I’m a purist when it comes to sending out holiday greetings….I send out cards in the mail, hand-write my labels, write a personal message in each card and sign my holiday newsletter that is enclosed. It takes a lot of time, not to mention money, even though I’ve whittled my list down to about 125 people I send cards to. That’s the way my mom did it and so that’s how I do it. And there was a time, when it was considered “proper etiquette” to do everything handwritten. But I recently read an article on how many trees are cut down so supply all those cards and paper for letters, not to mention the envelopes. And again, with the price of stamps, it is expensive.
So I went to my favorite “etiquette” site, www.emilypost.com, to see what they thought about sending holiday cards/newsletters by email and was surprised that they say it’s now ok and perfectly proper. They even suggest that with so many people using Facebook to keep up with family and friends, that Holiday cards and newsletters might eventually become obsolete. And while I’m on the subject of newsletters, I read a poll where it said 53% of people like receiving newsletters, while 47% don’t. The main reason people don’t really want to read your yearly newsletter is because it comes across as “bragging”.
If you are a holiday newsletter kind of person, here’s some suggestions on keeping your letter something others want to read versus them glancing at it and tossing it….
- Stick to the highlights
- Send them only to those who care
- Share positive and not too personal information (I seriously got a letter one time that had an entire paragraph describing someone’s bowel movements!)
- Keep your letter to one page or less
- Do write a personal salutation and personally sign it (if you’re sending them out by mail)
- If sending the letter in a card, a short message in the card is appropriate.
- If emailing, sent it in an attachment of 1 MB or less and don’t reveal recipient’s names in the “to” line…keep it private by using the Bcc feature.
- If emailing, send it to personal addresses versus work ones
With my attempt at being greener this past year and the cost of stamps, I’m thinking of sending my holiday newsletter out by email this year but I still haven’t decided. I personally like going to the mail box and seeing a holiday card in there. Whatever I do, I guess I should decide sooner rather than later!
So here’s my question to you….
Do you think it’s OK to send out holiday greetings in email form or do you think they should be sent out in the mail? What do you think?
Recently my Mom called with a problem. She wanted to invite all 14 of her Grandchildren to an event but had lost track of some of the College and Career aged one’s addresses. The same week, both of my college kids had picked up old mail before leaving campus for the summer. Both of my letters sat unopened with job applications and dated help wanted ads, outdated news articles and worst of all, checks for their final expenses of the School year. Neither one botherd to check their p.o. boxes (aka snail mail) because everything important (ok, most things comes by email or facebook these days. Most read the news, shop for unique gifts and send out engagement announcements or save the date notices, on-line. Through Skype, they visit their friends and sometimes their families visually. And forget cell phones, which are turned off for church, class or conversation and forgotten.
My final answer then, is that while we old codgers are still writing letters, sending packages and getting tangled up in our old landline phone’s cord, our adult children on the phone, the kids are talking on their cell phones between classes, communicating through Facebook and sending off Emails, attachments and so forth.
So it is only natural that they would use the technology which they have grown up with to communicate their news to others. I think that it would be alright for the average couple to use electronic media to send out their engagement notices, birth announcements and so forth over the internet (with lots of great pictures attached of course). Birthday cards and Congratulations ones could go either way depending on the reciever’s use of modern media and access to a computer.
However, if you have some of these traditionalists like I have in my famiy, I recommend sending the most important things such as Weddiing, Baptism/Dedication and Family Reunion Invites the old fashiioned way. After all, you can’t have a Reunion without dear old Aunt Cleopatra and Uncle Lysander! And what if your best friend’s family or the parents of your Flower Girl didn’t get the Email invitation? I’m sure that in my lifetime, only the very posh will send out snail mail invitations and everyone else will be using electronic
devices to do so. Meanwhile, it’s better to make sure than to make enemies.
Susannah…Thanks for sharing that! And I agree with you. (Made me laugh in a few places.)