Christmas Cards

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Recently, I started sending e-cards for Christmas. I didn’t always get responses, even though recipients could click on the cards and send a reply. I was never sure why my friends didn’t respond. Perhaps they couldn’t. One click technology isn’t for all of us, especially as we get older. Perhaps the old traditions are best.

One of my best friends confirmed this when he sent me an e-mail thanking me for my e-card. He explained that for him, Christmas was very personal and he preferred a hand-written letter, in the old style to any form of electronic or multi-person artificial greeting. I thought about this and came to the conclusion that my friend was right. Christmas badly needs the personal touch, the renewing of old friendships, and not just by the e-card delivered silently at 2:00 am, but by the addition of something only we can do.

So, to my annual Christmas cards for Christmas visitors to our house, and there are several every year, I added my own personal touch. In the above case, it is a couple of snowmen. The one in the viewer’s left is trimmed too fine and you can’t see the high-five he is giving you. The one on the left may well be a snow-woman. The clothes are unisex (for snow-people) but the hats are very different.

I love penguins. One of my favorite places in Bristol Zoo was always the Penguin Pen. So clumsy those birds on land, such wonderful swimmers when they hit the waters and flashed past the pane glass viewing panels of the underwater scenario. I have found the same thing with otters: so alive, so playful, when they are in their native element … water. When we talk about favorite books, I also return to The Wind in the Willows, with Otter and Mole, a childhood favorite that matured into a life-long companion.

If I had one wish for everyone at Christmas, it would be that each of you rediscovered that childhood joy, that old infant wonder, whether it come in the form of an e-card, an e-mail, a hand-written letter, a hand-painted picture. And so, to end this minor rant, with a cartoon, I add my other Christmas drawing entitled the Island View Penguin Parade with Chief Marshall, Princess Squiffy. May your days be merry and bright. And may you rediscover the joy and beauty of your own childhood Christmas mysteries.

 

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8 thoughts on “Christmas Cards”

  1. Thank you for this one, R. Beautifully explained (and featuring two of my favourite creatures: the penguin and the snowman.) Otters are nice, but the transient snowperson…! We’ll chat soon, I hope. Chuck

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  3. Well said, Roger.

    Interestingly, this morning a story, part fictional- part non-fictional, tried to find its way from grey matter to pen. The story begins something like this: “I never got to know my friend very well when he was wearing his adult clothes. But we formed a fast and true friendship when, as adults, we allowed ourselves to play as children, laugh at non-sensible and perhaps inappropriate jokes, and create and listen for absurdities. Once, playing golf during a drenching downpour with rivers of water running across the greens making them unputtable, we used our drivers as putters, laughing absurdly with each swing of the club. When we finally returned to the clubhouse, we found it locked. All the regular golfers had gone home. Another time, we took off our mitts when swinging a club, while agreeing that coloured golf balls would certainly be easier to find in the snow.”

    The important thing to notice here is that childhood reappears when adult masks are shed.

    Joyous season to you and Claire, Roger.

    Victor

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    • Hi Victor, looking forward to seeing you tomorrow (Friday). I am glad to see you are getting back to writing. The world needs your voice, as I have said on so many occasions. I love my Island View Penguins: a new vision from the world of Moo. So glad you commented. Thank you.

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