The actual last post

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Is today, for UK based OTFers who still actually send Christmas cards or parcels. I do, only to my parents and brother who I won't see in person this year (not travelling to Devon this year). Made me realise how infrequently I ever put something in a post box these days - or for that matter receive anything through the post except subscription magazines like OTF or internet shopping.

[Toby Gymshorts]

For second class it is, yes. The cutoff for first class post is Friday 20th.

[slackster]

Every year we say posting Xmas cards to rellies & friends is both antiquated and silly, but still we do it (about 50 of ‘em). We stopped mailing holiday postcards many years ago , mind.

We do a lot of shopping online for home delivery, though, and Royal Mail remain one of the main couriers for that (and most returns via the village postoffice), so it’s probably swings & roundabouts for our volume use of the postal services.

[Sporting]

For second class it is, yes. The cutoff for first class post is Friday 20th.

They get all bunged in together in the sorting offices, don't they?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I think this year is the first that I will not post any - I have a large extended family and the card traffic has dwindled in recent years, I've only had two through the post so far this year so won't feel too guilty at not sending any out. I usually exchange cards with three sets of neighbours (each side and opposite) - well, exchange as in they put them through my door, I send daughter out on Xmas Eve to put them through theirs.

I've got a post box about 20 yards from my front door, and remember thinking it was a handy thing when I moved in nine years ago, but I've only used it a few times outside of sending Christmas cards.

Still get a fair amount of post coming in though. If there's no or little difference in price I'll get physical tickets for gigs rather than print at home (or print at work in my case). I still get son's post, and daughter is now old enough to operate different bank accounts for which she seems not to realise you can go paperless, and we all do online shopping. I did cut down my magazine subs to just WSC (I used to have about six on the go), have tried to close off old savings accounts for all of us to stop pointless statements coming through, and generally aim for the paperless options where possible, but there is still a steady stream of stuff.

[Satchmo Distel]

My parents visited us over Thanksgiving so we took the expedient measure of getting them to take cards over.

I think as ex-pats we still feel pressure to send cards in a way that we might not if we saw family regularly. One change though is that we don't send cards to friends or work colleagues. We cut that out a decade ago because it's just performative politeness that now seems anachronistic.

You've bullied me in the office all year but we're now big pals for a fortnight? Fuck that shit.

[Jah Womble]

I handed out Christmas cards to all of my quiz team last night ahead of the final jamboree of the decade - didn't get a solitary card in return.

It's an uncaring world, for sure.

[Satchmo Distel]

On internet shopping, a British friend told me that Amazon Prime has not yet monopolized the market over there as it has in the US. John Lewis is still bigger, apparently. Is that so?

[DCI Harry Batt]

The thing we use our nearby post box for more than anything is returning to sender.

I did drop half a dozen cards in there this morning, mind. Plus one letter for a previous occupant I've never even heard of.

[Sporting]

I think as ex-pats

Immigrants

[Benjm]

On internet shopping, a British friend told me that Amazon Prime has not yet monopolized the market over there as it has in the US. John Lewis is still bigger, apparently. Is that so?

Overall Amazon's UK revenues are higher than John Lewis's and the latter includes their bricks and mortar department stores and supermarkets, as well as the online business, so I don't think it can be.

[Satchmo Distel]

Immigrants

True. We are immigrants with a huge amount of white privilege:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-d...ants-migration

[Felicity, I guess so]

Overall Amazon's UK revenues are higher than John Lewis's and the latter includes their bricks and mortar department stores and supermarkets, as well as the online business, so I don't think it can be.

One factor boosting j Lewis is the standard 2-year warranty on electrical goods they offer

[Benjm]

John Lewis offers a better service in some respects and still has more social cachet than Amazon, bloated self regarding adverts notwithstanding.

[Sits]

I think as ex-pats we still feel pressure to send cards in a way that we might not if we saw family regularly. One change though is that we don't send cards to friends or work colleagues. We cut that out a decade ago because it's just performative politeness that now seems anachronistic.

You've bullied me in the office all year but we're now big pals for a fortnight? Fuck that shit.

All of the above. But our UK list is now less than ten. We’ve also started proactively sending e-cards which I’ve never been keen on but we’ve done it with a number of those tech savvy enough. I reckon most will jump at the chance of stopping the mailshot.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

One change though is that we don't send cards to friends or work colleagues. We cut that out a decade ago because it's just performative politeness that now seems anachronistic.

Same here - we have not had any Christmas cards around the office this year, and very few in the last few years - some years you'll get a recent starter who assumes it is still required and gives them out but soon realises. Going back 15-20 years, I used to have to bring cards home in a carrier bag just before Christmas as it was universal in the places I worked.

[Balderdasha]

True. We are immigrants with a huge amount of white privilege:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-d...ants-migration

This. I was always aware in China that whilst in some ways I was getting a small insight into the experience of immigrants to the UK (being stared at, feeling like the 'other', people making crass assumptions about me due to my skin colour or nationality), immigrants to the UK don't generally get invited to embassy balls complete with a free night's stay at a Hilton hotel. They can't pretend to be staying at said Hilton hotel just to use the swimming pool. They don't get invited to judge English-speaking competitions or get an internship at the local British council office.

I would hope that some of them experience the type of unexpected kindness from colleagues that I had. On my birthday, the English department hired a minibus because in my profile I'd said I liked hillwalking. So we all walked up a local hill, most of the female Chinese teachers complaining because they were in heels. Then we sat at the top of the hill and played mahjong. At the first October holiday, a teacher invited me to her hometown to stay with her family. We ate lots of delicious meals, went on walks through a local forest, joined in with the pavement dancing groups in the evenings. Once a week, on Fridays, the English department took me out for a meal, and at the end of the year they surprised me by ordering solely vegetarian dishes, anything they'd seen me enjoy throughout the year.

I know that the British schools who hosted Chinese teachers tried to reciprocate the hospitality, but struggled sometimes with the expense involved. They hosted barn dances with pot luck suppers to keep costs down. I also know, though, that lots of the Chinese teachers who went to the UK for a year were desperately lonely. A big factor in this was that the schools deliberately sent female teachers who had young children so they knew they would come back. The teachers felt obliged to go for the boost it could give their career, and missed their children desperately. That's a very different dynamic from the post-graduates from the UK in their early twenties with no ties and responsibilities.

[San Bernardhinault]

We (really the missus) has taken to sending a ton of cards. It helps, because her business makes it important to keep people aware of her existence; all those former clients and colleagues just getting a little trigger reminder so next time they have some work that needs doing they might think of her. The trouble with that volume of cards (something in the hundreds this year) is that there's no way we're writing that many out or writing that many addresses, so we get them all printed up - it's a bit less personal, but it's better than nothing. Anyway, we seem to have received maybe 10 back for - at a guess - 200 sent out.

[Hot Pepsi]

I gave up on cards years ago because all the cards I got were picture of couples or families with kids and I don't have any of that so nobody would care.

But now I kind a wish I could send cards. The problem is that I don't have current physical addresses for most of my friends.