Answers to this week’s question at thefridayfive@Livejournal – https://thefridayfive.livejournal.com/212901.html
1. How often do you send greeting cards?
I never send them physically via mail. And I only buy physical ones for my Mom… but I bring it with me when I visit on the celebrations. Sometimes if for some reason she’s not having a birthday celebration, like once when they had had to book their holiday trip abroad for that time due to various things, I also sent her an e-card on her birthday, and then gave the physical card when the celebration was actually had later on.
There’s a few other people I send e-cards to on appropriate days. And even more people who I send text messages or a WhatsApp message.
In fact, text messages took over the physical cards in my circles a lot starting around 2005.
I’ve never believed in sending cards to people/family I never see except randomly maybe once or twice a year while visiting a friend or family just because it used to be a custom to do that. I remember when I was a kid, our family would get like 70-100 Christmas cards not just from close or distant family but also from almost random people – people Mom had worked with a decade earlier or had gone to school with even more time ago and had seen maybe twice since. When we’d visit my cousins or our family friends, they’d all similar amount of cards from people they had no contact with other than those Christmas cards. So was very much the custom to send Christmas cards back and forth in the dozens back then. I never saw the point in that. And to be honest – it got expensive sending like 50 Christmas cards in December when you were a student or unemployed or temping/part time. So I very quickly pared it down to people I actually interact with regularly. And then text messages and e-cards came along quickly after that.
2. What is the most creative card you’ve ever received?
I don’t remember. I usually get typical cards that can be bought on any store; sometimes they’re decorated with stickers but that’s about it.
3. What is the most creative card you’ve ever sent?
The cards I used to make with one parent when it was for the other parent, or the cards we made in school. This was about 40 years ago and I have no recollection at all of what I made, other than I made some!
I sometimes do make a card in Photoshop if I’m feeling like it, using clipart, stock photography, pretty fonts, gradients etc. but it’s not something that I do often.
I’ve been thinking that I would like to/should try and make a watercolor card some time for Christmas – there’s some designs that look easy enough that I should be able to make them! But it hard to time it because of my health issues – so far I haven’t been up for it near the end of a year, so I’d have to paint it whenever I can… be that March or July! It’s just that I never think about Christmas and Christmas cards until about late November earliest.
4. Do you believe the days of sending post cards are behind us?
I think as a general custom, yes. News keep telling me that the number of mailed cards has severely declined, along with other paper mail. I believe there’ll always be people who like to send/receive physical cards, or people who’ll like to make cards themselves, but I think a lot/mostly it’s moved on to text messages, WhatsApp and e-cards already and will do so in the future even more.
5. If you could get a post card from anywhere, where would it be?
I’ve always enjoyed receiving cards in the post when my friends or Mom are on a holiday abroad. Often the cards of a local attraction they visited and when they’re back home I love looking at the card along with the photos they took while they’re telling me what the thing was like in real life and what they liked and didn’t like about it. Never mind that usually the post card arrives after they’ve returned from the holiday already!