I stopped sending cards years ago, anyone close to me who I won’t see over the holidays gets a phone call or email from me. I also don’t use birthday cards, except on very rare occasions.

Sorry, this seems like a preachy idea. It’s up to the recipients what they do with your cards, not the sender! Nice holiday message. “Merry Christmas, now stop being a slob and recycle this.”

My season’s greetings are sent on January 2nd, a Happy New Year letter. It’s a humourous look at the previous year. Both DH and I have family and friends all over the place, and the New Year’s letter is well received.

I’m a professional organizer, too. I don’t think I’d send such a directive as ‘get rid of this card’, no matter how humourously phrased, to my clients or colleagues. My clients hear at practically every session the value of letting things go. To include it in a holiday message seems like overkill. And if I feel that strongly about resources, what the heck am I doing sending something with such a brief shelf life? And colleagues? I dislike preaching to the choir. JMHO.

It’s not up to me, personally or professionally, to decide for others what is precious and what is not. My job is to encourage decision making, not to take it over.

Ruth

I only keep a few special cards each year – the handmade ones like mine and maybe a store bought one or two that I really liked. I don’t keep the snapfish picture ones of kids I have never met, most of which went straight into an envelope without even a short hand-written message.

I do keep the ones from a friend who always sends a picture of his horse. Those make me smile. His horse died last year, so this year’s card was a picture of his goat.

After many years, I have one shoebox of the special cards that’s not close to full. I enjoy looking through that box every now and then, so I don’t consider it clutter at all.

If people chose to recycle mine, that’s fine.

I have reached a point of only sending about 4 cards, mostly to friends/relatives who are very elderly and who enjoy getting them. For a few years, I tried mailing those 4 cards, and then just sending holiday emails to the rest of my list, but unless one does a mass-emailing, that took just as much time as sending cards, even if it didn’t take up the resources cards do.

I am now giving up on the holiday emails, and I also am not getting a tree. If someone asks where my tree is, I say “still growing on a farm somewhere”.

All of this is NOT in the service of extreme simplicity, BTW — it’s just my way of dealing with holiday expectations that have become overwhelming, either in terms of the time they require, or, in the case of a tree, the actual monetary cost.

So, I want to wish each of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday or whatever you celebrate ’cause you won’t be getting a card from me….

(or WWAGD)

I mean other than fly around the world to deliver the card personally, in his jet,all by his lonesome.

It doesn’t seem tacky at all – just a little reminder to be eco-friendly and gives “permission” and/or encouragement to recycle without hurt feelings, ya know?

Perhaps the sender thinks that by including this message, they are releasing the recipient from an unwritten obligation to keep the card, but that kind of assurance does not seem necessary because the recipients are individuals who can make their own choices.

There was an article on this site just a few days ago about how uncluttering isn’t for everyone.

http://unclutterer.com/2009/12.....-everyone/

I think it is impolite to push your personal views about recycling and uncluttering on other people in a greeting card.

After an event (birthday, Christmas, birth (or adoption!) of a child….) we place the cards in a basket kept near the kitchen table. Each night when we say grace before dinner, we pull out one card and pray for that sender as part of the prayer. The card can be re-read and savored on that evening – then recycled. I think it’s a nice balance of honoring the gift of time and effort sent in mailing the card without becoming a slave of saved sentiment.

1. My mom is a big fan of Unicef cards, and now that I think about it, a lot of charities I know of make cards for people to buy (or that they send out as promotional items for people to send out). Would be a good way of supporting a charity and sending your cards.

2. One law firm I am in contact with through work sends out cards to its clients/partners every year. This year I got an electronic card from them, along with a message saying that, with the money they saved by sending e-cards instead of paper ones, they were making a donation to the local food bank. I found this to be a great idea, especially for firms with a habit of sending out massive amounts of cards to clients.