So I love getting Christmas Cards. It is sort of anti-climactic when it is just a card with a signature, no information about what the family has done this year. No picture. I feel like I am missing out a bit when I get cards like that.
Then we have friends who live far away who send us a Harry and David Gift basket. Wow, that is so nice and unexpected. Though I tend to eat half of it (all the chocolate things) before my DH even gets home. (If it is in my house I will eat it.)
My DH really feels strongly the picture should be of the whole family. I try to tell him, adults don’t look that different so just kids is fine. He said, “Do a poll.”
So here it is!
[polldaddy poll=2407881]
I will admit my bias — we don’t do “family photos” very often, and it’s easier for me to just dress the kids up, than to dress us all up and try to get somebody to take a picture, with all of us facing the same way and looking the same way with our eyes open and everyone smiling. My husband and I both have a bit of camera aversion. This year, my picture came out great (after a couple dozen tries); last year, I didn’t have a good picture of both kids at once, so I used two separate cute photos.
Like you, I think it’s a bit of a let-down to only get the card with no update or picture, but I’ve done it myself!
Truth be told, I’d rather not do cards at all, but it’s important to my husband and his family, so we do them.
I adore Christmas cards, but the really important part of them for me is the Christmas letter – LOVE them, especially with people I can’t keep in touch with! But pictures come in second best. The worst is a plain signed card.
I like to see the parents too. I like the whole family unit because I think they are all important. Kids will always be cute and it bothers me that adults seem so self conscious about how they look that I imagine that is why a majority of people exclude themselves. It just feeds the whole poor body image train. We rarely get letters and we don’t do one so I don’t have much perspective on that. The one we were getting seemed like it was written while the Mom was drunk (REALLY!) and their lives were all full of awards and amazing achievements when in reality we knew some of the families difficulties and straight out lies about things. This year things are worse…and they didn’t send out a card. I think it gets hard to lie all the time.
I have to comment on this because my husband feels strongly about it too. We like whole family photos so we have a visual on the adults when they are discussed. As in, my husband doesn’t know half my cousins and I don’t know his. When we get a card of just the kids, he still doesn’t know who I’m talking about. Besides, it’s always fun to see which family members look alike or have similar traits.
I honor people for reaching out to communicate with me. Criticism just makes them less likely to send one next year. I have a friend who can’t get her husband to be in the picture and she would like to be in the picture but doesn’t want to send the message that they are having problems so she settles on a picture with just the children.
High five to everyone who manages to send out a Christmas card, even if it is just a card with a signature!