I love it!

I love receiving Christmas cards.

I LOVE to receive Christmas cards. It’s a great reminder to me that there are loads of people in the world I love and it’s always good to hear from them.

I live on the other side of the world from many of the people I was friends with in my younger adult life. The cards I really love to get are from them, and they always have a message with some news. Those cards stay on my desk all year round. They’re waiting for me to reply to them, which I of course never do, but they are like small paper reminders of the love and joy of those friendships.

Yes! I love to receive Christmas cards. But it’s very much a dying trend.

I can take or leave them. An awful lot of wasted paper. Especially when from people I see regularly. Save the planet!

It’s always intriguing to see how one is viewed by people through the medium of cards – and where you stand socially with who gives you them.

I do! Especially nicely illustrated ones.

Yes, it is especially nice to receive a card in the mail. Particularly if it is handmade, or an art print to frame, so then you tend you keep it.

I love to receive Christmas cards. We mostly get photos of people's kids which is fun to see as they grow up. I don't like cards that feel like an obligation on someone's part that just say "Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas" with not even a photo. And nothing is worse than a way too detailed letter about the preceding year. Short and sweet with a quick personal note is all it should be! And I love well thought out hand made cards, but I only have one friend who goes to the trouble. I look forward to those every year.

Only if they’re (a) home made, or (b) photos of growing children, travel or major family events. Or if they have a personal handwritten newsy greeting. I do not like getting a preprinted card with a canned greeting, no note and a printed signature: ”Season’s Greetings, The Joneses”.

Love it! I wouldn’t have any Christmas decorations if it weren’t for Xmas cards.

I do love to receive cards, but they make me feel really guilty because I can’t organise myself in time to send them to other people. It seems one of those wonderfully inclusive gestures.

I do, yes. Although I'm hopeless at sending them. Last year I sent animated e-cards because I'd left it too late to post them!

I love sending Christmas cards. I like to send funny cards, so I pick out individual funny Christmas cards for each friend and family member based on their humor. It takes a lot of time in the card isle.

Oh yes. I always leave it too late and I end up sitting at the TV getting through a huge pile through gritted teeth. But I love writing to friends and family at Christmas.

I like sending Christmas cards to those closest to me, as I like the sentiment over the holidays.

Sometimes, I only send them to close family.

Yes. A handful to a few good friends and family members. The albeit minimal effort involved allows me to take stock of who is important to me. Anything that doesn't say "Happy Holidays".

Very few. Generally just to people far away. Local people and family get hugs and handshakes. MUCH nicer.

Only to reply to people who sent me a card. I write a chatty personal note back to them, particularly if the person sent an impersonal pre-printed card. This is an attempt to teach by example how to do a proper card. It doesn’t work.

For years and years and years, I designed and made my own cards, at first silk-screening them, later using the marvelous color Xerox. Designing my cards in early December kicked off the Christmas season. I no longer do this. Why? Lack of time or inclination? Email? Yes. Email.

My wife and I had a long run of doing really quite tacky personalised christmas cards. It was going to be a one off for a joke, but we got quite into it and started doing more and more. It was quite expensive, but the reward was great. Although people got quite upset when they didn't receive one!

I would gladly still send Christmas cards but the cost is nothing less than extortion!! (I live in Australian and Australia Post seems to want to go out of business). I especially think it would be a lovely exercise to do with my children each year, getting them to sit down and think of a small message to send to their family overseas. The reality would probably be considerably more tortuous than the idea.

I tend to send charity cards, mainly to keep in touch with people I don’t see much. I don’t send ones to neighbors and colleagues who I see all the time. I like the physicality of cards and choose designs that I think will look decorative or that suit the recipient. The charity donation makes it feel slightly less pointless.

I’ve never sent a Christmas card. As much as I love Christmas, it’s never been something I’ve even considered doing. I did one year think about sending around a photo of me and my cat, but the work needed to execute sort of outweighed my desire to do so.

I’ve never been a card person. Ever since missing one year at school, I have defiantly stuck to my philosophy of not giving cards out. Birthdays, weddings, and seasonal greetings have remained purely verbal… until my wife decides otherwise and I sign my life away as ordered.

I never really have. I think I would if I had kids. I would make them short and personalized.

I’ve always tried not to send cards in a lazy attempt to avoid being sucked into a nightmarish and endless exchange of obligation. I try and keep it simple, no news is good news. Let’s just assume were all still friends, merry Christmas, bah humbug. My Wife, on the other hand has an encyclopedic knowledge of exactly who sends what, and who we need to reply to. This incredible feat of knowledge extends to birthdays and party invites.

I would love to. As I’ve got older it seems much more important to stay in touch. But social media makes it really easy to make announcements without having to put in the work. Isn’t that an awful admission?

I don’t feel the need in 2018. We are so connected as a society that I have to say I feel that Christmas Cards are a tad obsolete.

I’ll sort of skim them, but I don’t really digest them.

Always seem a tad impersonal.

Haven’t seen one in years.

I’ve never heard of them, but I’d probably like to read them. I like knowing about what goes on in the lives of my friends and family. I live far from most of my friends and family, so I don’t get the play by play I used to get when I lived in the same state.

I like having the year recapped. Reminds you of what happened and helps you set goals and get excited for the year ahead.

I totally love them for all the wrong reasons. They’re like a hilarious relic from The Eighties. The ones that are thinly concealed humblebrags are always the best. “Since we’ve got back from Monaco I’ve hardly had a moment to clean our gigantic Georgian mansion what with Dave’s spectacular promotion and our little Allen off to Oxbridge.”

Never received one—and I am not a fan.

I've never received one, and I'd love to keep it that way.

Sorry to the friends and family to send them, but not a fan. They often come across as unintentionally boastful and I find them a bit impersonal. I prefer a handwritten scrawl!

I completely understand why they happen and the short ones are great. But I’ve a friend who writes a short novel about her family, the dog, garden slugs, Mr Petrie who has a large collection of plywood gnomes etc in full, graphic tedious detail.

In principle they are a great idea and I like to know what people have been doing, but in general they are hymns to ego, competitive and poorly written. I’m not sure how healthy they are, for either the sender or the recipient. Mind you, I run out of steam writing personal notes to everyone and then I feel guilty if I just write ‘love from Mary’ so you can’t win.

Hmm. I get a few of those. And I’ve written them as well. As a writer, I would say the secret is not to give too much detail, especially about your children’s teachers (they’re too many steps removed from the person you’re writing to, who will not give a stuff), keep it light, and if you can, funny. But be aware that writing humour is a knack. Only some can do it, and putting three exclamation marks at the end of every sentence doesn’t make you Bill Bryson.

They make me want to write a satire Round Robin, featuring failing health, bad grades, being fired, announcing my gender switch, divorces, deaths, homicidal rampages, and detailing grandpa’s deepening senility. If you must do one, I would caution the writers to keep it to one double- or triple-spaced page (Yes! Some people send 2 pages! Unfair!). Shortest is the best. Better, dump the Round Robin and write a personal note hitting the highlights.

In my experience, most people can't write and therefore they should not (harsh!). Or maybe just write less. These letters always seem like a catharsis for the writer! I grew up with a mother who is a writer and an editor. She instilled less is more!! Also, they are sort of obsolete it would seem in this digital age. We all know what everyone is doing all the time, for better or for worse.

Oooh, can’t stand Round Robins. There’s really no way to do them gracefully, is there? You’re either boring or you’re boasting…And if you know someone is having a really lousy Christmas, it feels like rubbing your happiness in their face. We’re all on social media every day, anyway, so I’m sure I haven’t missed any big news in the lives of my pals!

With social media these days you are pretty subscribed to people’s lives, so a yearly round-up isn’t as necessary as it potentially was before.

Personally, I can't stand 'em, especially the boastful look-how-good-our-lives-are ones. If I'm in time to send cards I always try and write a short note to the recipient myself. Besides, in these days of oversharing social media overload, most of us know most of it already.