I love receiving Christmas cards, I like finding Christmas cards from charity shops in the January Sales - just awfully bad at writing and sending them. I tried Sue's idea of 'getting to write cards' rather than 'Got to write cards' but it still took me days to get the job done and there are many less than the 40 I once wrote and sent.
I had several years when I made some - never all- of my cards. 2015 and 2017 using 3D decoupage sheets.
In 2019 I used photographs taken of light-up picture decoration - a car-boot purchase- and put them into card blanks- in the days when all sorts of card blanks were available from Craft Creations - I do miss that company.
Since then all cards have been bought and I no longer have any Christmas card crafting bits and very few card blanks and now only have a dozen bought cards left for next year, so will need to find some in the sales.
I admire anyone who makes all the cards they send.
Very few cards have arrived via the postman/lady so far this Christmas. Instead a letter from HMRC altering my tax code again - and not in a good way - from now until the new tax year. Oh bother!
After a very expensive December with too many bills, I'd better have a very frugal January and February.
As I was deleting all the rubbish emails that had gathered in a day , I found this on the Next Door website posted by a Meryl in a village a few miles away. People post the most silly of things on this website which was supposed to be for recommendations for builders etc
I've received a Christmas card from a relative but she forgot to put the correct postage on so I'm being charged £1.50! Am I allowed to refuse the card? Cheers
There were 25 miserable comments all saying yes refuse it! I don't think I'd refuse - it might have a letter or a gift card inside!
Your homemade cards look lovely. I also have many supplies for card making which I very rarely do, time to face up to the fact and donate them so someone else can use them. We are also sending far fewer cards this year, the postage is now too expensive.
ReplyDeletePenny
When postage is much more than the cost of a card it's difficult to see how the tradition can carry on - sadly. I would miss getting cards to cheer up the room.
DeleteSo you refuse the card and it's sent back to the sender, who now knows that their relationship is not worth £1.25 to you?
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't me refusing the card! someone on the Nextdoor website who I thought mean and silly posting the message.
DeleteI would have paid and not mentioned it.(and it was £1.50 actually if you can read properly!)
Putting the wrong stamp on a card, or even missing it off altogether is so easily done! Like you, I would have paid up and with an understanding smile.
ReplyDeleteI send cards because I like receiving them... and also because there are many older friends and relatives now in their late eighties and nineties who appreciate being remembered. The writing of them all seems a chore, but the receiving more than makes up for it.
I like to send cards so my cousins know I'm still alive!
DeleteWe have paid our £1.50 for an item to arrive today, we think it's from hubby's older brother, he also put the wrong stamp on my birthday card, hubby will have a word with his sister who lives with him and suggest he gets smaller cards or pay more postage.
ReplyDeleteEasy done without checking at the Post office for the weight or size
DeleteYes, postage is expensive but as my husband reminded me, it would cost a good deal more if you wanted to hand deliver your cards! When you think that you can post a card to anywhere in the UK for the same price, perhaps it seems better value? (That's how I am looking at it, anyway). I always enjoy receiving something nice in the post.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Ellie
Imagine how much it would be to hand deliver a card to my penfriend on a Scottish Island!
DeleteI had a £1.50 excess postage fee to pay recently. I had put a note in with my Christmas card to an old friend asking if she knew what had happened to another friend who I hadn't heard from for a couple of years. She had a card sealed up and ready to send to me so just wrote me a note and put them both into a new envelope, which was just over the small letter size. She did know about our mutual friend, so I was very glad I had paid the excess postage or I would never have found out.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness you didn't refuse the letter.
DeleteI had to get out a ruler to check the size of one card I sent - it was just OK - hope it got where it was headed
Such beautiful cards!
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I have pretty much stopped 'hard copy' cards now and send online ones instead. I know you can't display them but I found them a pain and never had enough space for them. And they kept blowing over! :-) xx
I've only filled a string between the two window fasteners and a few standing as yet, the postman only delivers once or twice a week no it seems
DeleteWe are in the middle of change as far as Xmas cards are concerned. Postage is hellish and either we can buy on the net through card companies, at again exorbitant prices or fudge up something of our own making through email. There again there is always Jacquie Lawson...
ReplyDeleteI'm going to keep sending as long as I'm able - just not so many
DeleteI used to make Christmas cards but don't any longer. I would have paid the £1.50, too. We all make mistakes.
ReplyDeleteThere seemed to be a lot of mean people answering that comment.
DeleteNo cards sent from this house for 8 years now (my FB re I died me today). We have both had letters this week from the taxman but can’t work out what the extra hit is for. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI cant work out that bracket Catriona! I hope its a typo and not a bereavement
DeleteFB reminded me
DeleteSorry, Ang, anonymous has corrected it for me-thanks!
DeleteI wish anons would leave a name!
DeleteOur village post office in Leicester would let you know they were holding something which needed excess paying - but NOT let you see it to establish what it was. Once or twice I paid up for trivial mail I didn't need/want!
ReplyDeleteIf something isn't deliverable here we have to go all the way to Stowmarket, pay for parking and then find out what the problem is at the sorting office. Luckily it hasn;t happened for a long time
DeleteI was on the phone to HMRC, last week, as they had wrongly estimated my tax code. I almost lost the will to live had it not been for a very knowledgeable and efficient lady who sorted it all out for me.
ReplyDeleteWishing you a very happy Christmas! 🎄🎅🌲🧑🎄
They certainly move quickly to get their money back
DeleteThe tax people are hitting those getting taxable interest on savings. It is easy to go above the tax free limit, things like interest on bank accounts are included, and they have estimated that the amount will be higher next year. They seem to have taken against people who work hard and save.
ReplyDeleteYes it's all because of saving interest I think. Interest rates went down today perhaps they'll pay me back
DeleteLOL … how could you refuse a Christmas card because of postage. I love homemade cards. I have a creative friend who makes beautiful cards every year, and I keep them. I buy pretty cards to give out …. Anything I made would look handmade ( not in a good way!) Enjoy your day! Cali
ReplyDeleteSome people have really good ideas and are so talented - I'm hopeless!
DeleteI enjoy sending and receiving cards. Many of my friends/family send photo cards now with pics of their families from the year. It's so fun to see how their children have grown or the places they've traveled. I get lots of my cards on sale after Christmas or in resale shops. It's worth it to stay in touch.
ReplyDeleteI like sending cards but just very bad at it!
DeleteIt's the only way to keep in touch with people sometimes.
I love sending and receiving cards, like you I tend to buy mine in the January sales, although this year I found loads in a box in the underbed drawer of doom. OH has received 5 letters in the last month from HMRC, 4 of them altering his tax code and the last telling him he owed them money! Xx
ReplyDeleteCards are trickling in but I doubt I will receive as many as I mailed out.
ReplyDelete