Electronic Holiday Cards

(this article also appears on Huffington Post -- click here if you prefer to read it there)

'Tis the season to exchange greetings...and for me it's one of the best parts of the celebration.

As the world has gone digital, so too have holiday greetings. And I'm okay with that, particularly in business. My inbox is flooded with electronic cards wishing us well, from colleagues I know well to those who I've just recently just met. It's a lot of fun to see what people can do creatively in the electronic world...in business.

For work, the electronic greeting card makes a lot of sense...especially for those of us who travel or are not in the office all of the time.

In fact, click here to see the one my agency did this season.  

But I have to admit that I feel very differently about the personal side of holiday greetings. I have to be honest and say that I don't really like electronic greetings from family and friends. Sure, I'll take them and I will open them and I am thankful to hear from everyone...but I don't enjoy them as much as the ones that I get to open in the snail mail.

Especially the ones that have pictures of the family.

Maybe I'm old fashioned that way. For years, I agonized and sweat-ed out the details to put together our holiday card with a picture of the kids. It was a lot of work getting the right photo, getting it printed, signing each one, addressing the envelopes, and yes licking the stamps.  Licking! I was so happy when I could switch to the self-adhesive variety.

Which is why I appreciated each and every card that I received as well. Especially the ones that were hand signed.

Now those days are over for me...the kids are grown up and they'd kill me if I asked them to do a holiday card. But that doesn't mean I don't want to receive and see the ones from my friends. Bring it on! 

I toiled for twenty years dishing those puppies out, and I want to see yours! The old fashioned way, if you are up for it.

I want to get paper cuts as I open the envelopes. I want to chuckle as I read your type-written year-end recaps.  And I want to marvel at how much your kids have grown in the past year.

Please don't send that to me electronically. They pile up in my inbox right along side the rest of my to-do list. Don't take that thrill of the mail box away from me.

It's the holidays! It's tradition!

And I guess it's now up to me to reinvent my holiday card, from the empty nest!

What's your experience?  JIM.

PS - I am loving all of these year end video recaps that people are doing/sharing.  Love them!