Over on my FaceBook page we’ve been talking about this new phenomenon of the family photograph-as-Christmas-card. I am bemoaning the loss of the beautiful, shared symbols of Christmas that used to arrive with the cards– the wise men, the nativity scene, the angels, the fir trees, et al. While I love my friends and their children and enjoy seeing photos of them, I miss the special holiday cards with lovely art on the front and (dare we hope?) a phrase or two penned by an actual human hand inside.
I just don’t really understand it. Since most of us can easily share photographs via e-mail and FaceBook or other social networking sites, I say Bring Back the Christmas Card!! Support a local artist! I have done just that this year and purchased my Christmas cards from Martha’s Vineyard artist Daniel A. Waters. Sadly, Mr. Waters doesn’t seem to offer Christmas cards on his website but if you love these, I bet you could contact him and he’d send you some next year. They’re printed in gold ink on thick ivory paper with ripped edges. $15 for six. Not cheap, but these are printed individually and are frameable art.
If you must send out the photo-cards, may I make a plea on behalf of all of us who are thinking this but too timid to say it? INCLUDE YOURSELF IN THE PHOTO!! Yes, I love seeing how my friend’s children are growing up. But darn it, I want to see them, too!! And watching you wrinkle and lose your hair and waistline is half the fun… it says that we’re all growing older together.
Oops. Wish you’d posted this just one day sooner. Don’t open my card! [Cut it out, you. Noticing a trend doesn’t mean anything but noticing a trend. Yea, I miss the old open-the-card and get the photo inside. I *really* miss the card fronts. I used to stand for long, long minutes as a child and look at the ones my mom posted on the inside of our front door. They were so fancy, and since we didn’t go to a fancy church, they had a churchy resonance for me. Before we mourn the passing of that tradition, I wanted to wonder aloud if it was really passing, or just, as Chris suggests, a demographic thing in my life right now. Of course I love getting cards of any kind!- PB]
I wonder if you aren’t just caught in a demographic bubble, as so many of your peers are plunged into the child-rearing phase of their lives. I was a fine-art Christmas card sender for many years, and am quite sure I will be again—perhaps in another five to ten years. [I think it’s also a word-of-mouth thing in my cultural context. “We did this cute Snapfish photo thing, it was easy, it was fast, I loved it.” Boom, Mom/Card Sender gets to cross another thing off the list, everyone gets a cute photo. I certainly understand the virtues of that. – PB]
I always send a card with a regular photo inside, that way you can display the real card. And the photo can be kept all year. Also it winds up being a lot cheaper, because prints of a 4×6 online are 9 cents, and the photo cards wind up being 35 cents apiece. And you can get beautiful cards on sale after Christmas this year and send them next year!
I did the photo card thing this year after getting a one sheet photo card from friends who’d just had a little one. Babies grow so fast in that first year that it was fun seeing her progression in the photos. I really liked it, and tried to do the same thing but I realize now she used Snapfish, not Shutterfly (dagnabbit!), which is why I couldn’t quite replicate the look.
I do appreciate your thinking about these things. Things have definitely changed in the last few years in regards to Christmas cards. It’s interesting how quickly Christmas trends circulate (I like to see how styles of Christmas lighting change every few years as people are influenced by their neighbors), and I’d be curious to know how the whole practice of sending Christmas cards began.
The first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843 and featured an illustration by John Callcott Horsley. The picture, of a family with a small child drinking wine together, proved controversial, but the idea was shrewd: Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. Two batches totaling 2,050 cards were printed and sold that year for a shilling each.
(attribution: Wikipedia)
I am all about the photo cards. Is it boorish of me to admit that I think photo-less cards are rather boring? Maybe I’m not artsy enough. Anyway, I totally agree with you on the “pics of kids are nice but we want to see YOU” front. As a mother of one (and another on the way), I have vowed to keep myself in the photo, no matter how self-conscious I feel about the pounds gained post-baby. [YAY! Seriously, back before it was so easy to share photos online, I would be so bummed when my friends stayed out of their Christmas photos. I wanted to see how they were doing! – PB]
This may be on an upswing at the moment, but it is hardly a new phenomena – I’m 54 and Christmas cards of me as an elf, and as a 10 month old grabbing for and attempting to eat an ornament.
Maybe it is just my family (but on both sides) there are treasure the Christmas cards sent out by my great grandparents… 1885, and several later family groups.
I am a photo sender–but here’s the thing–what percentage of christmas cards are nativity, angels, etc. and what percentage are illustrated puppies in santa hats or snowmen??
I must say, that I like evidence that someone did actually touch my cards, and I purposesly do not have our names printed on the card so that I can personally sign them.
i have always loved the sophia fahs statement that “every night is a holy night on which a child is born” but these cards do sometimes look like idolatry. but i have framed some from dear friends, just to keep their flourishing souls in sight.
Take ten photos of your toddler and nine of them will be worthy to send to friends & family. Take ten photos of the toddler and his/her parents and the percentage plummets below ten percent.
I think Chris is right, and two curves converge: the “we have a small child, must send photos of him/her!” curve and the “we have a small child, must squeeze Christmas-card sending into the half-hour we’re awake when he/she isn’t!” curve. Add the third, “we have a small child, haven’t bathed in three days or gotten enough sleep in three years!,” and the result is Costco* photo-cards of the cutie sans parents.
I do like the art cards and the family photos, though.
*cheaper than Shutterfly & Snapfish