In Defense of the Christmas Card

Is sending Christmas cards a dying art? Kelly Guest reasons why we should send traditional religious Christmas cards, especially for this upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year. 

“I don’t think Christmas cards will be a thing by the time I am your age,” my 20-something daughter explained. “At least, not traditional Christmas cards.” 

Such a declaration saddened my heart.  

Admittedly, writing Christmas cards is a large task for me. I spread the many cards sent from various religious orders before me, choosing just the right one for the next person in my address book. I sign the names of everyone in my family (which is down to 9 names from 11). I type a letter informing everyone what my family has been up to the past year. Then, I place the note and a family photo in each card, address it, stamp it, and take all the cards to the post office to mail. It is quite a production. Crazy, huh? 

But, in all honesty, sending Christmas cards is more of a prayer than a chore. As a matter of fact, I say a little prayer for each family that I send a card to as I seal the envelope. 

Even more than sending cards, I like receiving them. I especially love traditional ones. You know, ones depicting Madonna and Child, the shepherds, angels, and Wise Men. These cards become a source of prayer. 

Christmas cards and Visio Divina 

The art enables the Nativity to come alive. Looking carefully at the artwork, I enter more fully into the scene. A story I have heard and read over and over again gets a facelift as I gaze upon the love in Mary’s countenance, the excitement of the shepherds, or the reverence of the Wise Men.  

Indeed, religious Christmas cards can be a conduit to Visio Divina. A prompt that encourages a heart-to-heart conversation with God. 

Just as with Lectio Divina (the purposeful and prayerful reading of Scripture), the Holy Spirit can guide us to truths about God through what we see. In Visio Divina, we gaze upon and contemplate a divine piece of art on a Christmas card, a holy card, or on a museum wall. After calling upon the Holy Spirit, we sit quietly with the picture.  

The image opens up our holy imagination. The wonder of what it may have been like to be there in the scene. What would I have said? What would have been the response? In the quiet of my heart, the Holy Spirit answers. 

A beautiful card can draw us deeper into the true magic of Christmas. Awe and wonder of the Incarnation and birth of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, intensifies. Perhaps it can even reveal a mystery about the discreet Holy Family of whom we have such little insight from Holy Scriptures. 

Christmas cards as a self-reflection 

My favorite card last year depicted Joseph sleeping in the background. How tired he must have been — physically and emotionally — after that first Christmas night. I sat with that card and just wondered and prayed. 

After reflecting on Joseph’s role that first Christmas, I began to ponder. How devoted am I to Mary? Is Jesus the reason for my resolve? Do I trust God even when my situation is looking bleak? Can I just rest in Him? Such were my thoughts, which became a conversation with the Holy Family. A prayer arose simply by reflecting upon a Christmas card. 

A window into the Nativity became a mirror reflecting my own strengths and weaknesses. As Father Gerald O’Collins confirms,

Yes, Christmas cards work as windows that show us who Jesus is. But they also hold up mirrors of our own story and remind us of who we are and where we have arrived on the pilgrimage through life. (Pause for Thought 36)

Like the shepherds or Wise Men, we can travel to the newborn King, a pilgrimage made through a Christmas card. 

Christmas cards to begin a Jubilee Year pilgrimage 

Christmas Eve begins the Jubilee Year 2025. Its theme is “Pilgrims of Hope.” Let’s begin this special Jubilee pilgrimage by sending and receiving prayerfully traditional Christmas cards in hopes that they will lead us closer to the love and beauty of Jesus Himself.

When they do that, Christmas cards will turn out to be the best of any presents we might receive from our dearest friends and relatives. (Pause for Thought 37)

Do you send traditional, religious Christmas cards? Can you, this Jubilee year?  

Do you have a favorite picture of the Nativity? 

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Copyright 2024 Kelly Guest
Images: Canva