Yo-Ho Sending Christmas Cards

Julie: 00:00:03

Yo ho sending Christmas cards.

Julie: 00:00:05

It's one of my favorite lines from the iconic 12 pains of Christmas parody.

Julie: 00:00:11

The second best line is.

Julie: 00:00:12

She's a, which I hate.

Julie: 00:00:14

When one of the characters is talking about her, mother-in-law.

Julie: 00:00:17

But alas.

Julie: 00:00:18

It is that time of year.

Julie: 00:00:20

Time to get those Christmas cards in the mail to your friends and family.

Julie: 00:00:24

On average 1.5 billion.

Julie: 00:00:27

Christmas cards are mailed in the U S every holiday season.

Julie: 00:00:32

But have you ever wonder why we send Christmas cards, how it started?

Julie: 00:00:36

And why don't we take the time to send notes to family and friends,

Julie: 00:00:40

any other time of the year?

Julie: 00:00:43

Welcome to episode 70.

Julie: 00:00:44

One of this shit works.

Julie: 00:00:45

I'm your host, Julie Brown.

Julie: 00:00:47

And today we are discussing the simple act.

Julie: 00:00:49

Of sending cards.

Julie: 00:00:51

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson.

Julie: 00:00:54

A full service, branding, marketing PR and communications agency.

Julie: 00:00:58

With team members in Boston.

Julie: 00:01:01

Los Angeles, Miami and New York city visit them.

Julie: 00:01:05

At Nickerson C O S.

Julie: 00:01:07

Dot com.

Julie: 00:01:31

According to why christmas.com the custom of sending Christmas cards.

Julie: 00:01:35

As we know it today.

Julie: 00:01:36

We started in the UK in 1843 by sir Henry Cole.

Julie: 00:01:42

A government worker who helped set up the new Republic office, which

Julie: 00:01:47

is now called the post office.

Julie: 00:01:49

Where he was an assistant keeper and wondered how this service

Julie: 00:01:53

could be used by more people.

Julie: 00:01:55

Sir Henry came up with the idea of Christmas cards with his friend,

Julie: 00:01:58

John Horsley, who was an artist.

Julie: 00:02:01

They designed the first card and sold them for a shilling each.

Julie: 00:02:05

The card had three panels, the outer two panels should people caring for

Julie: 00:02:09

the poor and the center panel was a family having a large Christmas dinner.

Julie: 00:02:15

Some people didn't like the card because it showed a child being given

Julie: 00:02:19

a glass of wine, get over yourself.

Julie: 00:02:22

The message underneath the picture was and Merry Christmas and happy new year to you.

Julie: 00:02:27

About a thousand cards were printed and sold.

Julie: 00:02:30

The original cards were advertised with the slogan, just published a Christmas

Julie: 00:02:35

congratulations card, emblematic of an old English festivity to perpetuate kind

Julie: 00:02:41

of recollections between dear friends.

Julie: 00:02:44

The custom may have caught on because at this time in London, greeting cards

Julie: 00:02:48

could be mailed for a penny each.

Julie: 00:02:50

So thus began their tradition of sending pre-made Christmas cards.

Julie: 00:02:54

Instead of writing personal notes to people.

Julie: 00:02:58

Are there people on your Christmas list that you don't talk to at

Julie: 00:03:02

all throughout the year, and yet you still send them a card.

Julie: 00:03:06

I bet there are.

Julie: 00:03:08

But I also bet that there are people on your list that are really, really

Julie: 00:03:11

important to you, that you never send a note to any other time of the year.

Julie: 00:03:17

Why is that?

Julie: 00:03:18

Why don't we write letters anymore?

Julie: 00:03:21

Handwriting is one of the oldest forms of communication.

Julie: 00:03:24

And yet we so rarely send people notes instead.

Julie: 00:03:28

We take the easy road of sending a quick text or an email.

Julie: 00:03:32

But those forms of communication, very rarely provide the platform for us to

Julie: 00:03:36

really express how we feel about someone.

Julie: 00:03:42

A couple of years ago, I got a letter in the mail from my friend, Bernie.

Julie: 00:03:45

Bernie and his wife, Jan owned the condo next to us in Vermont.

Julie: 00:03:49

Now over the 17 years, we have been neighbors.

Julie: 00:03:52

We've become very close friends.

Julie: 00:03:54

Bernie and Jan are older than my parents and even, so we have formed such a

Julie: 00:03:58

special friendship, not only with them, but with their adult daughter.

Julie: 00:04:03

A couple of years ago, I got a letter in the mail from Bernie.

Julie: 00:04:07

It said that for every day of lent, he was writing a letter

Julie: 00:04:10

to someone special to him.

Julie: 00:04:12

In the letter, he went on to say how much our friendship meant to him.

Julie: 00:04:16

But also how much he cherished the fact that I had such a

Julie: 00:04:19

strong bond with his daughter.

Julie: 00:04:22

The litter literally brought tears to my eyes.

Julie: 00:04:24

Yes.

Julie: 00:04:25

All of us love each other.

Julie: 00:04:27

But there was something about seeing the words on the page that made it

Julie: 00:04:30

even more impactful and special.

Julie: 00:04:33

And I still have the card to this day.

Julie: 00:04:36

That's the thing about the cards.

Julie: 00:04:38

They're tactile.

Julie: 00:04:39

We hold them.

Julie: 00:04:40

In our hand, we feel the texture of the fabric.

Julie: 00:04:43

We look at the pen strokes.

Julie: 00:04:45

We read them and reread them.

Julie: 00:04:48

We keep them.

Julie: 00:04:49

We can't do that with text messages and emails.

Julie: 00:04:54

My Nana, you know, the hard ass one.

Julie: 00:04:56

She's 97.

Julie: 00:04:58

End stage dementia has completely ravaged her mind.

Julie: 00:05:01

She doesn't know who I am.

Julie: 00:05:03

Or who anyone is for that matter?

Julie: 00:05:06

When she has visitors, she's confused and saddened because she knows she's supposed

Julie: 00:05:10

to remember who people are, but she can't.

Julie: 00:05:13

A little while ago, I started writing her letters.

Julie: 00:05:16

Her memories have abandoned her.

Julie: 00:05:18

So I decided that each week I would send her a new memory.

Julie: 00:05:22

The last one I wrote was a memory from when I was about maybe 10.

Julie: 00:05:27

I was obsessed with the WWF.

Julie: 00:05:30

Like I can still remember all of the OJI wrestlers from that time.

Julie: 00:05:36

Hulk Hogan.

Julie: 00:05:37

Andre, the giant Georgie animal steel ravishing, Rick rude.

Julie: 00:05:41

Randy macho man Savage.

Julie: 00:05:43

The British bulldogs, Hacksaw Jim Dugan.

Julie: 00:05:46

Jake, the snake Roberts.

Julie: 00:05:48

So many more, but my all time favorite.

Julie: 00:05:51

At all time, favorite?

Julie: 00:05:53

Was Ricky, the dragon Steamboat.

Julie: 00:05:55

Lucky for me.

Julie: 00:05:57

My mom's friend, Jerry was also a WWF nutcase, and he took me to the

Julie: 00:06:02

local arena when the WWF came to town.

Julie: 00:06:06

And I got to see Ricky, the dragon Steamboat in person.

Julie: 00:06:09

Oh, my God.

Julie: 00:06:10

Always in heaven.

Julie: 00:06:12

When I found out I was going to be able to go, I made my Nana

Julie: 00:06:16

make me a poster of a dragon.

Julie: 00:06:18

Now the thing about my Nana is that she was an amazing artist.

Julie: 00:06:23

She could sketch and paint.

Julie: 00:06:25

She could do anything free hand.

Julie: 00:06:28

And she made me the most amazing poster to bring to the match.

Julie: 00:06:32

And while Ricky was walking down the aisle to the squared circle, he saw my

Julie: 00:06:35

poster and he pointed to it and smiled.

Julie: 00:06:39

I just about died.

Julie: 00:06:42

So I wrote her a letter to tell her this story.

Julie: 00:06:46

My mom says she reads each letter between five and 10 times a day.

Julie: 00:06:50

I guess she reads it and within an hour or so has forgotten that she read it.

Julie: 00:06:54

So she rereads it again.

Julie: 00:06:56

She gets to relive these moments multiple times a day.

Julie: 00:07:00

If these letters are good for her, they are almost as cathartic for me.

Julie: 00:07:04

As I found a steady way to communicate with a Nana who no longer knows who I am.

Julie: 00:07:10

So if you know me, you know, I hate new year's resolutions, so I'm not

Julie: 00:07:14

going to make you take on a new year's resolution to write more

Julie: 00:07:17

notes to the people in your life.

Julie: 00:07:19

But I am going to ask that you think about it.

Julie: 00:07:22

Can you send notes that aren't Christmas cards or thank you notes.

Julie: 00:07:26

These are obvious.

Julie: 00:07:28

Can you take the time to write a note to someone.

Julie: 00:07:31

Uh, memory or just to tell them how much they mean to you.

Julie: 00:07:36

It's not weird or too much.

Julie: 00:07:39

Even if our society wants you to think it is.

Julie: 00:07:42

I guarantee that you will make someone's day.

Julie: 00:07:44

And that feeling will last.

Julie: 00:07:47

Bernie wrote me that letter years ago.

Julie: 00:07:49

And I still think about it.

Julie: 00:07:54

My father-in-law died unexpectedly in August.

Julie: 00:07:58

In the days and weeks after he died, our mailbox was full

Julie: 00:08:01

of letters of condolences.

Julie: 00:08:03

Each card meant so much to us.

Julie: 00:08:06

Each note that people wrote, touched us and helped us through

Julie: 00:08:09

an impossibly difficult time.

Julie: 00:08:12

Letter's matter.

Julie: 00:08:14

Words matter.

Julie: 00:08:16

Letters are unexpected.

Julie: 00:08:17

And when we see them, they are associated with delight and happiness.

Julie: 00:08:22

You have the power to do that for someone in your life and in your network.

Julie: 00:08:27

Okay.

Julie: 00:08:28

You ready for this aptly named cocktail for this episode?

Julie: 00:08:32

The cocktail is called the last word cocktail.

Julie: 00:08:38

That's also something my Nana used to say to me when I was young, you always

Julie: 00:08:40

have to have the last word or don't you.

Julie: 00:08:43

She had a lot of things to say,

Julie: 00:08:45

Uh, the last word was first served at the Detroit athletic club circa 1915.

Julie: 00:08:51

Created just before the start of prohibition, likely by a

Julie: 00:08:55

bartender named Frank Fogarty.

Julie: 00:08:58

It's one of the cocktail Cannon's most successful prohibition era drinks.

Julie: 00:09:03

Here's what you're going to need.

Julie: 00:09:04

Three-fourths sounds of gin.

Julie: 00:09:06

Three fours ounce of green chartreuse.

Julie: 00:09:08

Now I didn't have green shirt.

Julie: 00:09:10

True.

Julie: 00:09:10

So I used Puppy.

Julie: 00:09:12

Um, they're both, uh, aromatic herbal liquors and the agenda P is what I had.

Julie: 00:09:18

So that's what I used.

Julie: 00:09:20

Three, four three-fourths ounce of maraschino liquor.

Julie: 00:09:23

Three-fourths ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice.

Julie: 00:09:26

And one of those maraschino cherries.

Julie: 00:09:28

Um, as a garnish, what you're going to do is you're going to add the

Julie: 00:09:31

gin, the green chartreuse, or for me, or you just Maraschino liqueur

Julie: 00:09:35

and lime juice into a shaker with ice and shake until well chilled.

Julie: 00:09:38

And then you're going to strain that into a lovely coupe glass and

Julie: 00:09:42

garnish it with that Brandy cherry.

Julie: 00:09:44

There you have it friends.

Julie: 00:09:46

I hope this episode has inspired you to write a note to someone

Julie: 00:09:49

who is important to you.

Julie: 00:09:51

Speaking of writing.

Julie: 00:09:53

If you hadn't had a chance to leave an iTunes review, that would be

Julie: 00:09:56

amazing if you just went ahead and did that, I'd be so appreciative.

Julie: 00:10:00

And until next week.

Julie: 00:10:03

Cheers.