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When you are newly retired, like me, you might like to think about friends and relatives from the past that you just don't talk to anymore. In most cases there was no blow up, but instead we just drifted apart.
So I decided to try to reconnect and developed a nice letter that we sent to everyone, along with a Christmas card. I wrote a personal note to everyone on the card and included a report on what my wife and I have been doing this year in a copied letter. I sent it to about 100 people. About 3/4 of them we did not talk to last year for some reason but we had been close to at one point.
Do you send a holiday card and letter to old friends you have lost touch with? If you got such a card from an old friend you had not talked to for years, how would you respond?
Last edited by I'm Retired Now; 12-16-2013 at 08:09 AM..
At Christmas it seems people often send cards to those they otherwise don't talk to all year. If you want to reconnect with someone, I think a personal and handwritten notecard at some other time of year would be the way to do it.
If I was on the receiving end of said Christmas card, after I read it and thought "thanks for the update", I probably wouldn't give it another thought unless I really desired to reconnect. People whose friendships I value, I don't let just drift apart.
I would enjoy getting it and would most likely make an effort to reconnect throughout the year. I do this with old friends who are spread far and wide by way of periodic emails. I would not choose to mail Christmas cards to 100 people, because of the expense and also because I might not have a correct address.
Do you send a holiday card and letter to old friends you have lost touch with?
Nope.
But we do send to friends and family with whom we have minimal contact.
Quote:
Originally Posted by I'm Retired Now
If you got such a card from an old friend you had not talked to for years, how would you respond?
I would wonder why.
And re: the letter... what I thought would depend on the contents and context. Bragging about your wonderful life after ignoring me for years would not fly right....
I no longer send out Christmas cards, except to clients. But strangely, we have a handful of folks who persist in sending us Christmas cards, even tho we don't reciprocate and haven't in 10 years.
And what is really crazy . . . they are all people who want to use us as a freebie B&B even though we have never spent one night in their homes. Yet, they continue to send us cards at Christmas to "stay in touch" (so we will host them for days in our home). So superficial - like we don't get why we receive those Christmas letters and cards from these otherwise "absent" friends and family members. We have a vacation home, so the requests come in for both our primary residence and our vacay spot.
They should not waste their stamps this year; we are selling the primary residence, moving into a condo and starting this year, no one will be staying in our mountain house without paying . . . oh well.
Merry Christmas!
Last edited by brokensky; 12-16-2013 at 10:06 AM..
I used to send out Christmas cards because it was something I enjoyed. Selecting a pretty card, printing coordinating labels and writing a message in coordinating ink. And then the pretty Christmas stamps. I put a lot of heart in my Christmas cards. And I typically received an equal amount to what I sent out.
One year, time got away from me and I wasn't able to send Christmas cards. That year, I received only one or two cards. So I thought "Were they sending me cards only because I sent them one?"
I put a lot of time, effort and considerable expense into my Christmas cards, and I felt like it wasn't appreciated so I stopped. I still get a few cards from friends, but they are mostly the non-personal, photo montage, printed cards from shutterfly (or someplace similar).
When you are newly retired, like me, you might like to think about friends and relatives from the past that you just don't talk to anymore. In most cases there was no blow up, but instead we just drifted apart.
So I decided to try to reconnect and developed a nice letter that we sent to everyone, along with a Christmas card. I wrote a personal note to everyone on the card and included a report on what my wife and I have been doing this year in a copied letter. I sent it to about 100 people. About 3/4 of them we did not talk to last year for some reason but we had been close to at one point.
Do you send a holiday card and letter to old friends you have lost touch with? If you got such a card from an old friend you had not talked to for years, how would you respond?
If they don't provide an email address the odds are against my sending them any sort of return mail. It's just a giant pain to try to mail something and expect a reply in a timely manner.
If I wanted to get in touch with an old friend, I'd look for them on Facebook to see if I could find them. Then I'd send a message and a friend request. If they didn't do FB, I'd search around for an email address or even give them a call. At the worst, I'd leave a message.
If you really want to reconnect with some of the people you sent cards to, give them a call a few weeks after Christmas. Don't expect a letter back unless it's from some other Luddite.
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