Steve Inskeep shared a story this morning about a woman who had sent contraband-laden, hollowed-out Bibles to prison inmates recently. The linked story neglects Inskeep's closing remark that the "silver lining" of the story is that someone is actually still using the U.S. Postal Service.
I was thinking about that problem last night as Karoline and I stuffed photograph-embedded Christmas cards with a year-review letter and change-of-address card. It would seem that fewer and fewer people are actually sending Christmas cards. Part of me wanted to point to the tight economic situation in which we seem to find ourselves, but another part of me immediately thought: Where on earth did the tradition of sending Christmas cards come from?
Did Jesus send out Christmas cards?
My first guess was that the tradition of sending out Christmas cards was probably about as old as Bing Crosby's collection of Christmas films, which would seem to be about the time that Christmas begins the trend that leads today to most retailers celebrating the season almost a full two months earlier than the twelve-day Christmas season actually occurs.
I seem to have been wrong.
Wikipedia points out that the tradition began a full century earlier than I had expected, which makes me wonder if our commercializing of the season, in fact, started a lot earlier than I had expected, as well. I suspect that I have been wrong about that, too.
I suppose that our changing traditions have a much longer history than most of us usually realize. That doesn't make them more or less meaningful or appropriate, of course; longer traditions are simply easier to hold and harder to relinquish.
I'm not sure I have any epiphany to offer in reflecting on this post. It's just something I've been thinking about. What are your traditions? What is your take on tradition?
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