Christmas cards are being pushed aside by modern technology. People used to send hundreds to those near and far. The number of names on the list attested to a family’s popularity. Busy people ordered cards with their names imprinted to eliminate so much pen and ink signing.
Outside of cities, addresses required only the town and state. Rural mail carriers and village postmasters knew their people. With the addition of road names and fire numbers in the country and home delivery in small municipalities instead of post office boxes, the destination had to be more precise and include a zip code or the envelope ended up in the dead letter office.
Cards began arriving in the mail in early December. We looked at the envelope and played a guessing game. Before mail was processed at central locations, the postmark was a clue to its origin. Handwriting of close friends and relatives was easily recognized. Some of the missives were annual reports from people we might not hear from otherwise. Photos, which showed how much children had changed in a year, were often included. If we received a card from someone we’d neglected, an envelope was quickly addressed and mailed. If it was close to Christmas, we hoped the recipient would assume it had been delayed by the postal service.
Duplicated Christmas letters became popular. The accomplishments of each family member were described in glorious detail. Many read like the people lived in Garrison Keillor’s fictional town, Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average.
Do you still send Christmas cards by snail mail or rely on social media to keep in contact with people?