Re: A seasonal question.
Nope don't send Christmas or birthday cards any more. It's just commercial nonsense predicated on guilt. i.e. Friend A sends you a card so you are obligated to send them a card too. Pretty soon your obligations are far and wide and it becomes a sizable exercise each year to buy, select, write and post loads of cards.
And for what? We just string them up for a few days and then they get thrown out in their billions across the country. Sure you can cut some of them up to make gift tags but by and large this is just an exercise feeding the profits of an industry.
So no, I no longer feed that guilt driven pastime.
Equally I no longer send Christmas presents. The entire family, grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, cousins etc all agreed long ago that we would run what we call the "£5 challenge"
That is to say, all presents bought for each other must not cost any more than £5 each.
Thus one has to be quite discerning about what you buy, as it can be hard to find something relevant and decent for £5.
However it does mean your entire Christmas present outlay is relatively tiny and that's especially good for the younger members of the family who are working and paying off mortgages and other debts and for who Christmas is a financial nightmare.
We operated this £5 challenge for many years quite successfully.
I have since withdrawn from even that so don't buy any presents and in return nobody has to buy presents for us.
It's very liberating I can tell you. Doesn't mean we love anybody any less than we did. Just means we are unshackled from the commercial industry preying on our consciences and guilt.
Now we don't have to worry about Christmas at all. No Christmas shopping to do, no cards or presents to buy and send. We can just enjoy the festive period stress free.