Late greetings card

What would you do?
I have a reletave who this year posted my Christmas card from last year on 06th January this year. The same for mine and SWMBO birthday posted at least a week after the event so straight in the bin.This happens every year. 
Do you ignore it or politely say don't bother and let's just text each other a greeting?
He never keeps in touch the rest of the year  and cards are surely just dying out now anyway
How would you handle it I am sure I am not alone in this one

I'd do nothing, nothing at all.  There are far more important things going on in you life 

I wouldn't say a word.
I'd accept them gracefully, remember - it's the thought that counts. 
Also, don't rely on the postmark for date of sending - the post around here is dreadful and cards etc. are often franked by a sorting office miles away, with a random date, even when we know for certain the card was posted locally.

It is a lighthearted question not anything I am bothered about.

groundhog wrote:It is a lighthearted question not anything I am bothered about.

Cards are dying out. We send and receive cards with folk we know we will never see again but this year we've got fewer than ever before. Part of this is because of the obvious but others have simply stopped sending them. 

I think it's remarkable that your relative remembers your birthdays, none of my family remembers mine (or they do and don't let on  ) Perhaps you could send them a new calendar incase they think the Gregorian or Roman ones are still being used 

Not an issue until they forget to put a stamp on the envelope and you have to pay for it. Otherwise isn't costing you anything.

I see great potential for a family sweepstake to see how many days after event date the card arrives. Given recurring birthdays etc as described you could run it as a league over the year with a suitable prize for winner with most accurate guesses.

We have now cut back heavily on sending Christmas cards. There used to be loads on our annual list where the Christmas card exchange was the only contact for years. Now, we only send cards if we have actually had at least one form of direct contact during the preceding year in person, by telephone, text message, WhatsApp or email etc.

Bilbobaggins wrote:Not an issue until they forget to put a stamp on the envelope and you have to pay for it. Otherwise isn't costing you anything.

I see great potential for a family sweepstake to see how many days after event date the card arrives. Given recurring birthdays etc as described you could run it as a league over the year with a suitable prize for winner with most accurate guesses.

I've got a card for one of my sisters that I forgot to take when I saw her on her birthday last year, so I am saving it to give to her this year. If I remember to take it . . .

GH, I’d laugh at it but I’d not start doing the same, although I’d maybe post his really early 

rogerblack wrote:We have now cut back heavily on sending Christmas cards. There used to be loads on our annual list where the Christmas card exchange was the only contact for years. Now, we only send cards if we have actually had at least one form of direct contact during the preceding year in person, by telephone, text message, WhatsApp or email etc.

We do the opposite: we don't bother too much about cards for people we see regularly, but use the annual card exchange as a way to keep in touch with friends we haven't seen for a while (sometimes not for years).

Some good ideas there, but before I pitch it on dragons den I have a cunning plan!
How about having a "chain card" so in year one you sent it to someone then next year they send it back, After two years you earn a rotation for which you get something like a discount voucher sponsored by any old company. It grows by the rotation so the discount vouchers get more valuable and so on until there is a grand prize when you have earned 25 rotations! No problems only opportunities!

Sounds very environmentally friendly with a perpetual card, so very low carbon footprint for production, plus added advantage of keeping Royal Mail employed, although there will be a carbon impact in posting the card.

groundhog wrote:Some good ideas there, but before I pitch it on dragons den I have a cunning plan!
How about having a "chain card" so in year one you sent it to someone then next year they send it back, After two years you earn a rotation for which you get something like a discount voucher sponsored by any old company. It grows by the rotation so the discount vouchers get more valuable and so on until there is a grand prize when you have earned 25 rotations! No problems only opportunities!

Well at 72 I'd definitely support anything that offered 25 rotations of annual cards 

The idea is not new. When I was a student in the early 1960s, my girlfriend (now my wife of 50+ years of marriage) was in College in London. I found a card which had a few pages. (With apologies to my Scottish friends - though the card could equally have featured a Cardi) it was called something like "McTavish's Perpetual Card. You sent it with a suitable greeting; on your next celebratory occasion you received it back, with an equally suitable greeting on the next page; and so on.

Don't judge the past by today's mores.

Our European friends don't send Chrstmas cards but New Year cards, some of which arrived last week. 

Cymro

PS: I wouldn't go for the proposed 25 rotations prize card, because at my age I doubt whether I'd get my money's worth!

You see this is how brilliant International co operation works. Askit finds a flaw in the system and Cymro has the answer. Make it a multi purpose card and as you get older there will be a big increase in " Get well soon" messages and so the rotations will increase.

I also have the answer to the age number, I will be 54 this year. After reaching 60 the next decade is counted backwards until you reach 50 then you count upwards again. There is no drawback since when someone asks how old you are and you get it wrong, it doesn't matter as they figure you are old anyway.

No wonder these are called the golden years.....

I like GH's reverse counting policy.

Reminds me of the old jar of peas adage.  
Briefly, the idea was that every time you 'made love' before you married, you put a dried pea in a jar.   Once married, you removed a pea each time.  

The odds were that there would still be peas left in the jar when you died . . .

Just received two Christmas cards, apparently they were "damaged" enroute   Wonder how that could have happened 

Not a greetin card, but a parcel that was to have been a Christmas gift....

Just been through to lock up the house and found a card through the door from DPD left at 4pm today saying that parcel has been left in our safe place, went out and collected it thinking 1. Not expecting anything and 2. Three of us were in the house all afternoon and didn't hear the doorbell.

Parcel was labelled for next day delivery, dispatched on 3rd December, no wonder he didn't want to hand it to us

When this parcel hadn't arrived a week before Christmas SWMBO contacted the retailer who agree it had been collected from them and was classed as lost by DPD so a replacement was sent FOC. This did arrive in time for Christmas. Retailer has since confirmed delivery to SWMBO, so they are aware we now have two of the item (24 piece orange dinner set requested by daughter for her new house).

Wait now to see if they want to arrange uplift as we have no intention of being out of pocket paying for return of set we haven't paid for but similarly want to be fair to retailer as it wasn't their fault and they were very quick with replacement.

Usually found DPD fairly good locally but this is bringing them in to Hermes territory.

Rant over, thanks for listening

We had similar with two garden recliners they never did collect the others so we now have four. Never know your luck they may just nit bother to collect them Bilbo.

Not bad, just had another Christmas 2021 card delivered by Royal Mail today