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I am sure they were bragging on how many cards they got in the mail, but receiving holiday cards and displaying them on the mantle was tradition. A stamp cost pennies and letters and cards received and sent was one way to socialize.
I started to organize my collection of Christmas cards last year. I had saved a box full of them: old and newer, handmade and professionally printed. I looked over hundreds of beautiful cards that I did not keep.
There are a few black and white photo Christmas cards of me and my brother through the 1950s, and cards featuring mantels from the New Jersey relatives. I never would have said that my parents took much pride in my accomplishments, but their 1966 card is a picture of me in my flight attendant uniform that tells a different story.
Our mailbox collected fewer cards than ever last season. Sending and receiving Christmas cards is a huge part of my holiday experience and while I get how much easier it is to send an e-card, I love every part of sending cards through the mail. I love looking over pictures recently downloaded to my computer, and choosing and creating each year’s card with Snapfish or Shutterfly or whoever offers me 40 percent off by a deadline I can work with.
I have featured my grandchildren’s precious faces since 2001. Owen, our first grandbaby, was born that year and he slept in his Aunt Abby’s arms in a family photo taken in front of the mantle in our living room. Soon we had two little guys, and featured them on Wells Beach, Maine, until 2007 when both little girls were born, three months apart. Back to the beach for one last family time together, and a photo in 2008, with four grandchildren making “all 10 in” — my husband, John, and I, our four kids and the four grandkids.
Our life in pictures is in our Christmas offering. I send cards to friends and relatives far away and I send to the family and friends we see all the time. Each year there is someone special I’ve met or reconnected with and I let them know they are special to me by sending them a card featuring my four grands.
Artist Moria Stephens illustrated a story I wrote for Kids Stuff, and we exchanged Christmas cards. She graciously sold me the original watercolor, of a box of blueberries, and her card was a print of one of her drawings.
Last year I needed to connect, by sending a card with a note, to Rebecca Munsterer because her young reader’s books have found favor with both granddaughters. I’ve never met Rebecca, but it is Christmastime and grandmothers love “The Little Rippers” stories too.
I have not included a letter with my card since 2011, but those I did write are included in the album and they really do tell of the hopes and dreams my husband and I had as the years flew by. Reading them over gives me a sense of what we were going through, what our concerns and blessings were, and how much busier my life used to be. Life seemed to be going so fast at the time that as I reread my own letters, there are things I have forgotten about and have much better perspective on now. I have an album full of proof that I’ve been blessed with a wonderful family and good health and well-being for me and those I love. A yearly picture chronicles that my grandchildren, four very different personalities, all adore each other and love spending time together.
I have my grown children’s cards, beautifully made, in my album as well, and special cards and letters that just belong in the collection. A favorite card is framed and has pride of place on our dining room wall. It is the White House Christmas card, circa 1966, signed by both Lyndon and Lady Bird.
Thinking ahead to 2018, I know I want to continue featuring the grandchildren, and my card will say Merry Christmas. But yours might be a Solstice card, or a New Year’s or Kwanzaa or Hanukkah card instead. Every year we attend a Solstice party where we write our grudges or regrets on a slip of paper to throw into the evening bonfire. We stand side by side, shivering and laughing and waiting for the longer days soon to come.
Celebrate life as you mark this very special time of year by sending a card through the mail, or an e-card, or post a Facebook letter. Be Pollyanna or maudlin (we have received both) in your note. Make it about love, or missing someone, or appreciation — whatever best represents you. Call, text or email: You will know who you have touched in a special way because they will hit reply. Or they will mail you a card!
I see the mail truck slowing at the top of the drive; maybe there will be a new card in the mailbox.
Chery Fish is a retired social worker and writer. She lives in White River Junction. She can be contacted at cafishinski@gmail.com.