The evolution of the holiday card

Holiday cards are an interesting phenomenon to me. These holiday missives seem to follow a pretty standard and predictable pattern. When people are newly engaged or married, they send out pictures of the couple; happy, maybe kissing, in matching color coordinated sweaters. They may put lots of embellishments on it as if to say to the world “Happy Holidays! Dontcha wish you were as happy as we are?” Then a couple years into the relationship the holiday card will have a picture of the couple and their new, super cute puppy or kitten. This one says “Look how happy we are, we even have a cute, cuddly new animal.” Then the first baby comes. Suddenly, the happy couple disappears. The dog or cat disappears. Now it’s just the baby. Cute and cuddly, yes, but with no obvious proof who the owners of this tiny human are. This card could surely read “Look how adorable our offspring is! She/He doesn’t even necessitate our being in the picture.” Then a couple kids come along and it is still just a picture of the kids, no dogs, no parents. Then as the kids get older, or maybe start multiplying, when there are soccer games to get to and ballet practice to attend, suddenly the card becomes a generic holiday one sans picture. This one implies “My hair hasn’t been done in weeks, I’m tired beyond belief, and quite frankly, I don’t even know why I’m bothering sending out cards anymore.” Cheers to adequate postage and whatever type of card you send out this year!