Are Christmas cards no longer a thing?

[Shambala]

We used to get 40+ Christmas cards a year and this year 16 - about the same as the past few years. I remember my pop getting a zillion cards that he would hang and cover the hutch and adjoining walls. I have about 50 on my Christmas cards list I send to.

[ret5hd]

1. i get one from my cpa...

and one from my insurance agent.

and i like it that way.

[Shambala]

2. I got one from Sal's pizza.

I guess I ordered something from him once. I’ll make sure to order another pizza 🍕 from him soon.

[Sanity Claws]

3. No longer a thing for most people

I haven't sent a card in about 20 years. I get cards only from businesses these days.

[Johonny]

4. I get 1 back for every 3 I send

Mostly the older generations still do them.

Younger people post everything online.

[Shambala]

21. Yeah, about the same return ratio for me

But all in the spirit of spreading holiday cheer.

[Maninacan]

5. Price

6$ each . Too expensive. A lot of crude themes. Hallmark seems to have all the business and nothing they make impresses me.

[maxsolomon]

37. I've sent cards I got from Estate Sales the last 10 years.

I'm out now.

If people send cards at all, they mostly send photo-montage postcards.

[dem4decades]

6. The younger families send cards with photos of them and their kids on them, i love them.

It's so great to see then get older. I hope they never stop.

[newdeal2]

13. Yes I mostly get these types

Basically a postcard with family photos and a message. I never get traditional cards unless it is with a gift or from some local business.

[Shambala]

22. I have a couple of relatives that send

long written updates of what occurred over the past year included in their cards with a collage of photos. It’s nice to see.

[highplainsdem]

7. A lot of people I know have stopped sending them completely, or send them only to their

closest friends and family, and maybe a boss or important coworker.

It's become more expensive, it can be time-consuming getting the right assortment of cards if you know who prefers what (traditional religious, traditional nonreligious, funny, cats at Christmas, kittens at Christmas, puppies at Christmas, etc). Most of us have handwriting that can make deciphering even a short note a challenge. Mail delivery is unreliable.

[maxsolomon]

38. Mail delivery is not unreliable.

I sent 40 cards this year and had 1 returned.

I sent about 40 packages via Media Mail in 2025 and all of them made it to the addressee without issues, in less time than promised.

Where are you sending things that the USPS is "unreliable"?

[highplainsdem]

41. I've received enough mail late and heard enough about USPS packages

arriving very late, sometimes after being sent halfway acrosd the.country in the wrong direction, to not have as much confidence in the mail as I used to have. I've also had neighbors' mail misdelivered to me and mail sent to me misdelivered to them. I've had packages sent to me via USPS stuck in mail hubs sometimes for several days. And when I've used search engines to see if others are running into similar problems, I've found confirmation of that.

I will say I haven't had USPS packages sent to me, or that I sent, completely lost. But I know others who have.

I've received Christmas cards sent several days before Christmas after Christmas, even when sent from a neighboring state or nearby city.

[maxsolomon]

42. I don't know where you live, but maybe your issue is local.

I experience nothing like that in the PNW.

[highplainsdem]

44. I'm in the center of the country, but I've heard about problems like the ones I've run into both from

people nearby and from people in other regions. Mail delivery became noticeably worse starting several years ago.

DeJoy has been rightly blamed for a lot of the problems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_Postal_Service_crisis

[Ocelot II]

8. Not really.

People send e-cards or other electronic greetings. It would be nice to help out USPS but I think a lot of people regard cards as just more wasteful paper. I don't send them, don't get them except from a few businesses. I do remember when my family would get a zillion of them, and my mother spent hours addressing cards to send out.

[Maru Kitteh]

9. It requires hours and hours of work. Few women have the bandwidth

for such an endeavor anymore on top of every damn other thing we are expected to do, all day, every day. I love the idea of Christmas cards. I can’t. These days, I barely feel like a living thing at all, and I doubt that makes for cheerful holiday greetings, and I no longer have the energy to lie.

[maxsolomon]

39. I'm the one who does it in my house. I still believe it's important to my elder relatives.

It does take a significant effort - I think I spent 3 hours on it.

[Ms. Toad]

10. Not so much.

I haven't sent Christmas cards in years. One of my brothers sends them every year. I typically receive about 4 cards a year.

[Skittles]

11. fewer every year, and not just people dying

it's getting pricey too

[NewHendoLib]

12. I guess it depends - on age, personal tradition, available time, number of friends and/or family

Been married 45 years - when we were young, we received and sent dozens and dozens. This year - received none, sent none.

[Bayard]

14. I still send them out to family and friends

This year, I only mailed them out to people who were in other parts of the country. Others I knew I'd be seeing soon, I just put cards in with their gifts.

Still, I only got a few this year. Not even worth hanging up. Pretty sad, compared to yesteryear.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

18. Most that i received this year, were from businesses

[ITAL]

15. My wife and I send them

I think we do roughly fifty a year (only got about fifteen back). Actually we do personalized cards, plus a general letter where where we sum up our year. I guess we're old school. Almost all the ones we get from other people are from folks in their 60s or older (we're in our 40s).

I guess we're old souls.

[LudwigPastorius]

16. My 88-year-old mother still sends Christmas cards.

Last edited Tue Dec 30, 2025, 01:13 AM - Edit history (1)

I never have.


One thing I've noticed over the years is that a lot of people use the annual Christmas card to take a aren't-we-incredible victory lap.

"Little Susie got accepted to Harvard, Billy spent his time this year making boutonnières for the homeless, Bob hand whittled a Jet Ski for summer fun at our exclusive lakefront property, while I completed the Multi-Engine Rating for my pilot's license!"

[Shambala]

25. One of my cousins would not only tout the highlights of the past year

In her annual letter but sometimes would include innocent family dirt/drama going on. We always look forward to that card

[Rebl2]

27. Yes

some do that and usually it’s family members I am not that close to. Really find it kind of boring.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

17. I havent mailed a card in years

[notinkansas]

19. I spent about $75 on postage alone.

I think we will have to reduce the names on that list next year.

[dalton99a]

20. Heathens. Trump will issue an executive order to restore this sacred tradition

"Make Americans Send Christmas Cards Again"

[fujiyamasan]

23. Come to think of it I don't know if we got any this year

But it does require some effort.

You need to first get a photo taken and a card made. You also need a person’s physical addresses, but even if you have that , you likely have their phone number already anyways…

And since you can send photos that way…

I’m not saying it’s the same. It’s always a pleasant and unique feeling to receive a physical greeting from someone (especially if they’re a close friend or family member), but we’re all pressed for time now.

[Shambala]

24. We haven't been able to coordinate a family photo to use on a card the past few years

so I just had them choose and send me a few photos from over the past year I could assemble into a collage.

[Rebl2]

26. I think

the younger generation isn’t interested in sending cards or spending money and stamps. I think older people are becoming the same way. Some cards are pretty expensive and have been for years, and stamp prices going up doesn’t help. I only sent cards to immediate family and a couple friends because I was I’ll.

[tavernier]

28. Only family in other states to whom I'm including a Christmas check.

Close by friends and family get actual presents. I mailed four cards this year, 17 days before Christmas. One arrived three days after Christmas, another arrived two days after I mailed it. Go figure.

[Borogove]

29. My wife and I have been sending fewer and fewer. Life in the Trumpocene has made us increasingly jaded and cynical.

[FascismIsDeath]

30. Waste of money and paper in my opinion...

I don't send cards for anything and I don't want them sent to me. I started trashing them years ago, just more junk on top of all the junk I don't need. If you want to drop me a line for the holiday or whatever, call me or text me.

[gay texan]

31. I had some custom ones made this year.

First time in ages ive sent them out

[patphil]

32. My wife and I are experiencing the same thing.

This year we got about 1/2 the number of cards we used to get...only about 15 or so.
Back in the 50's, my mother would send out a couple hundred cards each year; most of them with short notes in them. She would start working on them in November. She kept a notebook with the names and addresses, and columns for each year. If we received a card, she would check it off. Several years with no card would get you dropped from the book. It was a very social thing.
Now people communicate in different ways. Still by phone, but also by text message, e-mail and social media.
The Christmas card was a way of keeping the connection between people open; to let them know we were thinking of them. Letters did the same for the rest of the year.
Letters have pretty much disappeared now, and Christmas cards are headed down the same track.

I think this was the first year my wife didn't have any desire to send out cards. Some was because of death in the family (3), but also because of the feeling that next year would be even worse than this year.

[Shambala]

33. I quit social media several years ago

(unless DU counts as social media) so I don't get to see family photos people usually post. It's nice to get a family photo Christmas card to see how friends' kids and grandkids are growing.

Speaking of letters, I was thinking last night of to whom and when i last physically wrote out and mailed a letter. I think it was 1983 or 84 I sent my last letter to a friend who had gone off to college. Crazy where the years have gone.

[patphil]

50. Crazy where the years have gone.

Yeah, crazy.

[bif]

34. We got a ton of them this year

More than last year.

[chia]

35. I stopped sending them six years ago. I don't blame people for dropping me off their list for not reciprocating theirs,

so of course the numbers of cards I've gotten has gradually dropped down to about ten or so cards. I'm okay with that. My years of laboring over Christmas cards is over and I'm okay with that too.

I'm not on social media but so many people are, and can keep up with family/friend news and photos all year long so the Christmas card photos and updates seem less necessary. My family and friends and I stay connected through texting, FaceTime and calls, so I don't feel out of the loop at all.

[Sympthsical]

36. We just Zelle things

I used to mail cards if money was involved, but going to the store to get a card, then UPS store because I have no stamps, then the ATM for cash (because that is not a thing that exists in my world). I have a checkbook . . . somewhere. No idea.

Or, tap on my phone real quick to pay the distant children.

We lead a cashless existence and don't use the mail. I'm straining to recall the last time we've had to mail a bill or anything at all really. It's been a while. Mortgage, taxes, utilities, insurance. It's all online or with a phone app.

Social media has also changed this. My mom used to get dozens of cards with little notes, pictures, etc. Just to update the family you haven't seen in a while.

Now I know exactly what Phyllis is doing, whether I want to or not. Sometimes daily. It's Starbucks, Phyllis! I don't need to see it!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

40. I still send them

It's one way of knowing that people are still alive.

[Renew Deal]

43. People with kids send them

They are custom made and have pictures of kids, pets, and families. Other than that, I don’t think they are very common. I don’t believe that people spend time writing a stack of cards for the holidays.

[Shambala]

46. I like the custom photo cards

and comparing the changes from year to year.

I still get an old school card from one of my cousins who only writes his and his wife's name. No personalized greeting or message other than the canned message that comes with the card...just their names. At least I know they're still alive

[CTyankee]

45. Yes and I'm glad. It became a chore.

We've gotten exactly two this year.

[JustKay]

47. I don't do them. Haven't for years.

[valleyrogue]

48. I send them out. Ecards don't do it for me. n/t

[Shambala]

49. A few years ago i received an ecard

so I could print it out and put it with the other cards. I didn't bother.

[Pinback]

51. I sent a few this year,

some funny or satirical, others heartwarming and sincere, depending on the addressee. One of my favorite funny ones was an ancient-looking pseudo-woodcut depicting the 3 Wise Men giving the baby Jesus Eggo waffles with the headline “MANGER THINGS” (in the same font as the “Stranger Things” series.

It was most appreciated by the recipient.

[vapor2]

52. Seems to be fading out

I haven't bought cards for the past 2 years.

[doc03]

53. I haven't sent one in years, I got one from a

neighbor, a couple car dealers and my insurance agent.