There’s one thing I don’t do….Christmas Cards. Well I don’t sew or speak Finnish either but I’m really keeping in the realm of the holiday traditions for today.  At this time of year I decorate, bake, host get-togethers, shop, wrap, gain weight and scream at my family. In that way I’m not too much different than your average woman.

What? You don’t do extra screaming at your family for the holiday season? I think its how my family knows it’s that special time of year. “Oh, mom’s extra screamy.  Let’s get a tree!”

I go all out with the tree. They’re real and they’re spectacular. One year I made dozens of silver bows, another time I made popcorn garland. I wouldn’t recommend the popcorn string. It’s painful and bloody. It looks nice though.

But back to the Christmas cards. When I first got married my mother gave me some advice regarding the holidays. “Never send Christmas cards,” said mom.

Why shouldn’t I? She always did. My mother favored simple cards, silhouettes of things like The Star of David with metallic accents or red line drawings of holly and berries on a stark white background. She didn’t go for winter scenes or flowers or holiday letters. Her cards were elegant. So why shouldn’t I try to duplicate this touch of class?

“Because it’s a trap, first family, then friends, and then the work people, and then the new work people when you or your husband changes jobs. And then the children of the cousins, it gets out of control,” declared mom. Mostly my mom is definitive. She rarely vacillates. What she knows she knows.

“Plus,” she added. “If you send cards every year and then one year you can’t, or don’t feel like it, or you have pneumonia everyone will wonder why. There’s bad blood. Just don’t start. You will regret it. Don’t do it. Don’t send Christmas Cards.”

As a young wife those many years ago I listened to my mother and I don’t send Christmas Cards.

Now I love the cards we receive from family, friends, work people, people from the jobs we used to have. I love to see the pictures of their kids. There’s even a cousin whose holiday letter wins as the coolest family every year. This particular family recounts their adventurous outdoor life in a yearly newsletter and never sounds pretentious.

I hope they don’t mind I’ve never sent cards but frankly, it’s just one less thing. And my mother gets an A+ for this pearl of motherly wisdom. She knew that at the holidays I’d be so busy that I’d barely have enough time get all my Yuletide screaming done!

Some of the people who read this are young and so I pass it on to you. Holiday Cards, just don’t start. Further, it’s also been my experience that you don’t need to know how to speak Finnish either.