Holiday E-Cards vs. Paper Cards

[Lynn2000]

I also prefer to send and receive paper cards. I like the act of writing people's names on them, signing them, addressing the envelope, picking out the matching return address label, etc.. I don't write anything in them besides the recipients' names and my own name. I don't send cards for other occasions (birthdays, other holidays--except for thank you cards) so this is my one time a year that I sit down and do this. I also use store-bought cards--often ones I've gotten free in the mail, unsolicited, from charities, or ones my mom had lying around that she wasn't using.

For all I know, most people chuck them in the trash as soon as they get them; but I feel like, theoretically, they have more "staying power" than ecards. I usually keep the paper cards I receive out as decoration for the holidays, then tuck them away in a box somewhere. If I had to switch to ecards for some reason, I don't think I would go to any more effort to personalize them than I do now, so the "event" would be over for me a lot faster, too (bad). I look forward to doing my Christmas cards starting early in the fall and I get them ready in advance so I can mail them out on December 1. I like seeing the neat stacks of envelopes sitting there. If there was some sort of outside reason why paper cards could NOT be sent any more, I have a feeling I would just stop sending cards at all, because ecards wouldn't be that much fun for me. At that point I would rather just send people an email and try to have an actual e-conversation with them.

I don't think I've ever gotten an ecard for Christmas myself... Well, maybe a couple of emails that had the holiday newsletter or photo attached. Those are fine, I just save the attachment to my computer and I guess that's one less bit of paper I have to file somewhere, but I tend to forget it ever happened more than I would with paper.

[Moray]

I do both, depending on the recipient. I imagine I'll continue to do both.

[Lynnv]

Thinking harder about it; e-cards are so fleeting to me. I watch them once, then I close the page and *poof*, they're gone. A few mintues later I'll probably forget all about it. I hang a pretty cord across the wall and hang all the paper cards we get on it. The cards become part of the holiday decorations. I see them daily. They have more staying power.

This is exactly how I feel.  An e-card will get looked at once then be forgotten, but physical cards get displayed, looked at, and remembered.

Where I look at a paper card and read the message, then throw away/recycle it (unless it has a new address or something like that).  I don't save them or use them for decoration.  They are just as fleeting to me as an emailed newsletter/card.   Extra special effort (like a handmade card or someone who did a lot of photoshop work to put together a beautiful email) get more notice.  But that can happen in either format.

[Morty'sCleaningLady]

Thinking harder about it; e-cards are so fleeting to me. I watch them once, then I close the page and *poof*, they're gone. A few mintues later I'll probably forget all about it. I hang a pretty cord across the wall and hang all the paper cards we get on it. The cards become part of the holiday decorations. I see them daily. They have more staying power.

I hang mine as well!  I especially love the picture cards.

[bopper]

I do the easy paper card method.

I take a picture, upload it to Shutterfly.com and make a Christmas card out of it. On it I put our names so  I don't have to sign it.
I have a MS Word file with all addresses and I use mail merge feature to print out address labels.
Put a label and stamp on the envelopes and use my self-inking stamp to make the return address.
I don't put the recipients names on the cards, or if I do, the names are in the word file for reference.
Fairly easy peasy.

[Venus193]

Here's another article on this phenomenon:

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2010/12/did_facebook_kill_the_christmas_card.html