I love Christmas cards.
I love sending them, I love getting them, I love going through them well into the January.
James has begrudgingly accepted that we are now Christmas card people. We sent out a big stack last week and I have spent all week imagining them scattered across the country and world, marching our Christmas tidings into the homes of so many people we love.
Christmas cards could become extinct, an anachronistic vestige of an era when people still sent letters, still kept stamps on hand, still wrote things out. They could, but I hope they won’t.
Luckily, I went to a college attended by many people (most of them ladies – let’s be real here) who still practice the art of letter writing. When I spent a semester in France, my friend Jenny mailed me a hand written letter every week. Every. Single. Week. That’s probably more than most of us have sent our entire life.
And in December, the fact that my life is full of Old School Letter Senders shows itself in the host of Christmas cards all over our fridge. Next year I will be proactive and think of some cool DIY way to display them, like this cool card tree. But for now they are just all over our fridge, the top of our TV, and peaking out from the bookshelves.
I love all the cards, but this year I especially loved the one from my friend Charlotte. Charlotte has handwritten of unparalleled perfection. It makes you want to go out right away and buy one of those notebooks with the big double lined paper so you can practice your handwriting. But what I really loved was what she wrote inside of it. Charlotte selected and copied out two perfect quotes that sank deep into my soul and whispered the truth of Christmas there.
Read the full poem here, and that is obviously not her handwritting. No font can imitate it.
*Confession: Sometimes I cheat and watch Elf out of season. I try not to, really I do. But it is so good, and as soon as that first Christmasy wind blows I am ready to watch it. If you haven’t ever seen it, go do it NOW. It might be one of the funniest movies ever. Or maybe that’s just me. I try to quote it as much as possible during the holiday season… and the rest of the year.
The Art in Life 
I’m trying to decide when/if to send cards. I love getting them. They all hang on my fridge, which is creep b/c I over half are from students. But then I get intimidated by ones like Charlotte’s. I want to print that and frame it!
Please do ! It validates my feebly blossoming graphic skills.
And I would love a Christmas card from you. : )
Not now arctic puppets!!
BEST LINE EVER. However, I recently began to question myself… is it puppets or “arctic puffin?” Either way… it takes me back to that one finals week!!!!
My Christmas cards that I purchased last year are still where I packed them in January. Maybe next year.
AND OMG THIS POEM. I am surprised I still have hair, as it was intensely and repeatedly yanked to celebrate the glory of those lines.
It is totally worth going bald over.
And I would accept a christmas card at any time of the year.
I love, love, love that poem. Thanks for sharing…maybe next year I’ll attempt making some Christmas cards of my own. 🙂
Please do!!! You have some pretty great literary taste.
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I also love Christmas cards. Thank you for sending them and praising others who do! (Yours is lovely, and I placed it on our card clothesline promptly above the fireplace. You are squashed next to Jenny’s cute scarfy girl and a picture of my friend E’s baby Lewis.)
Please blog about your clothesline display setup…. I am thinking that is the way I will go next year.
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