Glory be to the Christmas card

In recent years the number of Christmas cards on my mantelpiece has noticeably declined. Maybe I did lose contact with a few people, but I think that technology is the main reason. In my inbox and Facebook feed there are ever larger numbers of seasons greetings bouncing around.

I’m not sure whether to feel nostalgic about the demise of the Christmas card. I fondly remember a childhood ritual of opening cards together, cringing at self-congratulatory round robin letters and mocking the insipid religious scenes. Christmas cards have an old-world feel now. They cause trees to be cut down, delivery vans to pollute the air and they burden the postal services. Yes they create jobs, but seasonal, antisocial jobs that fill a cash hole for December and leave it hungry in the new year. 30% of purchases make a contribution to good causes, but a more meaningful impact would be made by giving away the whole amount spent on cards. All in all, Christmas cards seem a fairly frivolous use of the world’s resources.

Frivolous they may be, but there is still a reason to send them. A study of Christmas card lists by Russell Hill and Robin Dunbar found that people send an average of 68 cards, to households comprising 150 members. A crowd of 150 is said to be the maximum number of meaningful relationships we can maintain (see Who's in your camp?). Beyond 150 things start to become impersonal; our so-called friends are more like semi-strangers because our brains simply can’t process that much social information. 

This research highlights the reason for Christmas cards. Unlike an email or text, a Christmas card remains visible for the whole festive season. A card is like a placeholder – a statement by others who are letting me know that I am still part of their crowd. Do virtual Christmas greetings do the same job? I think not, for the simple reason that the marginal effort required to send a message to 300 or even 3,000 people is minimal. A card has to be bought, written, sealed and sent. For that reason, I will treasure the cards I receive as an affirmation of my importance to the people who sent them. I hope those of you in my crowd will do the same for mine, which is shown here: