Christmas Card Blues

Christmas cards, like so many other things around the holidays, seem to have an etiquette all their own.

I’ve never understood the whole, card for card thing. People are thrown into an absolute panic if they get a card from someone who they didn’t send one too. You’d think they were wedding invitations and not once a year correspondence with people you don’t even call every decade.

And I’m never more conscious of how dysfunctional my family is, until I start trying to address my cards. Like, do I send one to my uncle’s current live in girlfriend? And do I send it to his home address and risk his ex spouse throwing it away in a fit of anger? Do I send one to my recently exed-aunt who hated almost everyone in the family or will that just look like I’m rubbing it in her face? I addressed one card, now already in the mail, to Mr. and Mrs. His-Last-Name, only to remember, after it had been mailed, that the Mrs. very specifically did NOT take his name when they married. Eventually I just throw up my hands and say “what the heck it’s just a card goshfriggindanggit” (or something to that effect) and put on the stamps.

All these land mines of potential family ire, often make me dread the summer family get togethers, where Aunt Myrtle will sniff resentfully at me because I sent one to Uncle Fred and Cousin Holly, but forgot her. But I’ll just do what I always do, smile and apologize. What else can I do? It’s just a card. It’s just a gesture. And I don’t know about you folks, but I’m human and prone to make the occasional mistake.

So here’s a picture of me and my crazy christmas smile for you lot who did not get a card from me, and even to the others who did.

Happy Christmas Everyone!
With love from Me.

© Rachel Svendsen 2015