{"id":777,"date":"2009-12-19T19:19:27","date_gmt":"2009-12-19T19:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=777"},"modified":"2009-12-19T19:23:10","modified_gmt":"2009-12-19T19:23:10","slug":"the-joyous-agony-of-christmas-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=777","title":{"rendered":"The Joyous Agony of Christmas Cards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday 19th<\/sup> December 2009<\/p>\n

Lord Arrowby\u2019s party in two hours! I hear he is to be very lithe and fitted. Anthony Mottram, the Multis, Rufus Pitman, Reginald Cresswell, the Ghanaian ceramicist, will be present. Come back tomorrow to hear all about it.<\/p>\n

At last, at last, my cards are almost done, the car is back from the car valet, all ready to go forth on Wednesday to the Gay Mother\u2019s. Hair and teeth have been re-thought. There is a gleam of hope. My tasks are almost at an end.<\/p>\n

What about cards? Are you still battling with them? \u00a0I expect you are. My pearls probably come too late, but no better time to review this year\u2019s performance and aim to improve next.<\/p>\n

Poor Little Rich Gays either send no cards at all (very arse and grand) or they hurl out millions. Robert Nevil always used to score eighty, the Limpney\/Smallmeals, of course, are unassailable at well over three hundred.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless it\u2019s certainly not too late to promote your volume of production, if you are a sender. Lack of truth will only hurt the baby Jesus, who has already suffered so much.<\/p>\n

Why send? There must be virtue in a task so grinding. And melancholy too; your Christmas card list is your life, friends and relations past and present. There is nothing more. This year I thought to strike off those never seen but in the end I hadn\u2019t the heart. The annual exchange of stiffened pictures is one small gesture against oblivion, better than nothing.<\/p>\n

Also, since quantity is a priority, it makes no sense to reduce your list.<\/p>\n

The immediate reward of sending is the massive snowfall on the doormat, a day or two later, of cards from people who\u2019ve shrieked and scrabbled on getting yours: \u2018We\u2019d better send one back<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n

Messages within give certain openings. \u2018Forgotten but not forgiven\u2019 can be useful. I\u2019ve considered it for the Smallmeals but decided to be dignified. \u2018Never seen but not forgotten\u2019 might suit in other, happier circs.<\/p>\n

The card itself?\u00a0 Oh, I\u2019ve such a confession! I got 20 for \u00a32.99 in a box: theme, \u2018Victorian Christmas\u2019. They smelt, the card had a poverty-stricken yellow tone and there was no printed message: had to self-write. My other cards were safe and tasteful National Gallery.<\/p>\n

Not good enough.<\/p>\n

The Photographer Multi used to produce his own; they were a grand size with his own graphs – sensational. See example below. Sadly now the demands of 180 tenants mean the Multi can no longer manage…<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing for it. Shop-bought cards of any kind are completely out. Next year we must all self-make or have them self-made. Unique cards only.<\/p>\n

Which means manoeuvres must start in August at the latest.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Photographer Multi's Card for the Year 2000. It shows a House always lit thus at Christmas near the Multi Penthouse<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Get

Get those Muffs - nasty 'Victorian Christmas' card sent by me this year<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday 19th December 2009 Lord Arrowby\u2019s party in two hours! I hear he is to be very lithe and fitted. Anthony Mottram, the Multis, Rufus Pitman, Reginald Cresswell, the Ghanaian ceramicist, will be present. Come back tomorrow to hear all about it. At last, at last, my cards are almost done, the car is back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=777"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions\/782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}