|
Just why do we send Christmas cards? I overheard someone saying that they never send Christmas cards as they are just a waste of money. Is this really true?
As I opened all our Christmas cards this year, I was struck by the fact that a very large percentage of them had been purchased in support of some charity; Barnardos, Bible Lands, Cancer Research UK, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft, National Trust, RSPCA, Sightsavers to name but a few . Indeed, out of the 128 Christmas cards that were received by the family, 76 different, all very worthy Charities had been supported and many of them several times over. We had also supported several Charities with the cards we sent. This must be a very lucrative and valuable source of income for these Charities.
Not only do Christmas cards help Charities, but thinking about all the people who receive Christmas cards, they may be lonely or depressed, and the receipt of a card wishing them the best of the season can make them feel a lot better, letting hem know that there is someone who is thinking about them. Even giving a card to a friend you see regularly can be an acknowledgement and appreciation of your friendship and sending a card can be a way of keeping in touch with family and friends living far away.
The Post Office pay someone to design special postage stamps to encourage us to stick a seasonal stamp on our envelopes, and they employ extra staff to sort and deliver the cards; and so a great deal more revenue is earned by this organisation due to the sale of Christmas cards.
I know at Brownies that the girls love to make Christmas cards and I’m quite sure that there are not many Kindergartens, Infant and Primary schools that don’t actually have their pupils making Christmas cards as at least one activity before Christmas.
When I looked around at Christmas and saw that the congregations of our churches were all a great dealer smaller than in previous years, a trend that has been going on for a while now, I had to wonder that if there were no Christians left to celebrate Christmas, Christmas as a festival would no longer be acknowledged and so who would then buy and send Christmas cards from these many and varied Charities, and where then would they get the funds to compensate for their loss. I wondered too how many of the people who actually sent the Christmas cards bought from these Charities in 2009 were actually practising Christians themselves.
I love to send and receive Christmas cards, long may it last!
| |
|
