My Thoughts on 12/12/2020

I had an email from friends who said they would not be sending Christmas cards this year but giving the money they saved to charity. I worked out that if someone sent 50 cards, each card costing 50p with 50 second class stamps, each at 65p each then they would be giving £57.50 to charity. Any charity would welcome such a gift. I hope my maths are right.

Yet I enjoy getting cards at Christmas and the personal messages inside. Receiving them from people I haven’t heard from in a while but who are thinking of me is a joy. They brighten up the house. The downside for me is organising myself to sit down and write my cards before the last day for posting. I have friends who are super organised and they have already sent all their cards and even include a Christmas letter.

As we all know the Christmas card is a fairly recent innovation. The first one was sent in 1843. If you want to look at the history of the Christmas Card the Victoria and Albert Museum had a very good website. The first designs didn’t have an explicit religious theme.

When I get down to sending my cards I am not dreaming of a white Christmas with every card I write but it is my prayer for each person. Cards for me are a way of sharing the joy of Christ’s birth.