| Archive for The Potting Shed A forum to discuss Crafts, Cooking, Gardening, Countryside, Livestock and Pets |
| lloyd |
Christmas Card rantWhy is it that Christmas cards in the shops are so stupidly priced, massive profit margins, is this commercial exploitation of Christmas? And why is it that so many cards are now saying things like "Happy Holidays" and Greetings of the Season", so as not to offend other faiths?It bl**dy winds me up that we are essentially a Christian culture and are bowing down to other people 
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| Becki |
Well, I make christian cards. I have a very small profit margin. I find it difficult to charge appropriately for my time because I enjoy it so much.
If no-one bought cards from the shops and bought the from me I'd be well away 
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| lloyd |
But most companies buy cards at about ten pence each and resell at £2.50 or something for the mass produced stuff. What an exploitation of the original Christmas message!!....Grrrr......rant.....rant.........(edited) | ||
| Becki |
Everything that goes on now is an exploitation of the Christmas message.
I' sure Henry V111 made it illegal once and it was never re-instated. |
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| Libby |
Its surprising actually how many people do not send cards now at christmas. The money they save on the cards they donate to charity! Which I think is a great idea altho I probably will never do the same as we always send out a Christmas newsletter, it one way of keeping in touch with all the family!!!!! | ||
| lloyd |
I'm going to try making a few following Becki's masterclass. | ||
| Cabbagepatch |
Some of us do this at work. It just seems so silly to hand out piles of cards to people we see every day. A waste good trees. I would much rather give the money to a nominated charity (this year its Cancer Research). Oh yes, it saves all that writing too 
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| Libby |
Thast a good idea! My husband sends loads of cards at christams to work colleagues. He could e-mail them saying he was going to donate the money spent on cards to charity!!!!! I like that, I wonder if he would?? | ||
| Cabbagepatch |
Some charities will send out a large poster sized card that can be pinned up on a wall, and everyone who wants to can sign it and put a donation in the tin.
I thinks its a brilliant idea. |
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| Libby |
any idea where we can get one of these??? | ||
| Cabbagepatch |
I'm fairly sure Cancer Research does it and the PDSA. I'll ask at work next week and let you know.
Nudge me if I forget. |
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| Libby |
brilliant thanks | ||
| muntjac |
xmas is being taken over by the americans commerial theme same as samhain( halloween ) its all about making a buck $ now. even father xmas has got flipping american express . oh and he doesnt use riendeer anymore . he drives a lexus
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| Libby |
No sorry, you are wrong, He comes every year and drinks the sherry and eats the mince pie, and he definately still uses reindeer because they eat the carrots we leave out 
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| Cabbagepatch |
AND, he leaves soot all over the fireplace. | ||
| Haize |
Which will be interesting this year, CP, being as how your chimney is now blocked off with a register plate? 
I always ended up feeling guilty when bunches of people I was going to see plenty over Christmas gave me cards, because I have never really liked the whole mass sending of them, just putting their name in, and signing your own. I used to only send cards to people whom I would not see, and bother writing something worthwhile in them. More recently, I make them worthwhile by making the cards myself, which at least means some thought and effort has gone into them. But that doesn't make you feel any better when you get a card from someone you'll see on Christmas day, but you've no intention of giving them one. 
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| muntjac |
thank the gods im pagan ,,,,,,,, no xmas cards or any that rubbish ..
"""" humbug """" |
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| lloyd |
Most of my family and friends live far from me, so big card bill looming! |
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| nanny-now and forever |
eh hmmm
am i allowed to draw people's attention to the christmas cards that the lluest horse and pony trust have to offer? they are very nice and there is a proportion of the money that goes to the charity www.lluesthorseandponytrust.org.uk if you feel you would like to buy some |
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| muntjac |
or better still the mouth and foot painters cards | ||
| Cabbagepatch |
It may be rubbish to you, but I send Christmas cards because I'm a Christian. |
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| Aqui |
I'm a pagan too, but I still send out cards. I just pick ones appropriate to my faith, preferably with winter scenes and no words - I think of them as yule cards, other people can interpret them how they want! Last year I was going to send out a letter and donate to charity, but I never got round to it. For several years now I've bought cards from charity shops (the ones from other shops that say charity only give about 10p per pack).
This year I'm hoping to make some cards. I'm not sure how exactly. So I'll probably end up buying them. At work we do the thing where eveyone (who wants to) puts in £1 and the money goes to charity - much better I think. |
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| Haize |
Yes, that's why I do the cards that I do send out: not actually being Christian doesn't detract from it being a time of year when no-one would object to a little bit of being cheered up! | ||
| muntjac |
well cristianity takes all the seasonal events from pagan religeons anyway .so keep sending your cards if that is your wish i do not criticise you for that but i refuse to follow the commercialisation that is now the xmas period .everybody complains about the cost of what is supposed to be the celebration of a cristain gods birth .but it has been taken over by the act of making money .and also the fact that is isnt even on the right day but swapped around to make it more commercial when it was moved to the gregorian calendar , as the festival of samhain has now been commercialised into an american money making event called halloween which most cristians condemn as being a thing that supports the dark arts .strange then that they adopted pagan festivals in the first place to worship as cristians , 
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| Haize |
Well, it is a rant thread... 
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| Becki |
I think everyone has right a do what they believe in, send cards if you want, don't send them if you don't want. It's all abvoyut respecting each others view after all and your right Haize, it is a rant thread.
Personnaly I am a Christian and will be celebrating Christ's birth this Christmas
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| Haize |
Anyway, my feelings on the whole date of the celebration are that, if you were to adopt a child whom no-one knew the birth date of, would you just let their years go past without any notice?! Of course not! You'd find some way to pick a day on which to throw them a party each year, or whatever.
So why not with this one too? Several different people have calculated the exact day it was supposed to be, and come up with a variety of answers. Realistically though, it just plain doesn't matter. The desired effect is that people remember something, and spend time thinking about it, year after year. |
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| Becki |
Absoloutly.
And I must stop agreeing with everyone today. Last time I was in a yes mood, I ended up doing a puppet show for 100 kids.
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| muntjac |
i am not knocking the birthday of the cristians god or the remembering of it , what i am saying that it is being hijacked as a thing for making money for commercial interests , struggling parents having to pander to the whims of the media and peer pressure on thier kids , folks having to go into debt unable to repay it for the whole of the next year just to keep up with the jonesies if it was as it should be a day of celebration for the birth of your god then i would be happy and not a miserable old fart moaning about xmas ,i would share the event as i do with my friends of other faiths on thier special days
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| cygnet |
dont send cards even if I did I would forget to post them !!! in France they do not have christmas cards anyway but I suppose they will do one day I donate money instead and as my birthday is just after christmas I get people to do the same for birthday cards. When I have to send a card throughout the year (unless its my granddaughter) I tend to get a relevant no. lottery ticket it would be brilliant if the no came up.
My pet dislike s about christmas are why does it always start in sept and please can we have the original santa back not the coca cola american red one! (mine are green) |
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| Leonie2 |
I understand exactly what you're saying muntjac and I agree with you. Every year we celebrate christmas, send out cards, buy presents, get the tree and do the whole traditional thing. But that isn't really what christmas is about. Why do I buy christmas cards to give to people I hardly know, or why do I buy christmas cards to give to family members that I'm going to see regularly over the christmas period and who would much rather receive a warm hug, kiss and spoken good wish. A card is something I give because it's habit and everyone else is doing it, not because it's a genuine christmas wish. I know it should be genuine, but it's not. When I'm sitting there writing all the cards out bored out of my skull and can't wait to get them out, that's not right. And that's why I believe commercially produced cards are so cheap, they carry very little meaning for a lot of people. To me, a genuine christmas wish, is to hand make a card, taking care and creating something special for someone. If it's not a card it should be a little something you do to make that person feel special and well wished at christmas time. Not rushing out there to buy a mass produced christmas card, rushing a scribbled message inside the card that one repeats a hundred times over for all the recipients. I'm not saying that everyone does this, but I used to do it.
Sometimes I would receive cards at work from people I had not sent a card to. I kept a stash of christmas cards in my desk drawer so that I could quickly write one out incase I'd forgotten someone. When I think back on it now I can't believe how insincere that is! I used to receive christmas cards from people and not know who they were from, the names scribbled on the card didn't ring a bell and as there was no personal message inside I would have no idea who "Tony" was....was it the Tony who works at the printers, Tony the postman, Tony the manager of xyz department, Tony in the IT department? Now, having re-gathered my thoughts about christmas, I'll send cards to people who I won't see over the christmas period. Family members living far away or friends too far to visit. Each card will have a personal message or note inside. I won't have time to make my own cards this year so I'll either do an online card with Jacqui Lawson or I'll buy special cards, not those where you get 50 in a pack for £1. People who I'll be seeing over the christmas period won't get a card, instead they'll get a visit so that I can personally wish them, or they might get a little gift that has been individually selected for them. I'm becoming increasingly dispondent about christmas, not on any religious grounds, but on the grounds that the actions I go through at christmas aren't what they should be and it's a result of business making christmas a commercial opportunity, this is why christmas starts in the middle of summer rather than in the middle of december when, in my opinion, it should start. |
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| Kathy |
I like the idea of exchanging gifts at any time of the year and I do have "beliefs" which are personal to me but, also detest the commercialism I see surrounding any "anniversary" event and I don't buy any cards, eg Valentine/Fathers day (sorry Becki  ).
I've made choices that are not popular with parents, sisters/cousins etc and get some quite nasty "vibes" because I'm not "conforming". Well good luck to them rushing about like lunatics, worrying about money, and being too exhausted to enjoy anything! In our family (meaning son and daughters) we "do" xmas day like the present swap on here. Each person gets a name and we buy/make for 1 person only. We play a board game and have to land on a certain square before we can open our pressie, then we have to guess who its from. We also do a lucky dip (which is part of the board game), I'll make little lavendar bags, bars of soap, and there'll be things like an incense sticks, piece of cake, hair scrunchies, just small items that are nice to open. There is no pressure to be spending a ton of money (even if we had it to spend) so we can enjoy ourselves without worrying about how to pay. |
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| lottie |
My sentiments entirely Kathy. Being brought up in ' orphanage', we didn't do the big Christmas thing. We could ask for one present each Christmas, but recieved whatever had been donated. It was my last year there that I actually got a little camera that I had asked Santa for, for years And it was the most wonderful present ever!
I have always tried to make a meaniful present, and a (very amateurish) card, for whatever occassion. I think that less is more, especially if it is made just for you, with love. Terribly corny sounding, I know, but there are lots of people who feel the same, but are under pressure to conform. It is a shame isn't it. I do strongly feel though, that people should have the freedom to celebrate or not, without any criticism or rancour. It is a personal choice - as are lots of things in life. This has been an interesting debate which I have been following closely, and it is refreshing to have had a debate, as opposed to a 'witch hunt' as often seen on other forums. As to understand different views on the subject, all of which I have found very interesting. |
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| Aqui |
Leonie - you've really got me thinking. I do that - just send out cards out of habbit (although last year I did go as far as not sending one to someone in the extended family as we do not speak even when at family does). I hate writing them all out - it's such a chore. Usually I buy cards that I get just because I'm fed up of looking for cards. I've given up having the stash of cards at work. It just gets silly!
Kathy - I like the sound of your christmas day. T and I have sent the last few christmases together, just the two of us. We set a limit on how much money we can spend on each other (otherwise it could get ridiculous!) - this year it's £30 and we are not allowed to buy anything that's actually for the baby! We don't overeat (don't drink anyway), just spend the day together relaxing and usually go for a walk after lunch - you could probably walk down the middle of the main road, and we never see another person. it's weird! Anyway - this year I vow to make cards and only send to people I don't get to see around xmas. |
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