Poll: Sending Old Christmas Cards - tacky or brilliant?

[easysurfer]

Raises my hand, I do bargain shopping after Christmas for Christmas cards (the few that I send out). With the exception for one family hat is more specific which I buy each year, I buy the ones that come in a box.

On the back of the cards has the year (I guess like a copyright year).

Got me wondering, is sending a Christmas card from years ago considered tacky or a brilliant (saves money and what's a few years among friend and family anyhow)?

I've sent out some cards this year that have a year of around 2016 .

 

[Car-Guy]

We send out Christmas Cards every year. (Maybe ~25 of them) Sending out last years "left over" cards it neither tacky or brilliant, just common sense, IMO.

 

[brett]

We no longer send Xmas cards.

When we did, we purchased them after Christmas @ 50-70 percent discount and sent them out the following year. If we had leftovers we would skip a year and then use them.

It is the message and the thought that counts. Not the number on the back of the card.

 

[Jerry1]

You’re lucky if some actually reads the inside of the card, let alone look for a date on the back. I wouldn’t give it a second thought.

 

[MarieIG]

It's fine - and a time honored tradition to buy any type of holiday cards on sale - after the holidays.

 

[athena53]

Sounds like planned obsolescence to me- print a year on the back so people will feel bad if they use one from previous years. I never noticed that till you mentioned it.

In 1975, the first year I was on my own, I sent cards out to friends and family not in my area, with individual letters. The recipients have changed, of course, but I still do that. I finally realized that the cards were only a vehicle for the letters and a page of pictures and quit with the actual cards. I'm sending out 31 this year- 4 left to go.

 

[street]

Not tacky at all.

 

[W2R]

We no longer send Xmas cards.

We don't either. I haven't sent any in several decades, originally because of the cost along with the fact that I had to be insanely frugal to reach my goals for retirement savings. (I started late in saving, having gone through a financially devastating divorce at age 50 which left both me and my late ex with nothing). Anyway, Christmas gifts for adults and even Hallmark cards just weren't consistent with the level of LBYM that I felt was necessary for me to get back on track.

So, I explained that gently and lovingly to my relatives and sent them an email wishing them a Merry Christmas, instead of a card.

To my way of thinking, even a card dated 1982 would seem unreasonably wild and frivolous.

My brother George still sends me a photo of himself and his wife, which I appreciate, along with one of those impersonal, identical Christmas letters that he sends to everybody. Usually these are not in a card, but sometimes they are. My other relatives are dead so they don't care (and if they do, I dare them to come back from the grave and tell me about it! ).

Life is too short to get hung up on buying cards that you don't even like and can't afford, to impress people who probably couldn't care less about when you bought them.

 

[Andre1969]

If Christmas cards are anything like birthday cards, even many of the new ones are "old." I remember back in the late 1990's, getting a friend a birthday card that had a dog peeing "Happy Birthday" on a cake. A good 10 years or more later, for my birthday, someone got me the same card!

 

[pjm-7]

I don't send many Christmas cards. I have a couple of boxes that I have bought on sale after the holidays, just rotate which box I use.

Tacky is reusing a card that someone resends that they received and crossing out the name and signing theirs. I guy I dated in college did this. It felt special when I received the card. Then, I opened it and he had crossed out someone's name and put his. That card (and him) went into the trash can.

 

[Sunset]

We stopped sending out Christmas cards many years ago. Now we send out those photo cards with pictures of ourselves in interesting places. We put the year on the front so folks know it's not old

Sometimes we are smart enough on a trip to bring Santa hats we put on for a picture.

I really like getting these type of Christmas photo cards, as it's much more personal, see the people and where they have been or think important or funny..

 

[GenXguy]

Amazing some of the things that get asked on here. Of course it's ok to send older cards. I wouldn't have given this 1 second of thought. lol

As someone said, it's not that it's brilliant, bad poll choice, it's just common sense.

 

[pacergal]

We send out Christmas Cards every year. (Maybe ~25 of them) Sending out last years "left over" cards it neither tacky or brilliant, just common sense, IMO.

This year is my "leftover" year. I had several cards from three years accumulated. Had enough to match my list, so they are the ones out in the mail this year.
Will buy a new box for next year after Christmas when they are on sale.
I considered not sending them this year, but I love receiving them from others, so I will continue the tradition.

 

[Aerides]

It's fine, just avoid sending the same card to the same people year after year

(My Mum actually bought these new each year, and I think they were each a couple of years apart, and to be fair, there are only so many "daughter and son-in-law" cards to pick from)

 

[djsander]

Not tacky. We usually pick up a large number for free that people leave at the checkin table at our senior center. Those go out to people further down the list that we stay in contact with. The rest of close friends and family my wife typically makes those cards. I have a high end consumer printer (10 ink cartridges) that I can print cards as well. When have bought cards in the past we would wait a few years and send to other people. Those are usually specialty cards. My wife also has a running list of who we send cards to and who sends us cards and after a year or two if somebody hasn’t sent one back they get cut.

 

[RE2Boys]

still sends me a photo of himself and his wife, which I appreciate, along with one of those impersonal, identical Christmas letters that he sends to everybody. .

We always enjoy the Christmas letters we receive, I really hate it when I receive a card without some story of what is going on in a friend's life. Total waste of postage.

 

[Walt34]

If the cards are two years old it's tacky. If they're fifty years old it's brilliant.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

My avatar showing Sis and me is from a circa-1959 card my parents sent out. Note the '56 Chev and '49 Ford Club Coupe in the background.

 

[Amethyst]

I suspect it depends on your family and friends. Some people are eagle-eyed judges of everything from clothes ("Is she still wearing that old thing, it doesn't even fit") to, naturally, Christmas cards. I'm fortunate not to know anybody like that well enough to even send them a card.

I've loved beautiful cards ever since I was a kid, and have quite a few old ones that I send to people who I think will like them, too. Recently, I sent the second-to-last of a very old (mid-1980's) box of cat-and-music-themed Christmas cards to my sister, who recognized and praised the design. I try to save the very last card so I can look at it.

 

[Dawg52]

I've slowly trimmed my Christmas card mailing list. I sent 3 this year to older relatives that I hardly ever see anymore. I'm not a total scrooge tho....I went to a Christmas dinner a couple of nights ago with friends. All five of us have had some sort of cancer in the last couple of years. The most serious case was a life long friend who had pancreatic cancer. Luckily his was caught early and surgery took care of it.

 

[CaptTom]

Wait, there's a date on the back of the cards? When did that start?

The ultimate in tacky would be giving a s**t what year someone bought the card they sent you.

I guess I'd start worrying about being tacky if I bought so many that I sent someone the same card several years in a row.

 

[dmpi]

Try to find some old stamps to put on those old cards. Current postage is 66 cents so each hard will require a bunch of stamps.

 

[old medic]

Oh Boy.... Hope DW doesn't read this....
She Is a forgetful bargain hunter. After season sales and she gets stuff cheap.... the next year after buying NEW, and we are putting stuff up, We find the stuff from last (or further back) year. The other day she bought some Lego sets for the Grandson, and in hiding them, found 2 from last year....

 

[Badger]

I don't see a reason to be concerned. Anyone who would be offended is not worth sending another one the next year. We don't send any in the first place except to my wife's 2 grown children with a check. Eventually they will get it all in the inheritance but it gives us pleasure to see them enjoy some of it now.
Yesterday I found a box with 6 cards left in it that I didn't know I had. They don't have a date on the back so they must be really old. I'll use them if I need to.

Cheers!

 

[Alan]

Not tacky at all.

I agree. I always buy Christmas cards in the sale after Christmas. I had no idea they had a year printed on them at all. I just checked the cards from a box from last year and there is no year printed anywhere.

I have now also checked the cards we received this year (we have about 20 friends and family who still send cards) and none of them have a year of manufacture anywhere on them.