Hot seat
I'm in it just for today while Ed is away.
Just wanted to say hello while I check out the cocktail cabinet and make sure everything is in order.
Wondered whether you've had any more thoughts about John Humphrys' declaration that he is not going to send any Christmas cards? Now that the moment is approaching are you with him - particularly all of you who are blogtastically proficient at electronic communication?
It is nice getting a card dropping through the letter box though isn't it?......
Listen to PM
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~46~RS~)
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So that explains the mysterious 8th december posting. Have a good one Sequin
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Arranging emails over the mantelpiece just isn't the same. I do, however, support ditching corporate gifts in favour of charitable giving.. bah humbug!
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Hello Sequin,
Funny you should raise that about Christmas cards. I had an email yesterday from an old friend saying that she and her partner are sending ecards this year to spare the trees etc. I feel quite angry as an ecard, while lovely, is simply a different beast and not, imho, to be used as a substitute at Christmas time. Anyway, it riled me so much that I immediately sent her and her partner an ecard, hoping that they might see how it feels to be treated in that way. Perhaps it was a bit juvenile of me, but I hope it might have made the point ....
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I am contractually obliged to agree with everything John Humphrys says - he is our current 'Greatest Living Welshman'.
Anyone who can champion the cause of correct grammar, spear dissembling politicians and turn curmudgeonliness into a witty and humorous art form, all before I've had my breakfast, deserves the fast track to sainthood in my opinion.
Without him on the Today programme, there would be nothing to leaven the somewhat smug, slightly patronising tone of middle-class condescension which can start to infect the programme from time to time.
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I always feel a bit awkward "sending" cards to my colleagues here at work. In one sense, yes it's convention and as said above, you can put them over your mantlepiece, but it also seems a palaver rather than just speaking to the person.
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LBG - I agree with you about the sainted John, but disagree with him about Christmas cards. I think what he (and perhaps we all) should do is not send to all and sundry, as has become the custom of late, which diminishes their worth. Oh, and don't get me started on Round Robins ......
;o)
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BS 3, You could always print the ecards.
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lBG 4, My grammar was always correct. Beat her children, went to church, was a vegetarian.....oh, that was my grandmother.
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David (7)
(1) not if they're animated
(2) the printing would cost me, the recipient, much much more to print them out than it would my miserly friends to send me a pre printed Christmas card. Which is part of what makes me cross about it.
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"the printing would cost me, the recipient, much much more to print them out than it would my miserly friends to send me a pre printed Christmas card"
Come off it Big Sis. What do you have as a printing mechanism? - a team of monks producting illuminated vellum copies?
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Big Sister (6):
*I* like round robins... the fatter the better... *licks lips*
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If somebody sent me an email saying they were going to make a donation to charity rather than send cards I would ask to see the receipt.
I haven't sent any for years, and it's fantastic. I stopped when the cards got so expensive. The last straw was when somebody made fun of me for sending a previous years issue card (apparently they have a date on the back).
I would like to say I give a donation in lieu of the cards, but I don't. I spend the money on bacon wrapped chippolatas (or should that be chippolati).
Once I have convinced the rest of the world to do the same I am going to concentrate on the outlawing of buying birthday presents for other peoples children.
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BS 9, I forgot about those animated ones.
QL 10, I had a team of monkeys copy Shakespeare for me.
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Loon, no, not monks, but a standard inkjet printer. If you print out in full colour for one page, you'll find the cost is significantly more than the average 25p for a Christmas card. And, as I've just said, that cost falls on the recipient, not the sender - more the spirit of Scrooge than the spirit of Christmas, imho.
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Ah Big Sis - You forgot to factor in the cost of postage. - I reckon you could still afford the monks.
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I've been thinking about this whole concept. Christmas cards were a Victorian invention utilising the excellent postal service; 3-4 deliveries a day in places.
Now that we're lucky if the temporary workers don't rip the cards apart looking for postal orders, and the posties don't dump their sack of cards in the canal and we possibly get one delivery per day, maybe it's time to let the tradition rest.
Of course I'd rather we just had the postal service of old, "Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night, etc."
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Talking of monks and illuminated copies . . .
A new monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old texts by hand.
He notices, however, that they are copying copies, not the original books. So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this. He points out that if there were an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the other copies.
The head monk says "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son." So, he goes down into the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original.
Hours later, nobody has seen him. So, one of the monks goes downstairs to look for him. He hears a sobbing coming from the back of the cellar, and finds the old monk leaning over one of the original books crying. He asks what's wrong.
The old monk sobs, "The word is celebrate."
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Card plus postage would still be less, Loon.
Can I assume you don't send Christmas cards yourself?
Oh, and my friend made absolutely no mention of donating the cost to charity - she's just saving herself money. A few years ago, the same friend informed me she wasn't giving Christmas presents anymore, either. Yet, when you visit her house around Christmas time, there is no sign that other 'economies' have been made - always new decorations, big tree, lots of wine etc.
I don't know, perhaps it's just me, but I like to share Christmas with my friends, but we're all different.
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Cat: I'll send you a very round robin, complete with all the trimmings. ;o)
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Big Sis - Yes, of course I send Christmas Cards, but only personal ones now.
As a Company, we used to have ones printed and sent out to all our contacts, but we knocked that on the head a couple of years ago. Now, we just do a general email, with Christmas greetings and stating the charity that we are contributing to, in lieu of the card and postage.
We receive quite a few messages in the same vein and the number of physical cards that we receive has gone down quite steeply over recent years.
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Bah! Humbug to all the attention-seeking non-card-sending Scrooges. It is notable that those miseries who 'don't' send cards make such a bloody virtuous song and dance about it. I am very surprised at John Humphreys, thought. I would have expected hime to either send, or not send, but not bore everyone telling them so.
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Back in the 1970s my Pa worked as a head honcho in a medium-big firm, and was obliged to send a christmas card from the firm to each and every person they dealt with -- all to be hand-signed and addressed. My Ma spent many days doing this chore, for people she had never met, and about whom she didn't even know whether they celebrated Christmas. She longer for the wretched company to decide to do what a lot of them did in those days, put an advert in the personalcolumn of the Times that said 'Owing to the high cost of Christmas cards, X Y or Z are using this medium to wish a Merry Christmas to all their customers'.
This card-sending business, however, meant that Pa had access to a service that printed cards with 'your own personal message' in them. So one year all his and her personal cards to our family and friends were printed inside with 'Owing to the high cost of a personal advertisement in the columns of the Times, Dr. and Mrs. [Person] are sending Christmas cards this year.'
As a family, we now send cards only to people who [a] we care about enough to have visited at least once in the previous year and [b] we are not going to see during the month before Christmas, nor give presents to and [c] people who are so far away that we are not likely to see them. That cuts it down to family who have moved to Australia, Argentina or other Furrin Parts, and friends who've got stuck in say Aberdeen. It isn't not-sending-cards, it is not sending cards (as someone does every year to our address) to people who don't live somewhere and never have, and not putting a return address on a card signed 'Mary and Dave and the children'.
I *can* think of more useless items than random Christmas cards to people you don't know well enough to know what street they live on, but not many!
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Loon: "Yes, of course I send Christmas Cards, but only personal ones now."
Yes, and so do I.
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I send cards, but draw the line at cards that I can hand out. If I can reach someone to give them a card, I can wish them a happy christmas to their face It doesn't sit on the mantlepiece, but does save trees and money while still getting the same message over. So none for work colleagues.
tod
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Sequin. You're back. Welcome! It really must be the festive season!
Haven't sent a Christmas card for three years - will be four years this Christmas. Instead, I send the annual cost which would be cards purchased from Cancer Research U.K. plus postage to... Cancer Research U.K.
I also ask family, friends etc who might be "tempted" to send me a card, please not to do so, but consider instead, making a donation to a charity of their choice.
QualifiedLoon@17, I hope that's a joke otherwise, it's 30 years worth of tears for me..!
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I haven't sent them for years - although I am a self-confessed miserable git all year round and especially at Christmas time.
It's not even so much to do with saving trees / postage etc, it's more to do with a) the pre-confessed miserableness and b) the fact I'm incredibly lazy...
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This is my first EVER blog, so excuse me if I get anything wrong. I am entering the christmas card debate, as its a subject I have disagreements with family and friends with every year. I consider christmas cards to be a major part of the decoration of the house, and as a result of receiving around 50 a year, I tend to spend LESS on other decorations. They are also a great source of shopping lists (as are all greetings cards). After twelfth night, I collect them all up, make a note of any address changes etc, and then cut away the written on side and use the blank side of the illustration for shopping lists. So, for my part, keep them coming. I certainly send them as well - I hope my correspondents use them for the same purpose.
As for round robins, I could write a book on them. If you have had a major family change such as a birth death or marriage, they are clearly a good way of communicating, but as a method of boasting about your families achievements, as most of them are, they are obnoxious in the extreme - but you have to be careful - I once admonished a friend for sending one and they have not spoken to me since!
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'bout 3 years ago I wrote 164 cards and had them all ready to post in my room. My wife came in and tore them all up while I was at work.Never written one since.
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On the other hand, the season does offer the opportunity to send a very chatty card to someone of your acquaintance and sign it with a totally bogus name.
You can ask after their (named) children, hope that they enjoyed their French holiday and enquire if the car is driving well after the repair. Any other series of comments or enquiries will do, as long as they are true and pertinent to the acquaintance.
Imagine how delighted they will be to read that you and your spouse and three children will call with them at 3 o'clock on Boxing Day afternoon, as arranged way back in April.
Of course you should only send it to friends who will see the joke. Or, and here's the thing, it might work even better if you sent it to someone you don't like . . . .
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mostlygrumpy (12);
"..I stopped when the cards got so expensive". Aye to that.
Big Sis (14), the only way that you'll get cards at an average price of 25 pence is to buy those cheap crappy ones in boxes of 50. And what does sending a lousy card to a friend say to them about how well you regard them?
Cat, I'm with you on the reliability of the postal service. The quantity of 1st class mail that I've sent in the last 4 years that's gone missing is around 50 percent! Now I use e-mail or 'Special Delivery', but at a few quid a pop for the latter I mostly don't bother any more.
cat_lady (21);
It's not a question of attention seeking, any more than letting people know that you DO still send cards is attention seeking. Since John Humphreys is a self-confessed agnostic/atheist I'd have assumed that he didn't send cards marking a religious festival anyhow!
Charlie (25) has the right idea. Rather than making a sop to your conscience by sending charity-supporting cards, donate the full cost to the charity. They'll be much better off as a result and you'll have made more of a difference.
For what little it adds to the debate I haven't sent any for well over a decade. The cost of buying good quality cards is excruciating and the likelihood of them being lost in the post is considerable in my experience.
Christmas shouldn't be a commercial event, although sadly it seems to be that way. Cards are just another aspect of the rampant commercialisation. Speaking to people on the phone or visiting them in person to let them know that you care is far better than sending a card.
WR.
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WR: I think you need to look again at the cost of cards, and I mean good quality cards (not the type you refer to so disdainfully!) You will find very nice cards on sale at the price I mention, or thereabouts. They won't be very large, and they may not have glitter on them (but then I'm not the glittery type), but the images are often very good, the card on which they're printed of very acceptable quality, and the envelopes usually likewise.
I don't have a big budget to spend on cards, but I'd rather send a small, reasonably priced, well chosen card to each of my friends and family than send none. I also try to cut the cost down by meeting the deadline for second class post. As far as I'm aware, most of the cards reach their destination. Perhaps our postal service here is better than in some parts as we rarely have problems (though I'm aware of areas where it is not so reliable).
And please, WR, do not imply that I'd ever send a 'lousy' card to anyone - I find that suggestion quite offensive!
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A small change of subject here.I have just been for my weekly shop at Tesco.It cost me £88 about the norm.At the bottom of my receipt it said V.A.T. back on non food items 5p.This is really going to kick start the economy.Nice one Gordo/Alistair
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About three years after my mother died (1967) my father was still getting cards to "Mr. and Mrs." which put a stop to him ever sending any more. Admittedly it was the height of the greeting card phenomenon but it showed how churning them out had become mechanical rather than a true seasonal greeting to friends and family.
If you've seen today's Advent Calendar photo, you'll see the picture I've had developed (yes really) to cut out and make, Blue Peter style, into cards for those I care about who I know have a sense of humour.
What about making cards this year for people you can really be bothered about?
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WR - Last year I sent a parcel by special delivery but they could produce no proof of delivery.
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W_R 30, I reuse old cards sent to me.
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bm59 27, I once jumped all over a good friend for sending me one of those 'what I did' letters. He apologised and sent a personal one the next time. Now we chat by email, so it isn't necessary to send one. Having said that, he sends the cheapest looking cards possible. Probably 100 in a box for one dollar. You know who you are, Bob.
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BS 14, Do you refill your ink cartridges?
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BS 23, I have someone else send my personal cards.
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When I worked at the Trust I worked with a nice lady who really kept herself to herself. As a rookie pharmacist she looked after me in the first couple of weeks - we enjoyed a laugh and a joke together - and kept me on the straight and narrow. She was a pharmacy assistant and therefore considered herself to be a fair way down the pecking order. We spoke less and less as my training year continued - our paths didn't cross so often.
My memory of her was that every Christmas she wrote a card to each and every member of the department. She didn't leave anyone out. Not everyone reciprocated - I did. I found out from another colleague that the lady had no family left and spent every Christmas by herself. The only presents she apparently got were from the Secret Santa that the department ran and from a couple of closer colleagues in the department.
At the department "present opening and cheese straw session" on the last working day before Christmas she told me that she liked getting the cards because it meant that someone had spent some time thinking which card to send her and writing a few words just for her.
I'm at that point of the year where I'm thinking about the task of writing my cards for friends, neighbours and family. I think of my former colleague and it seems much less of a chore. She was happy with a handwritten "Have a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year!" in her card beneath the printed bit because someone had bothered to spend a minute choosing the words and wishing her some happiness.
Probably says a lot about modern society but I have now whittled the list down to those who mean something to me so that I can write something personal for them. I continued to send to her after I'd left the Trust but unfortunately we lost touch. I'm hoping my replacement has continued to write a card for her.
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Lady Sue, while I haven't time to make my own Christmas cards this year (though have been known to do that, and think it's a lovely idea), I will share with you that I made all my own wedding invitations, along with the orders of service, floral arrangements, decorations for the village hall where we 'celebrated', and much of the food. So, as you'll have gathered, I think 'doing it yourself' is great and provides much more satisfaction for the doer and the done by.
By the way, shall I send you my address? The cards sounds lovely ;o)
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(40) How lovely you made all those things. Are you long married? I am glad you approve of the DIY concept and abide by it.
By all means send your address. Can you do so without exposing your address to axe murderers? It would be lovely to include you on my (very limited!) Christmas card list.
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Karen, that is lovely, and it has reminded me of similar instances in my life. Perhaps we all need to remember that not everyone has a family or large circle of friends to send them Christmas greetings.
Lady Sue, we must think of a way. I'd love to be in touch anyway as I'm sure you're not an axe murderer and we have such fun on the Blog!
As to the wedding, it was within the last seven years. Hope my husband hasn't got an itch yet ;o)
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BS 40, I made the cards announcing my own birth.
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David, you are soooooo clever - but then you already knew that, didn't you? ;o)
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ancientgymrat @ 32, given that only non-food items ought to have VAT on them anyway, that isn't really quite fair, is it?
My objection to this particular cut-in-tax has been that it *doesn't* make food any cheaper, and food is the one thing that I feel is an unavoidable expense for everyone.
I was handed 15p this afternoon as change after I handed over seven pound coins for stationery with price-tags that added up to seven pounds exactly -- no, not Christmas cards, calendars for next year and no, they don't have pictures on them, they are business ones. I can't say that such largesse made me want to rush and buy another calendar, though! (I gave it to a Big Issue saleman along with the money for the BI that I was buying, and explained why; he was very amused.)
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