The Show & Tell Must Go On
The A-List is a mighty low-density place, maybe 15 out of 120 cards. These are for people I simply adore.
These cards are completed longhand, in my atrocious penmanship, via fountain pen, and include an actual message--beyond the usual "Merry Christmas!" greeting--of some length. The top one is suitable for both Jews and Christians because all it says is "Joy To The World" so unless someone has issues with Three Dog Night, we're OK.
The cards are invariably Crane's, except for the one year I got a fat stack of Ralph Lauren Purple Label cards when I bought my tuxedo.
Next come the B-listers. These are people I like well enough. They are pleasant to converse with, and not too grating. The best members of our (TFBIM's and mine) families reside here.
If they are all hip and/or secular, we sling along these neat Haddon Sundblom cards. The message is usually computer generated and hand-signed.
If they are among the pious, we send this cheerful burst of orthodoxy, with a short handwritten "Merry Christmas!" or something like that and a signature.
C-listers get this:
I picked this up for $1.97 for a box of 25, and they are all computer scribbled. This is for MOST of TFBIM's pals, most of my relatives (who are lucky to be getting anything at all) as well as hers. These people are one stupid remark from not even getting THIS.
Lastly are friends'of the boys. I grabbed these at The Museum Store website. 
The idea is cute for little kids...you scribble a quickie greeting and then send the "blank"card along with the sticker sheet and the kids "make" their own card.
Merry Christmas to all* and to all a good night,
-Joke
P.S. Well, to all the Gentiles. Happy Chanukah to the Jewish kids.
Comments
about 120 go out...sadly I find Cranes too...I don't know, stodgy?
but definitely three categories - tho the c listers still get better than $1.97 per box, while the A listers are letterpress.
how do you NOT do letterpress? they are right up your alley - beautifully produced as REAL printing.
once again, as in dressing correctly, another area, my dear Joke, where we see completely eye to eye.
(though I suspect you are much taller than I)
But I'm willing to bet that Joke isn't all THAT much taller. I mean, no more than a foot or so.
--P.
p.s. Word verification is "mnogul," which describes someone who was going to become a mogul, but changed his mind at the last moment.
I also like inflicting my atrocious and illegible penmanship on people...just one of those perverse delights, I s'pose.
Lastly, the reason the C-listers get $1.97 per box is that I can't find any cheaper. These go to people I find truly odious, but to whom I must, for a number of reasons beyond the scope of this comment, show some measure of civility. I'm not kidding when I say they are one remark away from being dropped completely.
-J., Christmas Hardass
P.S. Poppy is the only A-lister who doesn't get a Crane's card. She gets a card which celebrates an obnoxious inside joke which makes us both giggle.
jcdpihd: an aphid that likes music on cd, especially three dog night!
-J.
this? is a given.
Poppy - I am quite short.