For the life of me, I cannot answer this question. I’ve been getting them close to 40 years at this point — my parents also used to get the “Christmas letter” — and it’s obviously been in hyper-drive since I was about 28 and my friends began having kids. I’m ashamed to admit that my fridge is normally about 92% lily-white during the holidays, which is a reflection on me more than anything else, probably. But still … I just don’t understand the point of them. A few reflections, if I may.
Are they sentimental?
The biggest defenders of the annual Christmas card refer to them as sentimental and personal, which is comical. It’s a photo, or a series of photos, with bullet point life accomplishments on the back (if you so choose), and you blast the same photo/layout to everyone. How’s that personal? How’s that sentimental? It’s basically the holiday equivalent of LinkedIn cold DMs, but you might vaguely know the person who you’re blasting the card to.
Don’t you already know stuff about the life of people, via the Internet?
A lot of the biggest devotees of the annual Christmas card are the same people who post about 1–2x/day on social media, meaning that a lot of the stuff in the card — “We bought a new house this year!”…
