Well, it seems that once again another Christmas is drawing near indeed last Thursday the town centre Christmas illuminations were turned on.

At least this year we have some new fitments in the High Street however my good self will reserve judgement on them until one has had a chance to see them lit up in and in their full glory.

Late on Friday evening your humble servant was looking through some boxes in one of the many store rooms at my ancestral home when low and behold yours truly came across a box containing pack after pack of new Christmas cards.

There must have been ten or fifteen unopened packs of cards all from a well known High Street store that your humble servant purchased about ten years ago during the post Christmas sales.

The cards may be old but the traditional designs are still as fresh today as when they were made. Thankfully they had been kept in the dark so the cards had not yellowed in any way.

Of course the only slight technicality is the retailer has changed their logo and corporate colours in the intervening years but who looks at the back of a Christmas card?

In the interests of economy I will send the old cards to my friends this year.

Sadly the number of cards I send is decreasing year by year as old age takes its toll on those listed in my address book.

Soon it will be time to take hold of my trusty fountain pen, take a piece of blotting paper from the drawer of my writing desk and open my address book skipping past the many names that have been crossed out.

No doubt many of you will soon be writing your cards too.

Think of all the energy required to manufacture the cards, deliver them to the shops, take them home, write them and post them to the recipient before they end up in landfill.

Surely Christmas cards are the ultimate symbol of blackness in the modern world so concerned with green issues?

Nevertheless your humble servant may as well use up the cards I have in stock even if they do cost me an arm and a leg in postal charges to get them delivered.

When my stock of cards is depleted I may well consider making a telephone call as a Christmas greeting instead as it's cheaper, easier and more personal.

A few of my friends send those newfangled electric Christmas cards using the internet. Once opened and viewed they are deleted without a trace.

Surely the electrical card is the most impractical and impersonal method of greeting so far invented by the boffins who bring us modern technology.

Only once has my good self received an electric card and naturally one printed it out which apparently one is not supposed to do.

Like me there are probably many who have so called friends who you only have contact with once a year using a Christmas card.

Surely it's better to given them a call on the phone and have a short natter rather then relying on a faceless card which only helps to boost the profits of the postal carrier?

What do you think?