CHRISTMAS CARDS

I know, I know, they're going out of style in these days of e-mail, Facebook, smartphones etc. I realise, also, that there are valid ecological arguments against buying and sending Christmas cards. But still I buy 'em and send 'em! When governments, especially the US government, stops spending piles of money on the war machine, which puts far more toxicity into the atmosphere, and is far more wasteful of resources than my traditional habit - then I'll stop sending Christmas cards. I send cards to friends and relatives in the UK and in the USA. I try to choose cards printed in the USA and/or on recycled paper. It's a tradition that I enjoy keeping, but when my generation dies off in coming years, the tradition will be likely to die with us.

Back in 2007, at Christmas time, I did a post featuring Christmas card styles for the 12 zodiac signs. Blogger's changes to its interface and other considerations, in intervening years, have messed up that old post. The illustrations are really too small too, so - a re-make is in order! It should be borne in mind that what follow, astrologically, are in relation to the essences of the 12 zodiac signs themselves, not necessarily as Sun signs - but if Sun signs are your 'thang' y'all can consider these in that way.


Aries
Lighthearted fun, usually sent early:

Taurus
Traditional, Christmas goodies, or landscapes:

Gemini
The Trickster Twins:

Cancer
Homely scenes:

Leo
Classy, large, dramatic, colourful, expensive looking:

Virgo
Minimal, restrained but not boring:

Libra
In the best of good taste:

Scorpio
Cards which grab the attention, sometimes with a darker undertone:

Sagittarius

Santa, travel, or fun subjects with a generous flavour:

Capricorn
No nonsense, structured, traditional:

Aquarius
Unusual, non-traditional:

Pisces
Whimsical, or something important not yet featured - religious-flavour - Pisces is one of the best zodiac signs for that:

Christmas-time Dilemma

As the deadline approaches for mailing of greetings cards to the UK and Europe, in order for them to arrive in time for Christmas, I find myself with a faint feeling of foreboding.

All recipients of my UK or Europe-bound cards, ex- work friends, cousins, old friends are "of a certain age" - most ages are just about as "certain" as my own, a few are even more "certain", some a tad less. I keep putting off beginning to write the cards, or even addressing the envelopes. The most I've managed, so far, is attaching the little self-addressed return labels to the upper left-hand corner of the cards' envelopes!

It's silly really, but I feel wary of posting brief cheery letters or remarks to recipients who might have troubles, be they of health, bereavement, or they might have moved to a new "senior-type" address, or even might have shuffled off their mortal coil without me knowing of it. I'm pretty sure most of their nearest and dearest would have informed me of the latter though - but what if they're waiting until Christmas card time to break the news to those at a distance? (Bites lip).

Last year one cousin who has always corresponded at Christmas time failed to do so, and has left me wondering; two other regulars on my card list failed to emerge last year too, one of whom had always sent me a calendar; the other's card from me was returned (in April!) as "addressee gone away".

In these days of instant communication, e-mail, cellphones, etc.etc. this predicament ought not to arise; it likely won't arise for the slightly younger generations as they reach their later decades. My greetings card recipients are not as keen on using the computer as I am. One or two have laptops but hardly ever use 'em for correspondence or for accessing the internet, others refuse to have a computer at home because they were sickened by them during working life; others, if they are fully computer literate as I'm sure some must be, have chosen not to correspond with me by that method, or have lost my e-mail address - which is very likely!

What to do? Maybe they are thinking the same about me! If I decided not to send any cards this year, they'd definitely be thinking the same about me!

I'll leave it a few days more, until 9 December is almost here, then I suppose I'll have to dive in and tell myself, "What the heck - if there's anything amiss they should have let me know before now."