Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories: December 4 - Christmas Cards

December 4 - Christmas Cards

Did your family send cards? Did your family display the ones they received? Do you still send Christmas cards? Do you have any cards from your ancestors?

As I was growing up, my Mother was the Christmas Card Queen!!! She sent out hundreds of Christmas cards every year! As she grew older this dwindled down a bit, and now at 72 she send out about  a hundred every year.

As I grew up and moved away on my own, I began sending cards as well. But never on the grand scale as my mother did! I seldom sent more than about 40 or 50 cards in a single year. And now I've dropped off to the point of just to family [siblings] and neices and nephews.

Mother always displayed her Christmas cards. And as many as Mother sent, that's about how many she recieved! One year, she had them strung in multiple lines across the ceiling of our home in Norfolk, Virginia. And it was a very high Cathedral ceiling! There were multiple strands of cards criss-crossing the room! They were beautiful! I've seen her place them across the mantle, and around the windows and doors,

I continue to display the cards I receive, which are few these days. I have a lovely tin pail that is designed to hold them. It is punched with the words "Merry Christmas" on it's front. You can't see all of the cards at a glance, you must take them out of the pail to look at each one. But I love it, as my home is quite small, so this way of displaying works well for me.

I have a scrap book [someplace] that contains all of the cards I ever received from my grandparents. So I do have some Christmas cards I received from them. But I don't have any other cards from ancestors. But I treasure those from my grandparents!


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.