Tuesday 10 January 2017

Christmas Card Audit 2016


I was veering towards another indolence year (like 2014), but overwhelming public demand from Sir Bruin has persuaded me to make the effort.

Executive Summary: 

Note: For the first time, this year’s audit includes cards received by both me and Z.  This does not, of course, affect the overall findings, but I just wanted to say so. 

This appears to have been a year of consolidation, with few significant changes to previous trends.  Points of note:
  • Animals and Birds are holding up well.  I have again given a breakdown of this category, with a further sub-division of the birds. 
  • Robins have made a small but welcome comeback, as has snow.
  • There are a few interesting new categories: mailboxes, choirboys and – surprisingly - booze.
The full figures (2015’s, where applicable, in brackets):
 

Snow/Snowmen/Snowflakes:               10 (2)
Santas/Reindeer:                                  3 (1)
Animals/Birds:                                     16 (13)
of which

Robins:                                     3 (1)
Free-range reindeer:                 3 (4)
Horses:                                     1
Foxes:                                      1
Sheep:                                      1
Cats:                                        1
Squirrels:                                 1
Wrens (we think):                   1
Owls:                                       1 (1)
Penguins:                                 1
Partridges (in pear tree):          1
Bullfinches:                             1
Landscapes:                                         4 (4)
Nativities/Wise Men/Angels:              7 (6)
Christmas trees/Baubles:                     9 (6)
Abstract:                                              2 (3)
Mail-letterboxes:                                 3
Choirboys:                                           1
Booze:                                                 1
 

Special categories:
Homemade/designed:                          4 (4)
Cards with glued-on glitter:                10 (12)
Wonderfully weird:                             1 (0)
 

I can’t nominate a Card of the Year award this year – they are all equal in splendour.

4 comments:

  1. When you consider the overall theme of our wedding presents, booze isn't so surprising really, innit?

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  2. Your figures seem to support my perception. The demise of the fat cherub, thankfully, seems to be well under way. Thank you for taking the time to do the research.

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  3. Rowan and I seemed to have missed our usual Xmas card competition of finding the most vile/nauseating card.

    I must remind him this year.

    I seem to remember a lot of holly.

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  4. I like the idea of most vile/nauseating card, but I daren't - there's every likelihood that the person who sent it might read this blog.
    Apologies for the flaky formatting, by the way - it all lined up perfectly in draft, but when I published it, well, you can see the result. Blogger clearly hasn't heard of WYSIWYG.

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