“Christmas for me is all about people; family and friends, and friends to be. With Christmas Day often including twenty or more people, the build-up to the holiday season was always busy and tasks were delegated. One of my jobs was Christmas Cards. I’d lick the stamps to put on the hundreds (or so it felt) cards my parents posted, write letters to include that brought people up to date on the year’s highs and lows, hand deliver the cards to neighbours and local friends and most importantly, open any cards that arrived. 

One of my favourite jobs was decorating the house with the hundreds of cards that were received. I’d attach them to strings and hang on the walls, climb chairs and prop them onto the picture rails, fill surfaces high and low with all the pretty cards. Decorating the house was as much about Christmas Cards as presents as each one represented a person we had contact with. They were never thrown out when the holiday season was over. I’d carefully go through the cards one by one, and using my decorative scissors, cut out the pictures of robins, snowmen, Santas, snowflakes and nativity, ready to turn them into gift tags for the following year. 

Sadly, as the cost of postage has increased, and the use of electronic mail has become the norm, the use of cards has declined. So I like to make that special effort with the few cards that I gift and what’s better than to use my favourite medium of embroidery.”