By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
This is the sad tale of how a brilliant idea of this writer about saving money at Christmas this year went south because of my lifelong affliction with procrastination. I’ve been meaning to seek help for my condition but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
For openers, I need to cut myself some slack in the guilt department because this was my fourth Christmas holiday without the incredible benefit of being coached by my late wife, the most organized human being ever to walk the earth.
This particular scenario actually began a few years ago when I realized that several national charities had started the practice of sending free, ready-to-use Christmas cards to their regular donors. Some were higher quality than others but I started putting most of them aside.
My family had been using the photo cards for some time, but they were becoming more expensive each year and the constantly-increasing cost of a first class stamps is a sore point with me.
So, I decided that this year I would use all of the free cards instead of buying another round of photo cards. I had accumulated nearly 200 of them in all sizes and colors, some with happy messages and most with reminders of the reason for the season.
I waited too long to separate the cards and had to ask a friend to help me. Color-coded cards had been separated from their matching envelopes. Some beautiful cards had no pre-printed messages but I didn’t have time to write anything meaningful and personal.
I kept assuring myself that I was saving money by not buying commercial cards and envelopes and that the folks on my mailing list might appreciate a change from getting just another photo card.
The bottom line is that my cheapskate plan fell apart and my recycled cards didn’t make it into the postal system until two days after the holiday. To ease my shame at being so tardy, I added a printed sticker saying the delay in delivery was my fault and don’t blame the post office.
Yep, next year I’ll be sending those handy, dandy photo cards again.
Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
