Card Me

This morning I woke up to an unusual alarm going off on my phone. It was not the clock radio or the normal phone chimes. It was the alarm reminding me an important event on my calendar.

But why at 4:00 a.m. on a Thursday?

What could be so important?

Christmas cards!

As long as I have iCal and am using Apple products - or until I change the settings - I will be reminded three weeks before Thanksgiving to start working on my address list for Christmas cards. Since I mail 60 to 90 cards each year (I am single handedly trying to keep the postal service in operation), three weeks has turned out to be the magical time it takes to email people and update current mailing addresses.

Yes, I use email to get mailing addresses.

It is faster than sending a teaser card to see if I can collect a return address stamp from the USPS.

Holiday cards are one special way of making contact that still has a personal touch. While I do have a spreadsheet and use mail-merge to print the labels for the envelopes, I still sign each card and I send out a variety of cards each year and hand select the one that goes to each address. I do not simply pick one design, one-size-fits-all, and push them in the mail. I take the time to write a personal note as well as include my standard “Christmas Letter” though anyone would be sorely pressed to take my holiday letter seriously. It is early November and I already have the opening paragraph composed.

Prepare to be offended.

Maybe I should take some of the personal sensibilities of my recipients into consideration. 

Then again, my letter is about my life. They can tell me the dull details of their child’s finger painting. I shall turn the year into an adventure that bites.

Prepare to be offended.