UPDATE:
Don’t send mail to the address I had posted for Christmas Cards. That was a temporary address.
ORIGINAL Published on: Dec 22, 2014
Do people still send Christmas cards? I have fewer this year than usual.
Some one remarked to me, jokingly, that I didn’t have a lot of Christmas Cards.
First, he couldn’t know that and, second, he wasn’t being serious.
Still, his remark got me thinking.
I am not impressed by email Christmas greetings. Not at all. If someone wants to send me Christmas greetings, they can send a card by snail mail.
So, let’s try something.
Send me Christmas cards from all over the world with cool stamps.
I’ll save the interesting stamps and see if there is a home school group that might be into stamp collecting.
I’ll let you know along the way how the card count is going. Sometimes I look at the blog’s stats and I see, coming and going, people from all over the world. Hopefully, you will take a moment or two to send a card.
UPDATE 26 Dec:
Cards are starting to come in. Among those which arrived today … from…
- Cleveland, OH
- St. Louis, MO
- Indianapolis, IN
- Fort Wayne, IN
- Alton, IL
- Lincoln, NE
- Yellowstone National Park, WY (How cool is that for an address? And the card was made in India, so they took me literally)!
- Dallas, TX
- Mt. Clemens, MI
- Denton, TX
UPDATE 31 December:
I had a couple days away of down time. I returned to find a huge stack of cards! It took me an hour and a half to open them and extract stamps and read the contents. Some people included family photos and their annual letter to friends and family. Most people added written comments of appreciation for this blog. A few people included donations. Some people asked for prayers. It was quite touching.
Cards came from all over the country and a few from beyond the borders, including…
- Rochester, NY
- Cheyenne, WY
- Berekely, CA
- Fresno, CA
- Houston, TX
- Holyoke, CT
- Forest Hills, NY
- King of Prussia, PA
- Fredricksburg, VA 2x
- Lake Worth, FL
- Mt. Laurel, NJ
- Thousand Oaks, 2x
- San Jose, CA 2x
- Aptos, CA
- Southhampton – UK
- Dundee, MI
- San Diego, CA
- Orlando, FL
- San Rafael, CA
- Irving, TX
- Catskill, NY
- Glen Burnie, MD
- La Honda, CA
- Arcadia, OK
- Atlanta, GA
- Jacksonville, FL
- Kingston, ON
- Meadville, PA
- White Plains, NY
- Lewiston, ME
- Marshfield, MA
- Summit, NJ
- Camarillo, CA
- Williamsport, PA
- Madrid – SPAIN
- Dorchester, MA
- Millers Tavern, VA
- Kansas City, MO
- St. Paul, MN
- Hudson, WI
- Indian Trail, NC
- Waldport, OR
- Westchester, NY
- Worchester, MA
- New York, NY
Also, I have to share two shots of things that came in cards. Fun!
First, a bunch of old stamps.
And then there was this! I think that’s a biretta at the top!
A few more cards today from…
- York – UK
- Austin, MN
- Zebulon, NC
- Northlake, IL
UPDATE: 2 Jan 2015:
More cards are coming, now also from overseas!
- Calgary, Alberta (not overseas for me)
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Guilford, CT
- Sydney, Australia
- Lansdowne, VA
- Fritch, TX
Here is a nice card I received:
UPDATE 3 Jan 2015:
More cards have come in!
Today from
- Quaker Hill, CT
- Southwick, MA
- Sheffield, England
- Nottingham, Emgland
- Somewhere in Ireland
- Houston, TX (with Vietnamese)
- Washington DC (I think)
- Parrish, FL
- Mount Laurel, NJ
- Tambaram East, Kanchipuran – India
- Franklin, MA
- Wichita, KS
- Bonita Springs, FL
I start the first round of travel for the new year as of tomorrow. So, it’ll be a while before I can pick up more cards. I hope for more. The Christmas cycle ends conclusively with Candlemas, after all!
UPDATE 28 Jan:
More cards have come in. It took me a while to dig out from under my mail after my travels. I like to read the cards and the notes that are included. Some of them are quite touching. They give me a glimpse into the lives of readers. Many people asked for prayers for their families. DONE!
This round…
Only one piece of hate mail this time, typically anonymous. Ho hum.
Your cards came from….
- Spokane, WA
- Charlotte, NC
- Winder, GA
- Koln, Germany
- Huntersville, NC
- France
- USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70)
- Malta
- Eltopia, WA
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Christchurch, NZ
- Harvard, MA
- Muskegon, MI
- Emsdetten, Germany
- Miami, FL
- Gibraltar
- St. Peters, MO
- Monticell, MN
- Albuquerque, NM
- Langhorne, PA
- Simpson, PA
- Destrehan, LA
- Czech Republic
- Chula Vista, CA
- South Jordan, UT
- Cuyahoga Falls, OH
- Manchester, NH
- Citta del Vaticano
- Philadelphia, PA
- Shelton, CT
- Bellingham, WA
- Markt Schiebe, Germany
- Indianapolis, IN
- Vadnais Heights, MN
- Raleigh, NC
- Eden, NC
- Columbus, OH
- Ponte Vedra, FL
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Voorhees, NJ
- Albany, NY
- Carol Stream, IL
- Arlington Hts, IL
- Orlando, FL
- Mililani, HI
- Lawrenceburg, TN
- Gerocery West, NSW
- Westminster, CO
- Calgary, Alberta
- San Antonio, TX
- Tiverton, RI
- Issaquah, WA
- Tacoma, WA
- Washington, DC
- Menoken, ND
- Breese, FL
- Poland
- Turku, Finland
- Columbia, IL
- Fresno, CA
- Wichita, KS
- Burnwood, Vic
- Huffman, TX
- Palmyra, WA
- Richmond, VA
- Nogales, AZ
- Trinidad & Tobago
- Paicineo, CA
- Suffield, OH
- Nogent-sur-Marne, France
Here’s one, making reference to my desire to write more by hand and my nostalgia for old school correspondence, that came nicely penned in Latin.
UPDATE 4 Feb:
A few more have trickled in. Thanks!
- Burley, ID
- Brentwood, TN
- Halifax, NS
- Dörfli, Switzerland
With the Feast of the Purification (Presentation) and I collected the cards and, alas, out they go. It is with regret, since so many have great messages inside. These things are, by their nature, ephemeral. I look forward to next year, when we can get an earlier start.
Some final shots.
As the cards came in, I put them out on the shelf below the windows in the hallway here at the Steam Pipe Distribution Venue.
I received so many that the shelves rapidly filled up.
Their final resting place. Note that, on the top, is an image of my home parish in St. Paul, which I miss.
I have also taken down now the black, tactical stocking…. until next year.
Thanks, everyone!
Having the UPS Box makes sense for the reasons given plus you wouldn’t want the various nutty people and Fishwrap readers to be able to find your true location. Still it would have been interesting to address a card to “Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue” and see what happens.
I’ll send something when I get back to my home base tomorrow.
I’m always amazed when I go to my local Post Office and ask for Christmas stamps, that I can still get them. Very nice ones this year with the Blessed Mother and Child. I’m always expecting that Obama will have replaced them with Winter Solstice stamps or ones with pictures of Che Guevara or something.
But Father, but Father, I’m a FIB. Would a card from Illinois count? [I’d be lying if I said I knew what a “FIB” was.]
I’ve sent you a card, Father – all the way from Trinidad. It probably will not get to you until the New Year, if our Post Office is anything to go by!!
It won’t make it for Christmas, but I look forward to picking one out for you Fr. Z. In the meantime, Merry Christmas! I hope you are feeling much better.
Done…in the mail from Canada.
Related…is it incorrect or inappropriate to send a Mass card to a priest? To have a Mass said by another priest for him? I ask as my Christmas Cards were from the FSSP this year, and they are all ‘Mass cards’, indicating that a Mass will be said for all card recipients (a separate sheet accompanies the box of cards, on which the names of recipients are entered for forwarding to the FSSP).
[As in… you are having Masses said for the priest? FANTASTIC! I sincerely appreciate these cards when I get them. I am a poor sinner who needs prayers. The fact that I am also a priest means that my judgment will be much more severe than yours. Believe me! Priests want and need prayers. What is better than Masses? Why wait until people are dead to have Masses said for them?]
I will send you a card, it will take a while for it to reach you from my location in Scandinavia, though! Merry Christmas, dear Fr!
Dear Allan S, I have had Masses said for priests and they were so touched that someone thought of *them* :-)
Thank you Father – it sounds obvious when you say it, but you’d be amazed at what we in the pews wonder about. Or not I guess…you did start this website after all :)
I would say I have learned a million more times about the faith from you than I did at RCIA…except you can’t actually get a multiple of zero.
I assume a card would indeed be valid (perhaps illicit?) if received within the octave? Or perhaps anything inside of Candlemas? Hmmm. Not that I’m saying I’m going to personally push the envelope with my card but hypothetically speaking of course. [Christmas cards would be welcome until…. CANDLEMAS!]
I’ll send you one, but since I hand embroider mine, it might take a bit. Am I correct in thinking CandleMas is in February this year?
I have sent you a card, Fr Z. The Post Office did not have higher denomination stamps so I pasted quite a few of them.
I wish you a very Blessed Christmas!
Done.
Am mailing one on Monday.
Lines into Mexico (back and forth) often take 2+ hours wait while driving.
One could walk to the Mexican post office but It’s another long wait coming back into the USA and my arthritic knees can’t take it.
So a regular USA stamp was all I could do.
(enclosure, don’t toss).
Hope it gets there before you leave.
Have a safe trip on your next round of traveling.
OOO, OOO, JuliB:
I hope you meant a “Fan of the Illinois Bears” and not the other definition I found on google.
I wonder who the other Fredericksburg folks are.
I would agree with you Father about preferring a real card sent by snail mail to receiving an email card but I got quite a shock when I sent my usual cards from Australia to my relatives and friends in England. The cost took my breath away. It cost me five times more to send an actual card than to buy the card! And, my local Post Office had run out of Christmas stamps and could only supply me printed stickers saying “Post Paid” and the monetary cost. They got there alright but no Christmas special stamps, which, had I been able to buy them, were really nice, religious stamps!
I can see the cost kicking in for future Christmas Cards and I think that I will be moving over to making a phone call using Skype…which is far cheaper than sending a card in the Post.
Father, as we speak, a team of trained killer whales are working in a relay across the Pacific, passing a waterproof bag of Australian mail from one to the other, ferrying it to its destination. I am sure the bag will get to San Francisco some time before Easter, interruptions permitting.
A minor correction Fr. Z, it is Kanchipuram and not Kanchipuran.
Have a safe trip!
Father, I want to send you one from Malta, but they are ALL GONE; the stores have already taken down decorations and the sales are over. I missed last week as I had a virus for several days and could not get out. Even the Catholic shop had none.
I shall try my best, but I am afraid the Maltese celebrate Chrismas in Advent and after January 1st, except for street lights, every thing Christmas disappears.
Maybe I can find one in France…in the next few weeks when I am there.
I see Texas is well-represented, but not one card from Santa Fe, New Mexico, the heart of Catholicism in north America? :(
Yes, it does say “flogging”, Father…
That handwritten letter is Latin is really nice. Kudos to the individual who wrote that letter!!
That is BEAUTIFUL handwriting. Wow that’s inspiring. I was just reading about how good handwriting is for our brains. I want to write more things longhand.
As I was looking at your mailbox address I was glad that there was a fourth 6 in the address. I was getting worried. :)
Yay! My card arrived! Happy Christmas, Fr Z.
And Father, I see you got a card from someone in “Worchester, MA” (Actually the correct spelling is Worcester, but I digress). When you are in MA make sure you pronounce it “Woos-tah” or the locals will not know what you are talking about!
As somebody who just moved to Summit, NJ, I’d love to know what church they go to. It’s been very lacking up here so far!
Dear Summit NJ:
The FSSP is in Pequannock and ICK is at St Anthony’s in West Orange, which is right around the corner from you.
N
I honestly didn’t know that!
Do you have any experience with St Anthony’s? Filled church, pleasant people? As a huge introvert, all this church hopping I’ve been doing is causing me stress. I’d almost want to find a EF that was half full so I could hide in the back row. :|
Perfect….just in time to start receiving home-made spiritual Valentine’s!
When I was growing up in Rhode Island, our parish rectory’s address was 666 Broad St….No kidding!
Thanks for sharing, Father. They are all just beautiful.
Did you get the one I finally found in Malta? Saw Malta on the list.
Wondering where I am next year at Christmas…. [Yes. I got only one from Malta.]
Good…