They are pouring into our mailbox more than ever these days. With the prevalence of digital technology and so many online options it’s never been easier to share your snapshot of baby in a festive holiday outfit. I would approximate those long skinny cards make up 80% of our cards received. Along with this technology - the majority of them are losing more and more of a personal touch. Pre-printed address labels are slapped on the envelope along with an imprinted signature and message on the card. No pen hits the paper. I too am guilty of this and I’m not especially proud. But I understand the factory assembly line feeling it can be to get the cards out. It’s difficult to take the time to write a personal note when you have a stack looming and need to rush to the post office along with everything else on your to-do list.

Then the next issue - what to do with all the photo cards? I have at least a decade of them stored in various shoeboxes, it justs feels wrong to throw them away.

I was given an innovative solution from my very organized and thoughtful co-worker, Judy. She keeps all of the holiday photos in clear protective sleeves in a three-ring binder. Each family who sends cards gets their own sleeve and she collects all of the cards and photos throughout the years. She and her daughter like to sit down each year and flip through the binder and compare how their friends children have grown and changed. When the oldest child graduates from high school, she gives the family their “sleeve.” She said this is always very well received as most people don’t keep copies for themselves over all of those years. Brilliant.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Family Life, Holidays, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.