" and widows as "Mrs. Herfirstname Hislastname" and families as "The Lastname Family." Single people were either Mr. Hisname or Miss Hername. (Yes, we used Miss back in those days).

Oh, she had a few nonconformist friends where the woman kept her maiden name, or where the kids had a different surname from the couple (usually second marriages). So there were some special notations in the address book to follow.

(Nowadays, I'm less formal. I usually use "The Lastname Family" if it is a couple with children yet at home; otherwise, I use "Hisname and Hername Lastname" for couples. And no, I don't currently have any "Hisname and Hisname" or "Hername and Hername" couples on the list. Not sure what I would have made of those when I was 11 and typing out address labels).

Then, once the envelopes were ready, she would sit down with the cards and painstakingly write a message on each one. (Yes. She would handwrite notes for most of the 150 or so cards. Now they use one of those much-maligned newsletter things, but back in the day, she wrote out every single darn card).

And then, if I wanted to earn another buck or two, I sat next to her with the envelopes, and the stamps, and one of those office-supply squeeze bottles full of water (so I didn't have to lick the envelopes) and I'd put the card in its appropriate envelope, seal it up, apply the stamp and return-address label.

And then she would take them down to the post office - arranged in numerical order of ZIP code. (something I still do today). And they'd go off to their destinations.

And we'd start receiving cards. Usually she had a big basket we put them in; I keep thinking for the cards I receive I should string up a line like I've seen some people do and peg them on it (I think that looks kind of neat and nostalgic) but I don't ever seem to get around to it.

After Christmas, the nicer cards we'd cut up to use as gift tags for the next year, or even in some cases to use as tree ornaments. And she'd update her book with any new return addresses, or make changes happy (a couple going to "The Lastname Family" status thanks to the birth of their first child) or sad (removing people from the list who died, or splitting couples into two separate addresses in the case of divorce).

And it was a big ritual for the year, and sometimes when I was a teenager, it seemed kind of unnecessary to me.

But I do it now. I don't have nearly as many contacts as my mom had - a few people from grad school I still communicate with, family, friends who have moved away. Most of my list is people from my own church (I like to send cards to everyone who prepared supper for the Youth Group over the year and thank them).

A lot of the people from my past have kind of fallen away - we both moved in the same year and addresses got lost, or maybe they pruned me off their list, or something. It makes me a little sad that my mom still sends cards to people she has known literally since she was 10, and I have almost no one (unless you count relatives and one set of longtime family friends) like that.

It's also sad - this year I had to take a few people off my list because they passed on. (I did send a card to the adult daughter of my aunt - she lived with my aunt and helped her during her last years, and is still living in her house. I didn't put "Merry Christmas" on it but I did put "Thinking of you this Christmas season." Because I think it's still awfully soon to have lost someone that important to you and that much of your life, and have people wishing you a merry Christmas).

But I also added a few people. And maybe that's what you count as a win in this life: if your Christmas card list remains the same size or even grows in a year.

Choosing the cards is an important issue too. I do not like tacky-looking cards, cards that look like you were out at the Menards'* buying spigot covers or ant poison and you happened to remember you needed cards, so you grabbed the first thing off the display of boxes.

And there are an awful lot of tacky cards out there. I know, I rejected a lot of them as my Christmas cards for this year.

(*a chain we do not actually have around here)

I finally chose ones of a Victorian snow scene, with glitter on it. (No, glitter is NOT tacky. Hush up.) It didn't have a dumb poem on the inside (I hate sending cards with dumb poems in them, the sort of treacly sentiment forced into a meter and rhyme-scheme). And they mentioned "Christmas" by name.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's really not a militant Christian thing. It's a hatred-of-genericization thing. Where all holidays become "Happy Season" and there's a lot of hand-waving and eliding and not-mentioning. And while that's fine for the public sphere, in my own private celebration, I want my cards to be specific.

If I have a friend or relative who does not celebrate Christmas, I will find a special appropriate card for them, and I will pick that appropriate card for them - whether it be a Chanukah card, or a Yule/Solstice card (I have known people who had faith paths where they celebrated the Winter Solstice instead of Christmas), or a Happy New Year card.

So anyway. I don't do the "newsletter" thing; most of the people I send cards to know pretty well what I've been doing over the past year. In that case, I just write a short message and sign my name. For the people further away - the old grad-school friends get a rundown of research and stuff like that from the past year; relatives may get more detail of other things going on in my life. I like being able to tailor the notes to each person. (And I think since I'm clearly handwriting them, I can be forgiven for being briefer than a person writing a general newsletter would be).

I did the cards while proctoring my general Bio exam yesterday: class of 7 where they all spontaneously sit far apart from each other and I can clearly see each person from the front of the room, so I can tell there's no cheating going on. (Today's exam is a full class in a packed room, so I'm trying to figure out what kind of low-concentration knitting where I can tuck the ball of yarn under my arm as I work and roam about the room will work. Possibly the Cobblestone pullover, though with alternating balls of yarn, it's harder to tuck them up in your armpit).

So after that, I ran over to the post office (for once, no line!) and got stamps (and yes, I got the special Christmas stamps), and stamped all the addressed cards, and tossed the half that are for my friends in-town into the "Durant Mail Only" slot, and the half for friends and relatives out of town into the "out of town mail" slot.

So, another step towards Christmas is completed.

****

Saw this on the Craft blog: Tuxedo sweater for a baby. Alas, I know of no one with a male child on the way that would appreciate this. I don't know if it's too crazy-cat-lady to consider making one of the smaller sizes to put on one of my teddy bears or the largish stuffed toy cat I have.