Christmas Card Customs

I get a few cards from people that are obviously from a print service and don't have any personal thought or effort and they always make me a little disgruntled at first, so I see where you are coming from homeagain. But, I do remind myself that I'd rather get an auto card than nothing at all, because at least they do still think of us and care enough to include us on their list. I have noticed that if it's from someone that I haven't seen in a while, or was really only ever an acquaintance, that I tend to judge a little more harshly than a good friend whom I know is just busy and that I'm still important to them. I guess it's just a reflection of my own insecurities about the person I haven't seen in a while - do I still matter to them like they do me?

We used to order cards from the Audubon Society (hubby's a bird fan) and include a one-page letter of what we did or had happen during the year and include pictures on it, but the past couple of years we've only done the large photo postcard from Shutterfly.com, as have many of our friends with kids. We realized that most people just want to see how the kids have changed growing up in the past year, and those closest to us have kept up-to-date with events/happenings/news through facebook posts through the year so the big letter isn't necessary.