Festive Christmas Emails
There seems to be a sudden vogue this year for not sending Christmas cards. Instead you send an email with a little message saying that Ernest Boggins Limited are not sending Christmas cards to their Valued Customers this year: instead they are making a Contribution to Charity of the Equivalent Amount.
They often have a slight air of self-righteousness about them: oh, you people who still send cards in the post, that's SO twentieth-century! Think of all the people that you could help with the money instead!
Has anyone actually tried emailing them back with what I want to say, which is:
I don't believe you. I think you've saved yourselves a lot of trouble, time and expense in not choosing cards or getting cards printed, not to mention the postage. And did you include the labour costs for the time taken to stuff proper cards in envelopes? Bet you didn't. Kindly send me a copy of:
a) all the receipts from what you spent on cards last year
AND
b) the receipt from the charity this year for your generous donation.
Otherwise, you cheapskates, I will take my custom elsewhere.
Actually, it's not just companies who are doing this, it's real people too - a quick email to all their address book saves a lot of time. Of course, some of them are totally genuine and it's great that the charities benefit. But I fear it's likely that, if this idea spreads, there'll be a lot of people sending no cards at all and giving a fiver to charity - or nothing at all! - and calling it right.
Christmas cards, when sent in the right spirit, are a Good Thing. I'm not religious, but I write as someone who sends about eighty personal cards every year, and I do it because I want to say hello to those people, especially the ones who are far away and whom I don't see very often: and I write personal messages in many of them, and I do this because I want to and for no other reason, and I take pleasure in choosing cards that I hope people will like, and it's my decision to do that.
An email just isn't the same. If you are my friend, I will most certainly not take offence if you don't send me a Christmas card because you are too busy, or don't like Christmas, or have a different religion or no religion, or don't feel like it, or can't afford it. It won't matter because you are my friend.
But please don't think you have to send me an email to say you're not sending me a card. If you want to give a charitable donation, that's entirely up to you. Don't feel you have to tell me all about it.
They often have a slight air of self-righteousness about them: oh, you people who still send cards in the post, that's SO twentieth-century! Think of all the people that you could help with the money instead!
Has anyone actually tried emailing them back with what I want to say, which is:
I don't believe you. I think you've saved yourselves a lot of trouble, time and expense in not choosing cards or getting cards printed, not to mention the postage. And did you include the labour costs for the time taken to stuff proper cards in envelopes? Bet you didn't. Kindly send me a copy of:
a) all the receipts from what you spent on cards last year
AND
b) the receipt from the charity this year for your generous donation.
Otherwise, you cheapskates, I will take my custom elsewhere.
Actually, it's not just companies who are doing this, it's real people too - a quick email to all their address book saves a lot of time. Of course, some of them are totally genuine and it's great that the charities benefit. But I fear it's likely that, if this idea spreads, there'll be a lot of people sending no cards at all and giving a fiver to charity - or nothing at all! - and calling it right.
Christmas cards, when sent in the right spirit, are a Good Thing. I'm not religious, but I write as someone who sends about eighty personal cards every year, and I do it because I want to say hello to those people, especially the ones who are far away and whom I don't see very often: and I write personal messages in many of them, and I do this because I want to and for no other reason, and I take pleasure in choosing cards that I hope people will like, and it's my decision to do that.
An email just isn't the same. If you are my friend, I will most certainly not take offence if you don't send me a Christmas card because you are too busy, or don't like Christmas, or have a different religion or no religion, or don't feel like it, or can't afford it. It won't matter because you are my friend.
But please don't think you have to send me an email to say you're not sending me a card. If you want to give a charitable donation, that's entirely up to you. Don't feel you have to tell me all about it.
posted by Daphne at 9:46 pm
1 Comments:
No email, no card, no phone call and no donation to charity either.
Just a blog post comment wishing you and your family a Happy Christmas and Peaceful New Year (or Happy Holidays if you prefer) from someone who lives near you but is currently far away at this seasonal time.
I look forwards to reading your posts in 2007.
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