Ecards: Tacky or Savvy?

It's either another telling sign of the state of the economy or I've been Christmas card blacklisted. Every year on the day after Thanksgiving I receive a card each from two friends. It's been so consistent that if I somehow ignored Thanksgiving (which I did this year) I would still know that the day had passed because these friends' cards would have arrived. But not this year. In fact we've only received a couple of cards.

photo by SpacePotato

I'm not upset by this. Hey, I haven't sent any cards. But then I usually send them so close to the day that they either arrive just before or significantly later.





But anyway the lack of cards got me thinking about some people I know who only send some form of electronic holiday greetings. So I wonder in these times of struggling national and personal economies, and focus on greener living, "Is it okay to send ecards for the holidays?"





I posed my question online at Yahoo Answers. It might be because the Yahoo group is online, but I was surprised that more people thought it was fine to send ecards. Most did, however, think sending ecards was a sign of being cheap.





Here are a couple of the responses:


I think it is fine for friends and close acquaintances, but for family you should probably get traditional cards.





We always send emails to electronically connected friends, but because we use the money we save to support our favourite charity. We always send cards and a short letter to our nearest and dearest.





Or you could print the e-cards and hand deliver them with maybe a hand picked flower / or a plate of cookies or something with a personal touch. Email is really impersonal.





Yea I suppose its okay I mean the real ones are better if you cant afford it then I see no reason why that's bad.





Lame.





I think so yes. And better for the environment that having millions thrown away after Xmas.





For me I still haven't warmed up to ecards, at least not mass mailed ecards. But I still write a personal greeting inside every Christmas that I send. But we'll see maybe I'll change my mind after this season.