Lunch and Learn with Lindsay – Issue 82: My pen is poised…

Today’s #LunchNLearnWithLindsay is based on a guest blog post I wrote for WeAreTheCity and it still rings true.  This year, again, my pen is poised and I’ll be hand-writing Christmas cards – how about you? 

For the last three years I’ve donated the money I would have spent on cards and postage to charity. And yup absolutely I’ve felt that warm fuzzy Christmassy feeling that I’ve done my annual “bit” to make the world a better place for my chosen charity The Movember Foundation.

But really, if I’m brutally honest with myself, giving to charity was my “get out clause”….when choosing and writing cards is so time consuming, when you have to make sure you’ve got “snail mail” addresses up to date, when you have to check last posting dates for your cards that need to fly………Bah Humbug.

In all honesty giving to charity is the easy option. This Christmas Grinch doesn’t have time in her busy schedule to commit to this whole Christmas Card writing rigmarole. Oh no she doesn’t! But just a moment – this Christmas Grinch has double standards – oh yes she does!

For when a Christmas Card arrives for her through the snail mail she excitedly opens it and – oh there’s that warm fuzzy Christmassy feeling again – when she reads a message from a friend the other side of the world she smiles. She knows it’s a card from a friend who has taken the time and thought to make sure their “snail mail” addresses are up to date, a friend who has checked last posting dates for this card that needs to fly.

This Christmas card is more than “card” – it’s a sentiment, it’s a connection, it’s a knowledge that someone is thinking of you and wishing you well and sending you a hug and a squeeze and all the warm fuzzy Christmassy feelings that can be enclosed in an envelope – and that’s quite a lot of warm fuzzy Christmassy feelings.

So this year as well as giving to charity, I’ve decided to write and send Christmas cards and my pen is poised.