LAST week, I made the annual festive pilgrimage to the post office, laden down with cards and presents.

I can’t remember how many envelopes I slipped into the post box, but there were at least 30, off to Northern Ireland, Scotland, the south of Ireland and beyond, including six cards to America.    

Clearly, I am a fan of snail mail, and, as such, I am not keen on listening to the current chat on radio, TV and elsewhere that tries to insist that the sensible thing to do at this time of year is to send an electronic greeting, or, even worse, none at all. I cannot think of anything worse than an emailed card, and, thankfully, no one I know would send me one.

Various talking heads assure us that those in the know don’t ‘waste’ money on cards, and instead donate money to charity. They claim, in addition, that this is the better option for the environment.

But I beg to differ. I seriously doubt that all of those who neglect to send cards instead donate a sum to charity. And even if they do the latter, why not do that and send cards as well? Our family is not loaded, and yet we manage to donate to Crisis each year in addition to posting Christmas cards to our friends and family.

Neither is it, contrary to popular opinion, kinder to the environment not to buy Christmas cards. The paper they are made from, according to an impressive man I heard discussing the subject on BBC Radio 2, is from a sustainable source, different from the paper which is derived from endangered forests. Paper companies, in accordance with sustainable guidelines, must plant far more trees than they destroy.

Even though they are coated, and cannot be recycled as standard paper, there are excellent Christmas card recycling schemes in operation at all the major supermarkets at this time of year, so they’re as environmentally friendly as possible.      

It is true that the Christmas card I send to certain people is the only contact I have with them all year, but this, I believe, makes them all the more necessary. They are people I met along the way perhaps many years ago, but their card is a little acknowledgment of our past friendship, and a reassurance that I have not forgotten them.    

I also send one to my former English teacher, a yearly nod to the fact that someone, nearly 20 years ago now, appreciated the passion in a subject which she communicated. 

In this cold technological age where, apparently, handwriting is becoming ever more redundant and obsolete, let’s take moments to retain the human touch while we still can.