Poem People: My holiday card

Why am I sending greeting cards in my 20s?

How did I end up financially committed to greenvelope.com?

The urge to send out a greeting card is so indicative of a specific mode—distanced from your circle but still warm, reaching out to pat the shoulder, not hold the hand.

I don’t have little children to announce or a new homeowner’s grin, but I think this little communication transcends the news flash it’s become.

As an independent and deeply quiet person, greeting my circle often is crucial. They need to know they’re here with me in my thoughts, even if they’re not on the other end of a phone call. It’s a pure greeting.

Every month I send out a hello, here’s what I’ve been thinking about, here are some snapshots, to all of you.

This newsletter is a greeting card from me to all of you.

Because I’m accidentally a Greenvelope ambassador, both of my card designs are from a selection of cards on their site. They are not original works.

2022 e-card:

2023 e-card:

The holidays are paired with warm spices and spaces, opening our minds with cinnamon and space heaters. I think this is why we’re so sentimental at the start of winter. The open mind is filled with sliding togetherness.

Holiday cards are a relatively new phenomenon of English descent. In 1843, Henry Cole commissioned the first greeting card of the holiday season:

Image courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine

Nearly a century later, World War I and II drove so much demand for holiday cards that it cemented them as a staple tradition. However, sales and popularity of greeting cards in general are on the decline. The average American household receives an average of 20 cards per holiday season, a decline of 50% from 2000.¹

Here’s the result of an Instagram poll on holiday card sending:

Instagram insights say 82% of my audience is 25-34, so I think this is a function of the destabilized economy, housing market, and environmental catastrophe that early adults are trying to navigate while being held to the standards of past generations’ conditions.

Without the chance to catch our breath, holiday cards feel less exciting and more like clutter on the breakfast table.

Whatever you do, your network will probably still be there for you.

For your holiday consideration:

• (No. 5) Not? decking the halls

  Why ‘being’ isn’t a valid state during the holidays. We must all be ‘doing,’ and that’s exhausting, but maybe the doing is what separates the holidays apart from regular time.

• (No. 5.5) Cheese-o-Cheermeister

  Why are there so many Christmas dramas on Hallmark? Sincerity flows and floats around the holidays. It comes “without packages, boxes or bags.” It comes in Hallmark movies and in complaints. In financial strain and in New Year’s Eve kisses.

Peace x

1. According to the podcast Christmas Past.