The three deadly sins of Christmas card correspondence - and a bit of X Factor

I have reached a stage in life I never thought I’d reach. There are people on my Christmas card list with whom I have little or no contact throughout the rest of the year. I always used to laugh at my parents for sending cards to people that they didn’t speak to from one Christmas to the next - their only contact being a Christmas card with a token “Hope you‘re well!” written inside it, and question the point of it. Now I’m doing it myself. And still questioning why. I can’t really find an answer. I suppose part of it is politeness - if someone sends me a card, despite the fact that for whatever reason we have no contact during any month that doesn’t have a Dec in it, then I’m going to feel inclined to send one back - even though they‘re probably thinking exactly the same. There’s also that feeling that it’s just nice to know that the other person hasn’t dropped off the face of the earth since last year - although if the annual card didn’t turn up, would I really be sending out a search party?

At the other end of the scale, there are close friends who I see fairly regularly, but haven’t written a card for - mainly because I don’t know their exact postal address, and am not sure if or when I will see them in between now or Christmas. All this does make me rather question the point of sending Christmas cards in the first place and makes me lean towards the idea of doing the good deed of making a charity donation instead. But then you have to contact everyone you would have sent a card to and let them know that’s what they’re doing (in case they are indeed of the search party mentality or just think you‘re tight/can‘t be bothered). It’s all a bit of a minefield, really, albeit a festive, glittery one.

I reached another milestone this year which made me feel a bit like a proper grown up. I received my first ever proper Christmas “Round Robin” letter - something which also used to amuse me when my parents received them. For anyone unfamiliar, I mean those letters written to address everyone on the Christmas card list, giving a run down of everything the family have been up to during the course of the year, down to minute details about what instruments the children are learning to play, family illnesses, holidays and visits from elderly relatives. Again, they’re usually received from people you have little or no contact with during the course of the year. I can’t help but feel that this is a level of detail you don’t need from people that you’re in such infrequent contact with - if you needed to know it, you probably already would, and wouldn’t need a fairly impersonal communication to tell you everything that’s going on.

The final ‘sin’ of Christmas card etiquette, which, again, my parents were on the receiving end of on several occasions, to my great amusement, is the photographic card. Instead of choosing from the plethora of cards on offer in the shops - festive scenes of robins, snow, mistletoe, glittery baubles, Santa Claus, or any other one of the huge range of seasonal images available, some people choose to adorn their Christmas cards with photographs of themselves and/or their children. Thankfully, I’ve not yet received one of these, but I do feel it’s probably only a matter of time.

With my Christmas card writing now complete (save for any emergency last minute cards I have to write when I get one from someone I’ve not thought to send one to), I’m settling down for an evening of watching the X Factor final. With “Little Diana Vickers from Blackburn” out of the competition, I’m not sure who I’m going to be rooting for, but I know it’s not going to be Eoghan and his “Vote for Me” face - as identified by Harry Hill. Don’t even get me started on Eoghan. I’m hoping he’ll be the first one out tonight and he can forever be consigned to the ranks of contestants who just got a little bit further than they should have done. If he gets any further, it’s certainly going to be a travesty of Leon Jackson proportions.

That leaves Alexandra or JLS. For some reason, I can’t warm to Alexandra. She’s got an undeniably good voice, but it just doesn’t work for me - and she just has too much to say for herself for my liking. JLS have not got the greatest voices in the world, but I’d love to see a group win the X Factor, and they’re the first one that have shown any glimmer of being worthy of it. They’ve also got a great chemistry, and I like the fact that they’re in a group together because they’re friends - not because they’ve been packaged and manufactured into a foursome for the sake of it. Their camaraderie, and the sense that they’re genuinely having fun performing together, is very reminiscent of post-reunion Take That - which can only be a good thing. JLS will be getting my vote tonight.