If you are like me you very rarely read the verse in a Christmas card, after all how many ways are there to say merry Christmas? Or hoping that Santa came and went with presents? These verses are nothing if not basic poetry, to be honest I don’t think I have ever read one, let alone tried to match each verse up with different people.
Not so in our house. Around this time of year mum would buy her collection of cards from Woolworths, boxed in sets of twenty five they were nice enough cards, with Christmas trees on the front, scenes of snow, and people merrily skating. By this time I had never seen a real living Christmas tree, snow covered mountains and skating was only seen on television. But I figured that somewhere these things were normal, just not on a busy main road in Burnley.
One evening mum would declare, “Harry, it’s time to write the cards - lads (Denis and I) keep quiet!” Out came the two or three boxes of Woolworths cards complete with envelopes. I never knew we had so many relatives, I certainly never met them, they were either well hidden or hiding from us, either way I had no faces to match up to the names about to be announced.
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| snow christmas trees and moonlight |
Mum would read every verse, study it, carefully, then say “that one goes to Bill” or “that verse suits Eddie” and so it went for at least an hour, mum would read each card, dad would follow instructions writing the same ‘merry Christmas from Harry, Peggy and family’ in each one, then writing the address on the envelope. The envelopes were never sealed, because unsealed envelopes were cheaper to post, besides who wanted to read other peoples Christmas cards? Mum took a lot of care matching said verse to said recipient. I am not sure if anyone appreciated how much effort she put into it, or that anyone else would do something like that. It is humbling now to think of the time and care she spent. I must admit that (if I even remember) I now just buy a card put it in the envelope and send it off, many times I forget to write anything.
Dad was stubborn to a fault, he also pretended to have no memory, but he remembered every address for every family member. I remember one occasion he was talking about birthdays, “how can I be expected to remember all the birthdays, there’s just too many of them” and then recite each one perfectly! He would sit down with his cigarette, as mum handed him each card with the instruction “that ones to Arthur” he would say “now then let me think, what’s his address?” and then write it on the envelope, of course there were no postal codes them but even so I think he would have remembered.
A funny story related to birthday cards, I have never been into birthdays, mine are not that important to me, they have been more important to other people, for years I have heard friends say “you have to go out tonight, it’s your birthday” my answer is normally “why”. I know it’s not normal, but then again I can never be accused of being a follower. I like the beat of my own drum, I can live very well with myself and very easily with what I want to do, but rarely with what someone else wants me to do, especially if it’s “just because” Many years ago my birthday came and went, no big deal, it was just another day to me, and a couple of days later, at the weekend I phoned Denis and wished him happy belated birthday I said, “sorry I haven’t sent you a card yet I forgot” Denis answered “but I’m your twin, it’s the same date as yours!” I have never forgotten his birthday after that!
Now my wife and I have the perfect system for our own cards. We have cards in a drawer, Christmas, birthday and wedding anniversary cards. On the appointed days out they come, when the joyous event has gone they are put away again until next year. It works and with no stress, they look good, and everyone is happy. Our friends ridiculed us (in a nice way), but slowly one by one, more and more of them are doing what we do, except they are now ‘recycling’ We really were ahead of the curve, especially since we were just making life easy!
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