There are so many faster ways to communicate nowadays, the Christmas card seems so anachronistic.
Why wait for a pack of cards to arrive, hand-address them and then rely on the U.S. Postal Service to hand them out some time within a week? It seems so slow.
There are plenty of technologies that could do the same thing more quickly, including email, texts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and countless more.
Perhaps I’m anachronistic myself, but I really enjoy sending and receiving these reminders of a bygone era. There’s something heartwarming about pulling mail from the mailbox and finding a card from an old friend in there.
They’ve evolved over time, sure. Fewer people send out the beautiful but generic cards just wishing you “Merry Christmas” or, if they’re a little more politically correct, “Happy Holidays.”
Instead, many take the time to customize a card now, sending out an image that represents their family at that time.
We hang our cards around the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. As I gaze upon these well-wishes from friends, I see a child posing with a dolphin, a family smiling at Disney World and a single friend donning a revealing Mrs. Claus outfit. Each tells a tale about who they’ve been since the last card. Each keeps us in touch.
My wife does a great job dreaming up our Christmas cards. Every year, we feature our children on the Christmas card, but we try in alternating years to include the parents too, so people can chuckle at just how gray my hair turned since the last card while my lovely wife never ages.
We’ve had some fun ones, piled atop one another in a field or posed in Chicago Bears gear. We’ve had more traditional poses too. This year, we’re all hanging out at a nearby Christmas tree farm, dressed in jeans and nice shirts.
As I look at that picture, it’s who we are now. We’re comfortable, trying to enjoy the world around us. We’re not trying too hard to be anything we’re not. We’re not trying to show off or seem too clever or silly. We’re just us, with each of us showcasing who we are.
Those are things you lose in a world gone mad with instant technologies. You miss the optimism in the 14-year-old’s eyes that the world will be a better place because she’s there. You miss the smirk on the 8-year-old’s face that shows she thinks the world’s one big joke. You miss the sass on the 7-year-old’s face that shows she’s ready for the next adventure.
Most of all, you miss the contented look on the parents’ faces, happy to be where they are and lucky to have those other smiling faces in the picture.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a Christmas card is worth a thousand emotions. It can be a summation of a whole year’s worth of trials and tribulations, vices and victories.
More than anything else, it reminds people who might feel like they’ve been left behind in your life that you still care about them.
To all those people, and to all of you, I pray you have a truly Merry Christmas and a very blessed New Year.
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