oldmainer

I was always fond of Hallmark Card’s slogan “When You Care Enough To Send The Very Best” because for years, they really were. I don’t say this so much for the cover art, which was good, but more for the verses and sentiment contained within. My wife and I always shopped for greeting cards together because we shared a belief that a card was like an extension of you and, like a gift, showed you had given some thought to the purchase.

All this of course happened when people actually sent cards since there were no real viable alternatives other then perhaps a hand written note, unlike today when technology has intercepted the process and streamlined the act of remembrance. Today, we can quickly slap together an email or text message, add a clever AI created imoji or GIF and hit send. The benefit of this is you can totally forget the event until the day it takes place and still “get er dun”. I’m guilty. I use them all the time. But when it comes to family and close friends, I opt for something more personal and sincere. That is why I still send greeting cards to special friends and family.

I mention this because I have just done my Christmas card shopping and found it to be a tad more difficult then it once was. I suspected the selection may be smaller due to what has been a dramatic decrease in sales and maybe the price of a card being $5.00 plus. But once I started my quest, I found the selection to be massive, with perhaps one exception. I could not find a card that said “To Brother”. However, if he was married, he was OK. They have cards for Brother and his Wife. They also have them for Mother, Father, Sister, Sister and her husband, Aunt, Uncle, Grandfather, Grandmother, Grandson, Son, Daughter, Wife, Husband, Thinking of You, To Someone Special, Across the Miles, from the cat or dog,, to the cat or dog, from the cat to the dog, etc.

Now, Gray is kind of a small town. We don’t have a lot of (any) large stores carrying a variety of products except our grocery store, so I stopped there first. No luck. At first, I thought maybe there had been a run on brother cards, but all the categories were labeled and there wasn’t one for brother. So I moved on to the Dollar Store. They had one. On the cover it said “It Is Christmas and I’m Your Brother”. On the inside it said “Deal With It”. Not exactly the sentiment I was going for, so I decided to look elsewhere. I went to Dollar General and finally found Christmas cards on the end of an aisle. Santa has more reindeer, so I again moved on. I bit the bullet and drove the ten miles to Windham and Walmart. The selection was huge and they did have one Brother catagory. It was empty save an envelope.

Disappointed, but not deterred, I decided to stop at the grocery store next to Walmart before returning home, defeated. And there it was. One card. One sentiment. One card that said what I wanted to say.. My heart smiled. So did I. There is a Christmas Fairy. He/She works for Hallmark in a little obscure room, creating verses for a smaller and smaller audience. I hope they are around for a long time. Or at least as long as I am able to continue to pursue the practice of sincere wishes.

P.S. If you don’t get a card from me, I still want you to have a Merry Christmas.

P.SS. This post counts as a festive effort, right?