Are you sending xmas cards?

[amonty1144]

I lost my mum 2 years ago on xmas day, last year was appalling and I doubt this year will be much better, although we do make an effort for our young son.
Anyway I hate the commercialism of xmas, I'm thinking of donating the money I would spend on cards to charity.
The bfpo shop, send boxes to our troops in iraq and afghanistan and I think this would be nice to a soldier with nothing.
Would this be a good idea and is anyone else gonna opt out of the sending a card for a cards sake.
I've also found a children's hospice called acorns that accepts xmas gifts.
Anyone else?

[bednobs]

i NEVER send christmas cards and haven't since i was about 15. Each year i make a donation to charity instead, and make an effort to actually say happy christmas to those people ive lost touch with over the year

[dot.hawkes]

i havn;t sent any Christmas cards for 7 years now, my Mum was dying over Christmas and new year 1999/2000 and I never got round to thinking about Christmas. Since then I have never been inclined to buy any, I did get a card for my Dad when he was alive but since we lost him in Feb 2005 I have pretty much not botherede with any Christmas cards, If it wasn;t for my Grandson (WHO IS 8 THIS YEAR) I would probably ignore it this year, (I get Christmas day off but that is all). Don;t feel bad about it, Christmas is a family time and I will have all mine that matter to me around me, I knbow it will be a bad time for my son especially this year, and i am not expecting to have my Aunt with us, but who's to say in the future we won't have reason to have a brighter outlook?

[reinganum]

Everyone approaches Christmas in their own way: my father had the heart attack which killed him on Christmas Eve, (though he didn't actually pass away till Twelfth Night) and my mother lost her aunt (to whom she was very close) the very next Christmas, but after a year or two my mother is the most keen of all of us to celebrate it! (She prefers to remember my father on his birthday, which seems more sensible.)
Many people a few years ago used to put classified ads in the papers ("Mr and Mrs Anyone will not be sending cards this year but would like to wish all their friends....etc. etc.") but this is sometimes thought to be pretentious and really code for "Mr and Mrs Anyone are bu**ering off to (insert winter playground of your choice) over Christmas and New Year and therefore skipping all the tedious duty visits and other social conventions connected with the festive season."

If you don't want to send them, don't send them; give the money saved to your favourite charity (but get the word round early so that those one or two people in your life who rather tend to expect cards are not disappointed).

[ewaef]

my mum has opted for buying people goats for christmas, i no this isnt cards, but its a charity where you give them the money that you would spend on peoples pointless cards and presents, and with the money they buy people that need food etc in other countries goats and cattle. i think its with oxfam. i think its a realy good idea

[Reverandfunk]

I dont send cards or give money to charity why should I?

Jesus wasn't born at Xmas it's just a load of old bunkum.

Bah humbug lol

[smudge]

Sorry to hear about your Mum amonty. My eldest sister also died on Christmas day 2005 & it was such a terrible shock for us all.

I still send Christmas cards, although I do resent having to pay all that blinking postage! It sometimes ends up more expensive than the cards cost!

I donate to charity anyway, but would rather give more, than spend it on cards that are just going to be chucked or recycled a couple of weeks later! What a waste?!

[Hellyon]

I buy charity christmas cards for close friends and family but I've stopped buying for acquaintances and work colleagues as one year I had to write nearly 150 cards and decided enough was enough!!!
Oxfam site here http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/Browse.aspx?catal og=Unwrapped&category=UWGifts