Are more or less people sending Christmas cards these days do you think?

The number of people over the last few years that have said things like “we won’t be sending Christmas cards anymore, instead we will be donating to our favourite charity “, is quite significant.

I think that is genuinely the case for lots of people, and then for others I think that’s a euphemism for “we can’t be bothered this year”.

The thing is, can any of us? I mean who really has time to sit down and write a ton of Christmas cards anyway?

It’s not that people don’t care or don’t want to pass on their good wishes. More, that it can just be very time consuming and it doesn’t really fit in with how we all communicate these days.

My normal approach, since having children, is to have a picture of the children made into a card with a pre-printed message…not very personal perhaps, but that’s all I have time for.

The other thing I’ve done in recent years is buy the cards they get printed at school with the children’s designs on. That way I know the money is going back into school, and they are so much more personal as they have been designed by the children.

The third option I use is to get the children to make their own cards.

This means they can make them just for those people they want to, and enjoy spending time creating them. It’s a much more personal approach, so crack out the Bostik and the craft supplies and get to work.

Have plenty of glue and things to hand to stick on. Children seem to love gluing and sticking things on, at least mine do anyway. Leaves are a favourite at the moment and stars are always a hit. Layering the cards seems to work well and the children like to make them into mini collage pictures, using a range of different bits and bobs.

There was a small (ish) fight over who was going to use this wooden reindeer head, as we only had one. Isn’t that always the way? At least each card it unique!

A homemade Christmas card at least shows the children put some effort in, and what’s more, it’s a great rainy day activity too.

What will your approach to Christmas cards be this year?