For all 57 years of our marriage, my dear wife has labored to assemble and mail hundreds of Christmas cards including this year's, reproduced here.
She and millions are wondering: "Should I keep this up?" Beyond labor, there is the cost and paperless ease of free, digital alternatives.
In 2014 a Global News story asked if Christmas cards were officially dead: "While some traditionalists continue to send annual holiday cards," it began, "the practice – which began some 170 years ago – continues to decline as well-wishers go digital."
The Golden Threads of tradition matter. But the card is only one symbol. Must we have the touchable form? Will cards mimic newspapers...not dead but yielding to computerized alternatives?
A recent news blip reported on an artist who submitted a "mixed media" piece for copyright. It merged one of his photographs with an AI-generated Van Gogh. Our U.S. Copyright Office rejected it because the artwork lacked the "human authorship" required for protection.
Digital or not, holiday greetings are lovely human communications. What matters, of course, is not cards but how we honor rituals of loving care.
Happy Holidays from the Chapmans to caregivers everywhere.
-Erie Chapman
Photo by Tia Chapman
