What am I doing? Well, I haven't gone out holiday shopping at all. I don't know how much shopping I've got planned in the first place! I doubt I'll be doing much, and I'll let you in on a little secret, some of it's already done! Instead I'm pondering what I should do this holiday season that would help make the world a greener place to live.
That's when I started thinking about holiday cards. Yes, everyone sends out cards each year. These cards help clutter and clog the very veins of our postal system, along with the countless packages of holiday gifts sent long distance and packages ordered by mail. These cards are a tie back to an earlier time when the postal system didn't feel quite so much like a burden on society and very few people dreaded getting their mail every day. Instead, they were overjoyed and delighted, wondering what new correspondence they would receive. Would it be their Great-Uncle Jim that always has such interesting stories to tell? Would it be a friendly and slightly overbearing letter from their mother reminding them that though they're away from home, they're always welcome over for dinner any time? Would it be that friend from school all those years back that now lives half-way across the country with her new husband and kids? Even for children, the mail was always a source of excitement for what new and interesting things would come. Even catalogs can get a child's imagination soaring!
It hit me then. People don't have a personal touch on anything like they once did. Families don't write letters anymore. Few of them even e-mail regularly. Cards are pre-printed and informal. Many of them don't even include the personal touch of a letter or note. They're just plain printed cards that someone throws their name along the bottom and maybe the name of the person they're sending it to on the top and that's all. They call it a day, as though that somehow sums it all up. "Dear Aunt Becky, Hope your Christmas is filled with wonderful sweet memories! Love, Alice". Is that the kind of message we want to send? I've thought about the idea of reviving the family newsletter including stories about what everyone had been up to for that calendar year, but that seemed too standard and impersonal. If I'm going to take the time to write my family for the holidays, it should be personal and from the heart.
Four years ago (wow, it's hard to believe it was that long ago!) my family lived back home and visited my aunt several times throughout the holiday season. She had a wonderful idea of making cards for everyone in the family. We would mail them or hand them out on Christmas day. My daughter loved it. She had so much fun! We ended up doing this for Valentine's Day and Saint Patrick's Day too. It was a lot of fun, and each family member got an item hand-made for them with love by a wonderful three year old girl! I've kept telling myself I'm going to revive the tradition, but when we've made cards they've only ended up going to local friends of my daughter. Making it to the post office for each holiday was just too hard. I have to admit, I've regretted not doing it. I miss the cute cards my daughter would come up with, and it was a wonderful opportunity to work on her creativity and art skills. My son never got to make his own, but I think he'd have a lot of fun with it.
This year I'm considering getting up the motivation to do it again. It really doesn't have to cost much. In truth, we can get away with some paper, envelopes, glue sticks, scissors, and some crayons, all of which are in the standard homeschooler's box of goodies anyway, well, maybe not the envelopes. I could also pick up a collection of stickers, stencils, or any number of other things to use on the project. If we wanted to save on postage, we could simply tuck both cards into the same envelope to be mailed out. I've seriously considered reviving that as a part of arts and crafts time this year, and as a way to start opening up communication between my kids and their extended family, to show them that we all really do miss everyone!
This isn't just a great craft for the kids. This can be a great idea for anyone! If you don't feel terribly artsy, there's always programs like Print Shop
that can help you design your own cards to print off. Instead of making your own cards, you could always stuff each card with a hand-written letter specifically to each friend or relative. Don't know what to write about that would interest them? What about telling them about thing you did together that always makes you smile to think about it. For example, for my aunt, one thing that I think about and makes me smile is watching her help my daughter make cards. Especially this time of year I think of my Uncle sitting at the piano playing Christmas carols while the whole family sings along on Christmas Eve. I remember my uncles bouncing me from lap to lap to show me how typing works on a computer, and bouncing me back to the beginning whenever someone said we hit the "return key". It's funny how no one calls it the "return key" anymore. It's always "enter". I remember my great-aunt sitting in my aunt's living room talking everyone's ear off about the Highland games and the history of our family as it relates to the Scottish clans. I only wish I hadn't been so distracted by everything going on so I could actually listen to what she had to say on all of it! It was so interesting! I remember my mom staying up late at night to finish working on a teddy bear she was making, or on her machine trying to finish our Halloween costumes in time. All of these things remind me of good times with my family. All of these things are moments I could easily share with them, just because I want them to know they've given me yet another reason to smile. Tell them stories! Write them that funny joke that you knew they'd just get a kick out of! Whatever you do, make it personal. That's why I say hand-written, because typed up pages are so impersonal. Let them know exactly how much they mean to you, and that you've taken the time to write them something personal from the heart.So this year, instead of buying cards, slapping your name inside, and sending them out, consider making something personal. You can even use recycled materials! If nothing else, why not include a really sweet letter from the heart into that store-bought card you found that was just perfect for Grandma Grace for a little bit of a personal touch. This year do something different. This year show your family just how much they mean to you. Let's make it personal.
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