The Jennifer Blogs

I love Christmas cards. I love shopping for them. I love writing inside them. I love addressing the envelopes and putting on the festive Christmas stamps. I also love getting them in the mail and putting them on display.

This fascination with Christmas cards came back in 1999. I was a single girl and working on a morning show in Huntsville, Alabama. Our listeners sent us Christmas cards. They were always addressed to Dan, Jennifer & Jerral. The guys really didn't care that anyone sent us cards, so I took them home and put them in my apartment. Dan & his wife got cards from their friends delivered to their house. So did Jerral and his wife. I didn't get any, so the cards I got were the ones I had to share with my morning show partners.

I kept every card that was sent to me in 1999. In January, I packed them all up and put them in my Christmas box. Then before Christmas, 2000, I pulled them back out and I already had a great start for the 2000 holiday. I again kept every card that was sent to the morning show team so that I had twice as many by the time Christmas, 2000 was over.

The nice thing about working for a radio station during the holidays is that artists and record labels also send you really cool Christmas cards. I got cards from Toby Keith, Sawyer Brown, Kenny Rogers, etc. And Warner Brothers Records, Curb Records, etc also sent me cards. Those companies don't get stingy by any means, and they always sent the best cards.

A couple of years ago I sent out Christmas cards to all my friends and family that were caricature drawings of our family, including the dogs. Many friends told us that was the best card they received that year. I never had the prettiest garden in the neighborhood or the nicest yard, but I did send out the best Christmas card one year and that's good enough for me.

Finding Christmas cards in Asia has been a challenge. They don't really celebrate Christmas here. For most Asians, the holidays are celebrated by giving a red envelope filled with money. I don't think I can afford to do that to everyone on my Christmas card list. So this year I just found some cards that looked somewhat Asian-inspired and grabbed those. They aren't cheap here either. I brought home 40 Christmas cards this afternoon and paid S$76.00 for them. This afternoon I will handwrite a message inside each one of them, address them & mail them off to the US.

Truthfully, I'll probably get about ten done before I get bored or stiff from sitting in the same position and I'll have to give it up until tomorrow. But it'll be nice to get started.

I know. It's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I mailed them out the day after Thanksgiving last year and there were some people who still didn't get them until after Christmas. Mail from Asia is slow.