I’m not sure you can relate to this, but each year I send out about forty holiday cards, and at best, receive ten back.
Do I have crappy friends? Possibly.
Or maybe I just send cards out to people that don’t send out cards.
Either way, I don’t get angry about it. But I do get sad.
I have noticed that over the years I have not traditionally received a lot of holiday card love. But I don’t think it has to do with anyone other than me. That somehow it’s my fault. And by saying this, I’m not in denial, nor I am not trying to be “nice” or diplomatic to the a-holes that read this who get my cards and don’t send back.
If I send you a card and you don’t reciprocate, I won’t hold it against you.
You don’t get deleted from next year’s list, and I don’t put your photo on a dartboard.
Also, I won’t be sticking pins in the voodoo doll I have of you.
By the way, is voodoo a real thing? I feel like it just exists in horror movies, with the crazy backwoods voodoo lady who accurately predicts upcoming murders because she has visions. She usually does some sort of animal sacrifice, which fouls out the teenagers that have come to see her. Either way, they ignore her, and all but one of the teenagers gets offed. Also, she always wears a bandana.
I feel like in real life voodoo and witchcraft must not actually be that effective of a religion since nobody I know in any position of power seems to practice it. Either way, it’s would be pretty cool to see a cauldron.
Back to holiday cards – each year I try to make mine memorable. By memorable I mean, of course, funny and inappropriate. I wrote a post on this earlier this year, and it’s that time of the year again to get this new batch ready.
I came up with a pretty solid idea during Thanksgiving, and have it nearly finished. While not my best, it’s a solid eight.
So, what does not receiving cards back say about me? Am I the crappy friend? Perhaps. I’ve always wondered what it means that I send out so many and get so few back. I’m pretty sure it’s not personal. I doubt anyone is intentionally not sending me one.
But again, I get sad. My default is to feel like a failure, that I’m not measuring up in life. So, when I don’t get the cards back, I do feel like it validates my bigger fear – that I suck.
I get that this line of thinking is not actually what’s going on. It probably just means I send cards to people who don’t send cards. But I look for any excuse to validate my fears. I suspect we all do.
I hope somebody can relate to this holiday card sadness, and then comments about it below, so that I don’t feel like such a loser writing this and not getting any comments back.
See what I did there? Clever, no?
I’ll be announcing a holiday contest giveaway for you, my ThoughtsFromParis Superfans (Yes, I capitalized the “s”. That’s how much I love you!). Get excited! Or just get more excited than your normal state. Which, I’m assuming is less than “excited.” Because I’m not sure that you can get more excited than excited. Seems like a logical impossibility. Okay, I’m spinning out here. Exit.