Deck the Halls with Printed-off Emails

Will the internet mean the end of Christmas cards? Or am I just useless?

I don't think I'm totally useless. My dad reckons that by the end of university he had lost touch with everyone he knew at school except his brother. Ten years since I sat my A levels, I still keep in touch with most of my friends from Darlo and Barnie, whichever continent they now reside in. Email is a marvellous thing.

But I know that when I get back to my parents' house on Saturday, the walls and book cases will be decked with unfeasible numbers of Christmas cards - from friends from their churches past and present, old colleagues, various branches of the family. Whereas I'm afraid to say I've sent no cards this year - and only received one. (Cheers, Aeneas!)

I hardly know any of my friends' addresses. (Even the ones I visit regularly, I just remember the way to the street and the colour of the curtains in the front window.)

So, is email going to kill off the Christmas card? Or will me and my friends eventually settle down and send out annual round robin letters for newspaper columnists to anthologise?

In the meantime, were I organised enough to be sending cards this year, I'd want to put this on the front:



(He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy.)