On Saturday This may be one year when I post early

Read Clare’s column every week in the Western Morning News

IAM facing the annual dilemma of whether or not to send any Christmas cards this year. While it would be both easy and benevolent, I have never really felt comfortable with posting on social media that I am donating to charity instead of sending cards. Christmas is invariably the one time I get to catch up with old friends – and even older relatives – and share news of what’s happened in the year gone by.

So I normally compromise. I make a charity donation and only send cards to those people I am unlikely to see in the flesh over Christmas.

Sadly, my list has dwindled to around a dozen cards but at nearly £1 for each first class stamp it’s going to cost me a fair bit to spread the Christmas love this year.

“Why not send them second class?” I hear you chime in unison.

Well, even that isn’t exactly cheap and, sadly, despite years of trying I am the queen of the deadline and never get the Christmas cards written before the last posting dates.

When I do finally get round to writing the cards it is a festive ritual I enjoy. I love reflecting on the person I am writing to, choosing the card I think best chimes with their personality, writing a personal message and sticking on that sparkly, beautifully illustrated Christmas stamp. I even get out my trusty old fountain pen and inevitably end up with smudged inky kisses signing off every card.

This year is the final time the Queen’s head will appear on those oh-so-festive stamps so I am feeling even more nostalgic and sentimental.

Yet the Royal Mail is warning that there’s no place for lastminute.com Christmas card writers. Its on-going problems with industrial action mean I can’t post on December 23 and expect my card to be cheerily delivered by a postie on Christmas Eve.

In fact final suggested dates for sending second class post has been brought forward from December 19 to 12, and for first class from December 21 to 16. I probably won’t even have my decorations up by then.

The new posting dates were just one of the stories about the Royal Mail being reported yesterday. What was once a much-loved and respected service also got something of a kicking from Ofcom, saying it could not continue blaming Covid-19 for late deliveries.

It said that between April 2021 and March 2022, just 82% of first class mail was delivered within one working day, below a target of 93%, while 95.6% of second class post was delivered within three working days, against a target of 98.5%.

Ofcom chided: “We are concerned by the fact that Royal Mail’s performance in the early part of 2022/23 fell well short of where it should be. We believe the company has had plenty of time to learn lessons from the pandemic and we are unlikely to consider the factors outlined above as exceptional and beyond its control in future.”

Sadly the pandemic and the strike are not the only problems facing the Royal Mail. One of the greatest challenges it must tackle is that fewer people are using its services, forcing it to cut jobs while keeping up with

Ofcom’s stringent expectations.

I fear that the “use it or lose it” mantra needs to be urgently applied to the Royal Mail. While receiving post was once a twice-daily occurrence, the plop of paper through the letterbox is now a much rarer sound. And the arrival of greetings cards in their cheery coloured envelopes is a rare novelty.

It makes me very sad that seven years after moving into my current house, I still receive Christmas cards intended for a previous occupant. There is no return address for me to send them back to. I feel sorry that someone has taken the time to write cards which are never opened and that there has obviously been no face to face contact between the sender and receiver for many years.

And that is another thing which usually spurs me into sending cards to those relatives and friends who I don’t often see – but hopefully maintain enough contact with to still have their current address.

So for the sake of nostalgia, the Royal Mail and the Queen, those cards are probably going to get written. But maybe not before December 15!

Strikes mean I can’t post on Dec 23 and expect my card to be cheerily delivered on Xmas Eve