To me, there is nothing more Christmassy than a Christmas card that shows up a few days after Christmas. It says to me, “I was definitely thinking about you, but Christmas snuck up on me again this year and I got so busy and … well … merry belated Christmas.”
Late Christmas cards are a delight because they show up after all the insanity, when you are probably just lounging around in your brand new pajamas and slippers and attempting to come down off of the high of eating WAY too much chocolate over the past week.
The late Christmas card does not get lost in the avalanche of other cards you received in the weeks leading up to Christmas. It stands and shines alone, like a perfect sand dollar you found at the beach after all of the other good shells had been harvested by the professional beachcombers.
“Ah yes,” you say, your slippered feet up on the ottoman, a steaming mug of microwaved hot chocolate (poured from the jug of hot chocolate made 3 days ago and stored in the fridge), your chair surrounded by the paper fragments and gift-box shards of presents opened a few days ago. “Ah, my dear Aunt Martha. I have not seen her in 32 years since she moved away to California, but what pleasant memories I have of her from the time I spent a weekend with her and my cousins when I was 12. How nice of her to remember me after all these years. I shall definitely be adding her back to our Christmas card list. The next time I get up. And the next time I am in the office near the address book.”
You gaze at the card (bought by the gross by your frugal Aunt Martha from a dollar store a decade ago and now yellowed with age) in a haze of nostalgia and an on-coming chocolate coma.
Ah, dear Aunt Martha. So nice of her to remember me. What a nice Christmas this was.
Must …..
….. fight off …….
………………. nap.
Zzzzzzzzzz!
Please accept this late Christmas card from me to you, and a very belated Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Thank you so much for the virtual Christmas card, and for all your wonderful writing throughout the year! Cheers!
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Thank you! That means a lot to me!
And thank you, too, for your amazing blog. Hopefully in the new year I will be able to do more reading as well as more writing, and your blog shall continue to always be one of my first stops.
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Better late than never, my friend!! LOL! Merry Christmas!
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But the Christmas season is just beginning! The merchandisers and such may say “Over and done with,” but the Twelve Days of Christmas actually stretch on until Epiphany, on January 6. Pleading the Twelfth is a great custom — you can send cards, bake, buy gifts for that person who showed up with one unexpectedly, and otherwise celebrate as you please — for another eleven days. Cheers! and Merry Christmas!
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Ah yes how true. We are away, so imagine the excitement of returning home tomorrow and finding more Xmas cards – from people we forgot to send to.
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Ha ha! One of the small joys of Christmas is the constant chess match of adding and dropping people from our Christmas card list. I love how I will not get a card from someone for ten years, so I finally stop sending them one … and that is the very year they decide to sent ME one. And the chess match continues.
I hope you had a very merry Christmas!
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I love this!! Merry belated Christmas! 🙂
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Thank you, Penny! Merry belated Christmas to you, too. 🙂
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