Christmas is the New Valentine's Day

I love this card; from one of our favorite Heswall families

I walked Anna into school the other day to help her change into her nativity costume.  One of her Year 2 classmates was standing there handing out little cards in envelopes.  When Anna received hers, we opened it to find a sweet Christmas card inscribed with "Dear Anna: I hope you have a nice Christmas. Love, Jemima."  Anna was delighted but not surprised.  Apparently, she has built up quite a store of Christmas cards in her backpack.  So has Michael.  The cards are all small and part of multi-packs of about 30, as if someone has thought about this as a business proposition.  Sometimes, there's a chocolate attached to the envelope.  Some children deposit their Christmas cards in the Christmas postbox in the hallway at school and the teacher hands them out at afternoon registration.

My immediate thought was, "Christmas is just like Valentine's Day", followed by, "Oh no, am I going to have to persuade Anna and Michael to write 60 Christmas cards?"  (The answer I came up with was no.)  Michael in fact got two Moshi Monster cards from one of his classmates--the one who was very keen on him going to the school disco.  Accident or not, I thought it helped make my point about it being like American Valentine's Day.  (Incidentally, I found out later on that UK Valentine's Day is reserved for sweethearts.  Whereas in the US, kids are encouraged to give a valentine to all classmates, here it tends to be much more selective.)

Like Valentine's Day in the US, chocolates seem to be a big deal here at Christmas.  They were handed out at the carols celebration, and we have received a number of packages of chocolate as presents for the children.  It is wall-to-wall chocolate down the seasonal aisle of Tesco--lots of attactive tins and boxes dressed in Christmas theme.  Red of course plays a dominant role but without the hearts.

Going back to the Christmas cards, they are in some ways a much bigger deal here.  They tend to be handwritten and sent as a "hello" to neighbors, teachers, etc.  We've received several nice cards from neighbors we've never met.  Americans tend to send photo cards or Christmas letters, especially if one has children.  People are more modest here because I imagine the card is meant to give attention to the recipient as opposed to the giver.  Like Valentine's Day.