My love of Christmas tradition doesn’t end with the cedar boughs and red poinsettias all over the house. It carries on into one of my favourite parts of the season: Christmas cards.
10 years ago, my walls were adorned with lengths of ribbon laden with cards. I would find nearly 3 or 4 in my mailbox every day until Christmas Eve. But many of my friends have given up the tradition of sending a card or a picture. Instead of discouraging me, this leaves me even more determined to keep up this annual convention.
While I could do without the junk mail that still lands in my mailbox, something about finding a handwritten card still thrills my heart. Is it that it took a smidge of extra effort to get the card to me? Is it because I knew the sender held this card in his/her hands? Is it just nostalgia?
I’m not quite sure, but I’m not giving it up just yet.
This year, my dear friend, Lindsay, of Lindsay Faber Photography, captured some shots of the girls at a local Christmas tree farm.
And yet another reason to love Christmas cards: they set a deadline for getting proper photos taken of your family.
I have hundreds upon hundreds of photos of my kids, and most of them will never see the light of day. I take them with my piece-of-garbage iPhone as while someone is swinging on the monkeybars or making a silly face. I snap pictures as we craft or work in the garden. Usually our hands are dirty, and heads are turned to the work at hand.
Rarely, if ever, do I dress them up nicely and take a photo of them. Rather, I prefer to employ the talents of my friend to capture my kiddos’ sweet faces.
And I use bribes.
Yes, on a regular day, bribes are bad. I know this. Parenting experts will furrow their brow and tsk-tsk at me.
But I don’t care. On “Photo Shoot Day”, all bets are off. Bribes are how we get the job done when we’re taking photos. There is only a certain amount of light to be had when you’re shooting outdoors, and this means that everyone has got to get in line and cooperate.
And now you get a present! Everyone wins.
I’m quite tickled with our cards this year. They’re a simple layout on a navy blue background, with gold embossed letters.
When they arrived in the mail, I sat down immediately and wrote nearly all of them. I have about a quarter of my list left to go, and in fact, writing this post has inspired me to hop to it. I’m going to grab an eggnog and hunker down.
