Once again the annual dilemma is upon me of whether to send Christmas cards or not…I mean what is the point with Facebook around to sum up the year with a review in pictures? It would save me a lot of time and money…although I already bought my Christmas stamps and decided not to have cards made this year. Bah Humbug! But somehow I just can’t let go of that tradition just yet and so the boxes of cards are beside me with the newsletter yet to be written and pictures added on one side.
During my struggle with this dilemma I came across these photos of greeting cards my Dad made over fifty years ago. He had to draw the scenes and glue in pictures by hand after photographing us in poses that were then superimposed on the holiday scenes. In the picture of Santa’s workshop, I am the live baby doll on the table of toys! In one of the pictures I wasn’t born yet and my younger brother wasn’t born yet in any of them. There eventually were six children and that was plenty! Making cards this way took a lot of time and creativity. And there was no Photoshop back then to speed things up! I love seeing Dad’s artistic flair that I must have inherited from him, along with his love of music. It makes me want to have an old-fashioned Christmas any way that I can think of and sending the greeting cards is one way to do that.
What else can I do to celebrate an old-fashioned, simpler Christmas in this techno-crazy, fast-paced world? The decorating is done, the shopping is not, the baking may never be. Instead of making a list of what I want for Christmas I need to make a list of simple ways to celebrate an old-fashioned Christmas that doesn’t involve putting real candles on the tree or hand-making every gift…one is a fire hazard and the other I REALLY don’t have time for! I am going to think about this over a cup of coffee as I work on the cards and listen to some Christmas jazz with the greats: Louie Armstrong, Duke Wellington, Frank Sinatra and more…
Snippets and Snatches 