I like to go rambling at Christmas

Every year, I leave it to the last minute to send Christmas cards.

This year is no exception.

Many people have actually come to the conclusion that they are a dying institution in these days of email, internet chat rooms and all that stuff. But for at least for this year I will persist! Perhaps it’s easier for me to send cards because I’ve got fewer to send these days. Whether it’s due to parents, aunts and uncles going “the way of all flesh” or just that with all these massive advances in communications and the decline of Christmas as a “religious duty” we communicate in different ways.

The postal rush could well be consigned, in a few years from now, to the same fate as the Telegram or the Pony Express, with people not needing to have to communicate all in one go, in one mad rush of bonhomie a few days before Christmas. There is frankly, something in the view that a card with “From John” written on the bottom and stuffed in to an envelope once a year is a poor replacement for a regular email, letter, Skype call or phone call.

But I disagree, even if so far my favourite card - replacement greeting this year was from my Aussie mate in Tasmania, who sent me an email with a graphic in red of the words “Merry Christmas” which after five seconds rotated and morphed in to a row of Santas flashing their backsides.

Said Aussie wrote a the bottom “I'm all class, aren't I?”

Beats the whatsit out of reindeers and snowy cottages and just so Australian!

But hey, we live in hectic times, some of you have families and businesses to run, or are just too busy being retired, so you won’t find me complaining if I receive a card with “From Uncle Lionel and Spotty the dog” on it every year, at least I’ll know a couple of things:

You’re still alive

You’ve still got all your marbles

You still think of me at least once a year.

So have a great Christmas whatever you’re up to and do something you've always wanted to but never had the time...