Why You Won't Be Getting A Card From Me This Christmas

I have sent out Christmas cards for eleven years but that ends now. 

What crossed my mind when I decided to not send Christmas cards anymore. 

1) Are my family and friends who have been receiving cards from me for eleven years think that this is my attempt at being a Scrooge?

2) I shouldn't worry about it. Maybe I'll just have some egg nog.

3) Mariah Carey might consider stop singing Christmas carols. 

4) Or any song for that matter. 

5) That's about it. 

Now let me tell you why I am not sending cards this year, or any year after this. It isn't because I am lazy even though I am, it isn't that I dread updating my address book which I do, it isn't about the money even though the costs ad up, and it isn't that I have nothing more to say to these people, which may or may not be true.  

It is because I have decided I want to decrease my contact with family and friends. I figure not sending Christmas cards is the first step. They will get the hint by 2012. 

No, that is a lie. The real reason is because they are very impersonal and I want to save the paper. 

When a card is received, it is displayed on a table somewhere in your home, hung up, or if you are fancy, on your mantle. After Christmas they get thrown away unless you are the Martha Stewart type who repurposes them to make next years tags for gifts. These cards end up in landfills unless they are recycled, and lets face it, most people won't recycle them; I have been an accessory to this heinous crime for far too long now and I refuse to any longer. 

About 3/4 of the cards I send, I only send because I have been sending them for eleven years. If I care about you, you will see me during the holidays for dinner, coffee, or at a party, I can wish you happy holidays in person and I will phone other relatives and friends and actually speak with them. By sending cards, I have been avoiding contact. If my family and friends are upset about something as insignificant as receiving a card, I don't know why I have been sending them one anyway. 

I will buy one card though. It is for my mum because she is a freak about cards. I mean, a complete card monster. In this case I will just mosey down to a store in Osborne Village and find one made out of recycled materials. Mum keeps them so I don't have to worry about them ending up in the Inwood dump. 

I have also decided to stop buying wrapping paper because the biggest source of waste at Christmas time is wrapping paper. Thousands of tonnes of wrapping paper get dumped into landfill which is equivalent to approx. 45,000 trees. I will use the paper I have from last year only to get rid of it and that's it. 

If for some insane reason I do need to buy wrapping paper, I will opt for a recycled kind, not the shiny kinds. Bags and boxes are always options too. 

And if you are reading this, please do not send me any cards or wrap my gifts in shiny paper and consider a greener Christmas.