Christmas Cards: Do You Still Send Them?

There’s been a lot of exposure in the media on how to save our environment. The young Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, has gained universal recognition with her environmental campaign on global warning. She first heard about the effects of global warning when she was eight and wondered why so little was done about it. That is a good question!

Sixteen year old Greta and her campaign has brought the saving of our planet to the forefront again, making us conscious of what can be done to save it for future generations.

I like to start with cutting down on paper and packaging we use for Christmas. Reusable Christmas bags are a great way to wrap presents and I save the ones I get to use again the next year.

The Christmas Cards I receive have been minimized from about 40 or so down to 6 this year. I am attempting to stop sending them out.

I think I will save these cards for decoration in case there will be none in the mail next year.

When I look back on my childhood I am astonished at the waste each household has now. My mother was frugal and not much was wasted. There would be no excess running of water when you brushed your teeth. You were told to fill a glass and use that water, not let the water run continually from the tap while you fiddled around with your teeth. There was no such thing as a ten- minute shower. That would be wasting water and also drain the hot water tank.

Of course there wasn’t the money to buy excess purchases and all our food was homemade. No takeout containers to dispose of. No closet full of clothes, either. One was lucky to have a couple outfits to wear. One gift was what you were happy to receive from your parents at Christmas.

Even with only my husband and myself in the household, we accumulate more waste than I would like to see. No food ever gets wasted as I give most left-overs to the outside wildlife. We only get a weekly newspaper and flyers but somehow at the end of the month, even with using papers to start the wood fire, there is a full bag of papers and cardboard to be set out to the road for pickup.

My cousin informed me last year that his wife had decided not to send Christmas Cards. I thought that was a great idea. Why send cards to people seen over the holidays or ones you can email or message, “Thinking of you at Christmas?”

I’ve started to slim out my Christmas Card List and only send cards to the six who send them to me. I know- I felt guilty and send one back! Everyone else will receive a Christmas message in person, phone, on messenger or email.

I took a photo of a couple Christmas cards and edited them to use as messages to send on computer.