Although we love Christmas, my family doesn’t have a lot of unique traditions. But here’s one that we’ve done for years, and it never gets old. I guess it’s actually a New Year’s Day tradition. We display our Christmas cards as they arrive throughout December, and then on January 1, the day we put away all of the holiday decorations, we hold a Christmas card judging. Everyone in the family gets to vote. The way it works is, the cards are all laid out and each is assigned a letter, A,B,C, etc. Each person in the family has a ballot and votes for their first, second, and third favorite cards. When the votes are tallied, cards are given three points for each first-place vote, two points for each second-place vote, and one point for each third-place vote. Then all the cards are ranked according to how many points they have.

It is entirely possible that a card that didn’t get any first-place votes can still win the grand prize, say, if everyone voted it second place, it would get more points than a card which was rated number one by only one person. It’s not very scientific, but it’s created a lot of fun for us as we challenge extended family to get their entry mailed as soon as possible. And when grandparents send money in their card we tease them about trying to bribe us and influence the results! 

Each of our family members has different tastes. I like cards with Victorian-era pictures, and cozy fireplace scenes. But I’m usually outvoted by my sons and their taste for cartoonish designs. It is fun to see what everyone’s first, second, and third-place choices are afterwards.

It’s a good way to have some simple fun. You can even offer a prize if you want to. If you find, as we are, that less people are sending cards these days, you might want to put the word out that anyone who sends you a card for your contest will get a card from you in return.

Let’s keep the Christmas card-sending tradition alive!