Sending Season’s Greetings: The Last Olive Branch?

Dear Suze Q. Now in my 50s, I’ve sent Holiday Greetings cards forever. Some people are reliable as clockwork and if I don’t hear from them, it means something’s wrong. Others were friends at one time, but aren’t any longer -I want to drop them, but I feel guilty. Any counter arguments? 

Dear Greeter, The first Christmas card is attributed to Sir Henry Cole, founder of  the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, who took advantage of England’s “Penny Post” new mail system around 1843 to start a tradition that has thrived, even though many question its value today. The intent was to strengthen relationships, a mutual goodwill between sender and receiver.

Imagine -your mail arrives. You notice how it is addressed -a familiar handwriting or not. You check the return name/address and you have an immediate visceral reaction -good, bad, curious. You have an expectation what’s inside. You eagerly tear open a grandma card because she has a check for the kids. You’re tepid about your aunt’s long-winded, exaggerated letter of this year’s accomplishments. You’re cold about your next-door neighbor, two moves ago, and pictures of her family and long-forgotten neighbors.

It doesn’t have to be send or don’t send. It can be a digital greeting to the old neighbor; a short “thinking of you” to auntie; a crayoned or cute message from the kids/grandkids to granny. And to those you’ve definitely decided to drop off your list, raise a toast of eggnog and kiss them farewell. -SQ