1960’s Etiquette of Christmas Cards

Due to the large-scale shift in population these days, more and more people are having the envelope imprinted with their name and address. According, to Mrs. Peggy Gilbert, etiquette expert for Norcross, Inc., greeting card publishers, it's not only socially correct, but it's a convenient way of notifying friends of a change of address.

Card Etiquette Adds A Nicety

No one has to speak the tongue to understand the sentiment behind a Christmas card, but sometimes we get stumped on Christmas card etiquette. If you plan to have your cards printed this year, here are some things you might like to know.

While titles like “Mr. and Mrs.” may be used on personal Christmas cards, it is friendlier to omit "Mr. and Mrs." on all but the most formal cards or those in tended for purely business acquaintances. When first names are used, the wife's name should be imprinted first.

It's correct to imprint family cards in informal ways like “The Browns,” “The Brown Family,” and so on, but when sending cards do not address envelopes to “Mr. and Mrs. Jack Smith and Family,” or "The Smith Family."

If possible, send a separate (but different) card to individual members of the family or address the envelope to the parents and on the inside write to “Mary and Jack and Johnnie and Jean.”

Due to the large-scale shift in population these days, more and more people are having the envelope imprinted with their name and address. According, to Mrs. Peggy Gilbert, etiquette expert for Norcross, Inc., greeting card publishers, it's not only socially correct, but it's a convenient way of notifying friends of a change of address.

It is also correct to send Christmas cards to persons in mourning and there are religious cards with quotations from the Bible that can thoughtfully convey a message of comfort, as well as a seasonal greeting.

It is customary to address a widow by the same title she used when her husband was alive, such as “Mrs. Frank Jones.” If you receive a card from someone not on your list, don't feel obligated to mail a card in return. Instead, send a New Year's card or a note of thanks.

Remember the post office at Christmas, too. Address envelopes as plainly as possible, avoid abbreviations and use as much information as possible, such as zone numbers. A four-cent stamp is wisest. Not only will your cards be sorted and delivered first, but you can write personal notes on your cards to friends you seldom see during the year. Santa Cruz Sentinel, 1960

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette for Yuletide Custom

                                                  

Yule Card Courtesy Important

THE exchange of cheerful Christmas cards between friends is one of our most delightful Yuletide customs and like all other social relationships, it is governed by simple, common sense rules of etiquette.

You may properly send your holiday greetings to almost everyone - business and professional associates, if you wish, as well as social acquaintances and relatives. Be sure to choose appropriate cards, however. If Aunt Jennie is a garden enthusiast, she'll probably appreciate a beautiful flower print more than a dozen Santa Claus designs.

Special Titles

Cards with special titles, such as “Merry Christmas, Mother,” are available for mothers, wives, sweethearts and practically all relatives, including the in-laws, and are a mark of individual thoughtfulness.

If you can spare a moment or two, pen a brief holiday note on each card. It adds a warm sincerity and a touch of your individual personality to your Yuletide greetings. Christmas time is a sentimental and nostalgic season for everyone, and many a friendship has been kept alive through the years by the annual exchange of holiday greetings. Colored ink is entirely proper both for signing the card and addressing the envelope, provided it harmonizes with the color scheme of the card itself.

Signatures need not be formal, expect on engraved Christmas cards. You may have your name neatly printed if you wish, or take your pen in hand and sign the greetings yourself with a holiday flourish.

“Mr. and Mrs.”

Most couples may omit the Married couples may omit the “Mr. and Mrs.” if they prefer and sign their cards simply “Paul and Jenny Wilson.” Either the husband's name or the wife’s may appear first. Children in the family rate a place in the signature, too.

In addressing the envelopes, it is best to send one card to a husband and wife, and separate cards to other adult members of the family, too. As an alternative, one card may be mailed to the whole family if you are careful to write the names of each individual on the envelope, including the children.

Use three-cent stamps for for your Christmas cards, following the rule of good taste which says that first-class friends deserve first-class mail. It is entirely proper to write your return address on the envelope, to help friends keep tab on change of address.

Selecting attractive Christmas cards for each of your friends is a delightful pre-Christmas activity. Don't treat it as a sober social responsibility. Plunge in with a smile and the gay holiday scenes on the cards will soon fill your heart with Yuletide cheer and sentiment." — Mill Valley Record, 1948

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

1960’s “Sidewalk Santa” Etiquette

Kris Kringle has to be a model of diplomacy. One cardinal rule forbids the Santas from promising children they will get the gifts they ask for. But at the same time, Santa must send the youngsters away “hopeful and happy.”

Sidewalk Santas Need More Than “Ho-Ho-Ho!”

It takes more than an ability to voice a hearty “Merry Christmas, ho-ho-ho” to make a good sidewalk Santa Claus, according to the Volunteers of America. The 2,000 Santas on duty across the United States for the Volunteers, also must master rigid rules of sidewalk etiquette.

The Kris Kringles attend special schools where they are taught the “do’s and don’ts” of their profession before they can receive their red costumes, white beards and chimneys.

The Schools for Santas are directed by Col. John Ford, National social welfare organization, who said “it’s vital that Santa is exemplary. We insist that our Sidewalk Santas not only are courteous, but live up to what children have been told by their parents,” Ford said.

Kris Kringle has to be a model of diplomacy. One cardinal rule forbids the Santas from promising children they will get the gifts they ask for. But at the same time, Santa must send the youngsters away “hopeful and happy.” Other rules formulated by the Volunteers of America for its Santas cover the range from sweet breath to sweet disposition.

“Keep your breath clean avoid eating garlic or onions and do not eat, drink or smoke while on duty.” is one of the basic commandments. The Santas also are advised to be courteous and pleasant at all times, to avoid arguments or disputes and to avoid obstructing traffic.

Most of the Sidewalk Santas are older men. Some have themselves been rehabilitated by the Volunteers of America in the program supported by funds collected during the Christmas season. But the campaigns, which date. back to 1901, play a much bigger role.

They provide free Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners to thousands of homeless individuals and needy families in cities across the nation and holiday baskets of food, fuel and toys to families. The funds collected in the chimneys also help support the Volunteer's year round social welfare program. – New York (UPI), 1961

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Kissing Under the Mistletoe

 

Mistletoe, one of America’s favorite holiday decorations, brings to mind an especially pleasant custom: that of catching an unsuspecting (or so it may seem) sweetheart “under the mistletoe” for a kiss. The green leaved, white-berried plant really does have quite a romatic history. References to it appear as far back in history as the days of fhe gladiators. The Romans made first recorded use of the plant as a symbol of peace. Enemies meeting under it were required to discard their weapons and declare a truce. Parallels in later history occur in Norse mythology, which records the mistletoe plant as a symbol of love. The custom of kissing beneath the bright leaves comes from the Norse marriage rite in which it was used as a major decoration.

A writer in the London Daily Telegraph conversing with a street-vender of imitated holly in Christmas week, asked him whether the mistletoe, of which a plentiful supply was in the market, was ever sold with artificial berries. “There’s a lot of rubbish talked about mistletoe,” said he, “and I dare say it’s very pretty to read about it in Christmas tales and to see it in Christmas pictures, but poor people don't care anything about it. It's all very well, perhaps, among the well-to-do sort of people, who can afford to invite old and young to all manner of gay goings-on, but among them that are always working and driving for a living, they got something else to think about when they get a chance of a bit of a jollification.’’ But even among the humblest of the laboring classes the young fellows have sweethearts, and at their Christmas parties, kissing under the mistletoe is surely start of the fun. “Well, that's where it is at, perhaps,” returned the old fellow, after a few moments’ reflection, “the young fellows don’t see the fun of it. They do their courting steadfast and with a hearty will, just in a manner of speaking, as they set about the work they get a living by. 

And when a young fellow tacks on to a young gal, meaning to marry her, he doesn’t usually see the force of being so very polite as to let another young fellow kiss her just because got a sprig of mistletoe in his hand or catches her passing under a bit of it hung up. It might go down in company where they practices genteel manners,” said Bill’s father, “but in homely circles like them round about the New Cut and Lambeth Walk, a young fellow who tried it on would most likely get his head punched, which, of course, would make a disturbance and spoil the harmony. No, sir, it isn’t in poor neighborhoods that mistletoe is much sought after. When there’s a glut of it, and you can buy a good-sized bush for about sixpence, it will sell in the Cut and such market places, but there isn't a hundredth part the hankering after it among poor people there is for holly.” — The Weekly Calistogan, 1882

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia