Every November for the past few years, I’ve spent hours buying and personalizing holiday cards.  Careful to get cards that say ‘happy holidays’ or ‘peace’ as not to offend, the Free Thinking, or Jewish, or Fundamentalists on my Christmas card list.

Then I organize the more than two hundred names in my database, print labels, sign the cards, affix the stamps, then put them in the mail.

Over the last years, however, I started to wonder if anybody cared about cards anymore.  More than twenty percent were returned for a wrong address.  If the post office included the new address, I updated the database.  If not, I deleted the name.

Did I get any cards in return?  Not many.  This year we’re up to sixteen and counting. . . .

So, rather than stress over it — I ditched the custom this year.  Not only did I save hours of aggravation, but also about three hundred bucks.

It may be just one of those traditions that’s on it’s way out — a thing of our parents generation.