Christmas cards...To send or not to send?

I didn't send Christmas cards this year.

Not even Christmas emails.

Here are my reasons:

• Feeling too "bah humbug".
• Didn't have time.
• It's environmentally friendly.
• It seems to be going out of fashion because I'm receiving less cards these days.

Yeah, I know, those reasons really suck.

Really, I just didn't think I could see the point.

What do Christmas cards mean to me? To me, it's about making a list of all your family and friends and then acknowledging them with a message of  love at Christmas time. And now that I've written that and see it in black and white in front of me, it sounds like a very good idea indeed.

However, the card itself isn't important. Too often Christmas cards are either overpriced and overblown, or cheap and tacky. Though I'll read the cards that I receive and will display them while the Christmas tree is up, I'll usually throw them in the recycling bin once the New Year is here. Harsh? Maybe. But I don't have room in my life to keep every card I've ever received.

Also, the time of year isn't really important. Does that sound sacrilegious? I don't mean that Christmas isn't a special time of year, I just mean that any day is a good day to send family and friends a message of love.

So now I'm going to send off an email of thanks to the girlfriends of mine that sent me Christmas cards, letting them know that I appreciated them and that I'm thinking of them.

And then I'm going to make a plan for making sure that the people I love know that I love them, even though  I didn't send them a Christmas card.

How about you? Are you a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas cards? Do you send photos of your kids and letters describing their achievements?

Or perhaps you don't celebrate Christmas and have some different traditions at this time of year?