I know it's a bit early for Christmas... (From Borehamwood Times)

I know it's a bit early for Christmas...

4:54pm Monday 3rd November 2008

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Christmas cards. I know it is slightly early to speculate on anything to do with the Yuletide season but this particular purchase is playing on my mind. Since I was a small child posting cards in my lower school Christmas post box I always made sure that mine were the biggest and best.

Home-made cards would be decorated with sequins, felt, glitter glue and tinsel and distributed among neighbours. Cards for me are more important than presents. So I come to this year and my mind is conflicted. On one side my environmentally-conscious friend Clare says “NO” to sending paper greetings. “It’s a waste,” she screams at me, “Use the internet instead and send e-cards.” Of course I recycle all the cards I receive so I’m ignoring her protestations for now.

On the other hand I am conscious that if I buy cards from High Street stores they will inevitably cost me a lot of money. I’ll be forced to partake in a three-for-two offer of awful looking minicule-sized cards with Santa inevitably drunk and stuck in a chimney or elves working in a production line.

So it got me thinking of other options. As I was chatting to a Borehamwood resident last week I got a brainwave. The lady was on a general rant of the state of the High Street. She was complaining that all Borehamwood’s Shenley Road had to offer was a dozen eateries and about the same amount of charity shops. I said that this was the demand nowadays. People wanted coffee and cheap clothes. She agreed and said that the coffee was very expensive and the only good thing in the charity shops were the Christmas cards.

Ping. Good idea. So I ventured down to the high street last Friday to see what the charity shops had to offer and to be honest I was surprised to find there was quite a lot of variety. In a rush for Christmas people can often forget that others may be in need at this time so a couple of pounds to charity could be just the ticket for your conscience and for people like me who need to feed their card-giving habit.

I will of course be later customising the cards with glitter glue and feathers so all is well.

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