Your Christmas Card is Boring | Why Bother?

I spent many lively years between high school, college, and early years in industry developing friendships. Most of these I remember fondly, the ones I have forgotten are probably due to the plethora of tequila consumed during the budding friendship in those years. Either way, I’d like to keep in touch with these friends. When I say keep in touch, I mean actually know what’s going on in their lives, and what they look like… wrinkles and all. Hence, my list of Christmas card peeves.

1. Photo card of just the kids – I drank with you, not your kids, I’ve never met your kids… I want to see what you look like – fat and wrinkly like the rest of us.
2. Photo card of just the pets – need I say more?
3. Card with just a signature – Hey, I know it’s been years, but I really would love to know how you’re doing.

Seriously, is your life that boring that you can’t muster up a brief note about yourself… not just your kids, but you? And how about a photo? I know, we’ve all gotten older. So what?

So, each year I try to send Christmas cards to these friends. As I said in my last post regarding online holiday greetings, the list had shrunk considerably when I actually had to address them all and pay for postage. Now, that I’ve been able to reconnect with them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, I just add them to the email addresses who receive our greeting.

This way many people get to be bored by/laugh at us. I gotta say, the results have been nothing short of astounding. I went to visit a friend of mine from out of state, whom I hadn’t seen in 8 years. His kids asked if I was the one with the ice rink in the backyard. They said they felt like they knew our family from seeing us goof around in our Christmas video greeting.

A link to our 2010 greeting was emailed this week. (Remember, never email a video itself unless you want 200 phone calls for IT support from friends and relatives). I already received personal email responses from at least 20 people whom I wouldn’t have spoken to otherwise. It’s hard to keep those lines of communication open with friends from so long ago – that’s why Facebook is such a convenience. Receiving those personal greetings from 20 people means so much – and it never would’ve happened if they didn’t have the convenience of simply hitting reply on our Christmas greeting email. How do you reply to a photo card?

Do I look goofy in our Christmas greetings? Yes, usually. Do I look older with bad hair? In some of the photos, yes. Do my out of town friends and relatives get a good feel for who we are and where we’re at in life? Yes, definitely.

Here’s a shorter sample of the type of personal feel that can be achieved with an online holiday greeting. Our 2010 greeting had video of backyard antics, a personal message and several photos with captions. It was a great way to share our story, without addressing any envelopes.

So what are your top holiday greeting pet peeves? And why exactly do you still bother to send out cards?