Scary angel and pregnant Mary

I went to Tewkesbury Abbey today and saw a Nativity scene with a scary angel - it looked like one of the Weeping Angels from the most terrifying Doctor Who episode this century.

You may notice that Mary is pregnant and the manger only has a lamb in it. Well it's not Christmas Day yet, so Baby Jesus hasn't arrived!

Meanwhile, the Wise Men were halfway down the church, making their way to the holy crib.  I suspect they won't arrive until 6th January - which is still a decent pace for mannequins. 

The eleventh Annual Christmas Card Audit (ACCA)

Here we are again - it's time for the Annual Christmas Card Audit (ACCA), which has become a feature on this blog, even to the point where people have got in touch to send me cards because they have read the blog. (Well, one person has done that - hi Jon from Melbourne!)

The postal strikes and knock on effect on deliveries meant some cards didn't arrive until well after Christmas so we left them up on display a bit longer than normal this year. That prompted my friend Stewart to contact me a few days ago asking where the audit was. I reassured him that it was on the way.

Last year I included the cards designed by kids in the audit post. Here's the one Stewart sent us, designed by his daughter Delilah. 

Delilah's card got counted in the reindeer category.

Anyway, on with the audit. As ever, I've included the previous year's figures for comparison.

Total number of cards: 63 - This is actually a huge drop from last year's total of 91. Whether this is because of the rising cost of living, the spiralling cost of postage, or disruption caused by strike action is hard to day - probably it's a combination of all 3. But anyway, it's quality, not quantity that matters!

Hand-made / home-produced cards: 5 (8 in 2021)

Cards designed by kids: 2 (1 less than last year, when we had 3)

Cards with glitter: 3 (A quarter of last year's total of 12. It would be good news for the environment if glitter disappeared altogether.)

Cards sold in aid of charity (or fundraising): 38 (Down from 53 - which feels a proportionate drop given the overall drop in cards received.)

Total number of charities represented: 37 (40 in 2021) 

Most popular charity represented: Mind, with 10 cards. This is the first time Mind has been the most popular charity, although most of these were on multi-charity cards. There was one card that was just sold in aid of Mind. The second most popular charity was the Alzheimer's Society with 9.

Charity card cause breakdown

Cards raising money for cancer charities: 14 (down from 24)

Cards raising money for other health issues: 16 (down from 36)

Animal charities: 1 - the RSPB, (Was zero in 2021)

Children's charities: 6 (8 in 2021)

Overseas development charities: 8 (down from 11)

THEMES

There's always a bit of a challenge with some themes - the card above, by Zachie, featured spiders and cacti wearing Santa hats. Obviously it is absolutely brilliant and would raise everyone's joy levels as much as it did mine, but for avoidance of doubt, it got counted under 'other animals' rather than 'Christmas foliage'.

Religious themes

I always start with the religious themed cards as technically, Christmas is a religious holiday. However, the number of religious themed cards does seem to be about the same proportion every year - more than a fifth, less than a quarter.

Religious-themed cards: 14 ( down from 19). 

Cards featuring the Nativity: 7 (down from 12)

Some of the following characters from the Christmas story may have featured on the Nativity cards, but they only get counted if they appear solo on the cards. 

Three kings: 0 (This might be the first time ever that the kings / wise men / magi didn't appear on a card. They were on 2 cards last year.)

The shepherds: 0 (Again! That's three no show years in a row.)

Angels: 1 (The same number as 2021.)

'Cartoony' religious: 0 (This fluctuates year on year between a few and zero; 2022 was a zero year.)

Other themes

Santa: 3 (down from 6)

Christmas Elf: 1 (Relisted this year after being dropped as a category.)

Penguins: 2 (Half of last year's total.)

Bears: 2 (After a bear-free Christmas last year, they have returned!)

Reindeer: 3 (down from 6)

Christmas trees: 5 (down from 6)

Christmas food: 1 (down from 3)

Christmas decorations: 2 (down from 4)

Robins: 4 (A rare category that increased! Up from 3 last year)

Sheep: 0 

Dogs with or without Santa hats: - I'm delighted that after a zero showing last year, we had 2 dogs cards and 1 had dogs in Santa hats!

Other animals with or without Santa hats: 8 (Up from 6. It was a bit of a menagerie, with a koala and a narwhal featuring on cards.)

Winter scene/scenery: 3 (down from 8)

Snow & snowflakes: 0

Snowpeople: 2 (After a good showing of 8 last year, this is quite a drop.)

Licensed characters: 3 (Down from 6 in 2021.)

Hares & Moons: 1 (Another stable category with 1 last year as well.)

Christmas foliage (formerly listed as "holly and wreaths"): 3 (Up from 1 in 2021)

CARD FRONT MESSAGES

Word 'Christmas' on the front: 27, of which 4 were religious. This is an increase from 25 overall and 2 religious cards in 2021. 

"Seasons Greetings": 3 (down from 4)

Mentions "Jesus": 0 (For the second year in a row.)

"Peace": 3 (Up from zero last year - perhaps it reflects a year with a fairly big war kicking off on the eastern edge of Europe.)

Bible verse on front: 1 (This is one of the most consistent categories. We always seem to get 1 card with a Bible verse on the front.)

Lines or titles of Christmas carols: 2 (down from 4)

Lines or titles of Christmas songs: 1 (down from 3) - I sort of cheated here because one of the cards had the words "A Child is Born" on, which is the title of a Christmas song. Otherwise it would have been zero.

Message in Welsh: 4 (up from 2)

Puns: 1, which is a huge drop from 8 last year. Is the era of puns over?

In conclusion - we got a lot fewer cards this year so the overall trend for all the categories is downwards. There were a couple of categories that bucked the trend. It was nice to see bears reappear and, of course, the dogs in Santa hats, which just epitomises Christmas to me.

In fact, any animals in Santa hats epitomises Christmas to me. In addition to Zachie's spider (above), our friend Helena drew chickens in Santa hats for her Christmas card - which I include here to finish off the eleventh ACCA in style!

Bible verses on Christmas cards, 2021 edition

A few years back I did a little analysis of the most popular Bible verses on Christmas cards. I revisited it this year as part of the ACCA.

Overall there were seven cards that included a Bible verse. The only one with a Bible verse on the front was this one.

The gold foil is hard to read, so here it is: "For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name" - Psalm 33, verse 21.

I looked that Psalm up. It looks like a song of praise that would have been sung in the Jewish Temple long before Jesus came along. It's not particularly messianic or prophetic in tone. The verse is repeated inside the card and they give the version of the Bible - the KJV (King James Version).

This verse featured on another card too, and overall Psalms was the most represented book of the Bible on the Christmas cards we received, with three cards featuring a verse. The other reference was Psalm 46, verse 10. 

There were two different verses from Luke and two different verses from John as well. The verses from Luke were different bits of the nativity story - chapter 2, verse 7, and chapter 2, verse 11. John doesn't have a nativity story. One of the verses  quoted was from the opening mystical 'prologue' about the Word of God becoming a human being - chapter 1, verse 9. The other was from later in the gospel, when Jesus says he is the light of the world in chapter 8, verse 12. 

When I did my previous analysis, Luke chapter 2, verse 11 was the most quoted Bible verse by a considerable margin, appearing on 4 cards. John chapter 1, verse 9 was also on a card in the previous analysis. The other Bible references are all new.

So the combined totals, based on when they appear in the Bible would be as follows:

Psalm 33.21 x 2

Psalm 46.10

Psalm 139.11-12

Isaiah 9.6

Matthew 2.11

Luke 2.4-5

Luke 2.7

Luke 2.11 x 5 (sometimes with a bit of Luke 2.10 attached)

John 1.9 x 2

John 8.12

1 John 1.5

With my old theology hat on, I find it interesting how disproportionately popular quotes from Luke's nativity story are compared to quotes from the gospel of Matthew. This is especially true when comparing card designs. I categorise 'nativity' cards as any cards that centre on Mary, Jesus and Joseph, regardless whether they also feature shepherds and kings (or magi, or wise men, or whatever term is vogue - you know who I mean). I only count the shepherds and kings in their own right if they feature on a card on their own. 

Overall, the kings are much more popular characters in terms of getting their own cards than the shepherds. But the kings feature in Matthew's stories and aren't in Luke's stories at all, while the shepherds are mentioned in Luke's stories - after they see the choirs of angels in the heavens while watching their flocks by night - but don't get mentioned in Matthew's accounts. 

So it feels like Matthew has the more interesting characters to depict on a Christmas card, but Luke has the quotable chunks to sum up the story.

And then we have John's gospel, that doesn't have any nativity stories at all, but is three times more popular in terms of quotes than Matthew's gospel, across this sample. There is very little comparison between John and the other gospels in terms of which one is the better gospel to read, but considering John has nothing of the Christmas story in it, this is weird. 

A conclusion might be that people prefer a good turn of phrase and don't really mind where it comes from. 

The Tenth Annual Christmas Card Audit

It's hard to believe I've done this for 10 Christmasses in a row, but here we are - the 10th ACCA. Links to all the previous audits are on this page where you can mourn for lost categories like "Dogs in Santa Hats", "Llamas", "Christmas Elves" and so on. There are some new categories this year. For the first time I have counted puns and also greetings in Welsh. There is a surprise return for the "Hares and Moon" combo and in the religious themed cards a continued absence for the Shepherds who visited the Holy Family on Christmas night.

I will be posting some cards of note in a future post. However, to liven up this post I am going to include cards illustrated by children. These are all schools fundraising cards, and I really like them. Hopefully the children will find it encouraging that their cards feature on my blog. (If their parents show them!)

By Alba

And so to the audit...

Total number of cards: 91 (an increase on last year!)

Hand-made / home-produced cards: 8

Cards designed by kids: 3

Cards with glitter: 12 (back up to a similar number to a couple of years ago. The 'glitter is evil' warnings seems to have worn off.)

Cards sold in aid of charity (or fundraising): 53

Total number of charities represented: 40 (lower than last year where one 32-charity card artificially inflated the number)

Most popular charity represented: Cancer Research Campaign with 7 cards. This ends the dominance of British Heart Foundation who were the most popular charity for 3 years in a row. BHF were joint second in the list with 5 cards, alongside MIND, the Marie Keating Foundation, and the Traidcraft/Christian Aid/CAFOD/SCIAF combination

Charity card cause breakdown (this is approximate because some cards covered more than one type of cause, and not every charity explains what it does)

Cards raising money for cancer charities: 24

Cards raising money for other health issues: 34

Animal charities: 0

Children's charities: 5

Overseas development charities: 11

By Nancy - I thought this looked very cool!

THEMES

Religious themes

Religious-themed cards: 19 - Despite the overall number of cards being up, this was a drop of one card from the 2020 ACCA. Again it meant less than a quarter of the cards we received had a religious design.

Cards featuring the Nativity: 12

Three kings: 2

The shepherds: 0 (for the second year running!)

Angels: 1 (after zero in 2020)

'Cartoony' religious: 3 (after zero in 2020)

Other themes

Santa: 6 (another strong showing for Mister Beardie)

Penguins: 4

Bears: 0 (this used to be a very popular category - completely disappeared this year!)

Reindeer: 6 (there was a big debate whether to include a moose called Chris in this category, but categories are specific for a reason and moose are not reindeer!)

Christmas trees: 6

Christmas food: 3

Christmas decorations: 4

Robins: 3

Sheep: 2 (both of which had puns on the front. Good showing for the sheep!)

Dogs with or without Santa hats: 0 (this fluctuates year on year and this year was a nil year)

Other animals with or without Santa hats: 6 (A range of animals were represented including a dinosaur. Do dinosaurs count? Are they animals? Yes, they count!)

Winter scene/scenery: 8

Snow & snowflakes: 4

Snowpeople: 8 (a massive jump in this category this year)

Licensed characters: 6 (4 featuring Snoopy and Peanuts characters, and another 2 featuring the Snowman by Raymond Briggs - which also got counted in the Snowpeople category. Here's a note on inconsistencies though. I didn't count the Snoopy cards in the dogs category, which I've only just realised while writing this up...)

Hares & Moons: 1 (returning category!)

Holly and wreaths: 1 (a large drop on 2020)

There were no cards referencing the pandemic this year. Everyone is heartily fed up with it.

By Robyn - neseg ar gymraeg!

CARD FRONT MESSAGES

Word 'Christmas' on the front: 25 (of which only 2 were religious)

"Seasons Greetings": 4

Mentions "Jesus": 0 (sad for Baby Jee!)

"Peace": 0 (sad for everybody!)

Bible verse: 1

Lines or titles of Christmas carols: 4 (big drop on 2020)

Lines or titles of Christmas songs: 3

Message in Welsh: 2

Puns: 8 (Cathy suggested we count these this year!)

In conclusion

There are perennial themes, and there are some that wax and wane considerably year on year. It feels like the number of religious themed cards are slowly declining. They tend to the more serious-looking cards that we receive and maybe people want to send a bit of fun in the post at Christmastime. 

I was really surprised to get no cards featuring bears this year. In the first audit almost ten per cent of the cards featured bears, and although in subsequent years, there have only been a handful, there has always been at least one. Until this year. It would appear the seasonal ursine population has gone extinct. 

Now that I have ten years worth of data I am wondering about producing a meta-analysis, but that will probably require me creating a spreadsheet, so I will have to see if I have time to do that.

Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards this year and who have helped keep this audit going!

The Big Annual Christmas Card Audit 2020

I've been running this audit since 2012 and it is easily the most popular feature on this blog. Which is a bit weird, but, hey, I'm all for giving people what they want.

I'm going to proffer my thanks to Cathy for her assistance in the audit this year before we get into the audit proper, rather than tacking it on like an afterthought. Thanks Cathy!

Here's a picture of our Christmas cards in the "Audit Basket" before the audit began. 

And so on to the audit! As ever new categories are marked with an asterisk. There are also some returning categories including the much-missed Dogs in Santa Hats! I've marked returning categories as RC.

Total number of cards: 81 (down from 84 in 2019)

Hand-made / home-produced cards: 7

Cards designed by kids: 6

Cards with glitter: 8 (a reduction from 13 in 2019 - perhaps reflecting new 'glitter is evil' messaging)

RC ~ M&S Cards: 4

Cards sold in aid of charity (or fundraising): 48

Total number of charities represented: a massive 60, but this was boosted by one card that was raising funds that would be split between 32 charities

Most popular charity represented: British Heart Foundation with 11 cards, making it 3 years in a row for BHF

Charity card cause breakdown (this is approximate because some cards covered more than one type of cause)

Cards raising money for cancer charities: 19

Cards raising money for other health issues: 37

Animal charities: 2

Children's charities: 15

Overseas development charities: 12

THEMES

Religious-themed cards: 20 - this was down from 24 in 2019 and means that less than a quarter of the cards we received had a religious design

Cards featuring the Nativity: 15

Three kings: 2

The shepherds: 0 (I think this is the first time we have recorded zero)

These themes all recorded zero entries as well: The star of Bethlehem. Angels. Choirboys, 'Cartoony' religious

Other themes

Santa: 8 (big increase, up from just 3 in 2019)

Penguins: 4.5 (one card was a penguin and a snowman in equal prominence)

Bears: 2

Deer/reindeer: 6

Christmas trees: 8

Christmas food: 2

Robins: 2

Sheep: 2

RC ~ Dogs: 3 (of which 2 had Santa hats!)

Other animals with or without Santa hats: 1

Winter scene/scenery: 5

Snowpeople: 0.5 (see the penguin category for explanation)

Licensed characters: 2 (although I suspect 1 was used without a license)

Holly and wreaths: 7 (up from zero in 2019, so a big trend change there)

*Sport: 1

*Christmas present(s):1

*Cars laden for Christmas: 2

*Reference to the Pandemic: 1

Themes that didn't register any cards this year: Christmas Elf, Christmas decorations, Donkeys, Snow / snowflakes, Llamas, Hares and Moons, Mistletoe, Owls

Messages on front of card 

Cards that mention 'Christmas' on the front: 32 (of which only 2 were religious)

"Seasons Greetings": 1

Mentions "Jesus": 1

RC ~ "Peace": 2

Bible verse: 1

Lines or titles of Christmas carols: 10

Lines or titles of Christmas songs: 3

So what conclusions am I drawing from this year? Santa was more popular than he's been for a while. In terms of the Christmas story people chose to send us Kings rather than Shepherds. There's always been a disparity in favour of the Kings but it was a real surprise to get no Shepherds at all. It would appear the 'Hares looking at the full moon' theme is over. But in it's place we got two very similar designs that will get their own blog post soon. Yet again, I'm surprised how few animal charities are represented among the fundraising cards, but it feels like the percentage of cards that are fundraising cards is going up - it was over half the cards this year.

I will be posting some of our favourite cards over the next few days. Thank you everyone who sent us one.

The long list of previous audits

2012
2013
2014
2015 plus 10 favourite cards, senders analysis and Bible verse breakdown
2016 plus favourite cards
2017 plus a dozen favourites and Christmas carol audit
2018 plus 15 favourites

2019 (original version) (updated version) and 12 favourites

Christmas carols audit 2019

I did this a couple of years ago for the 2017 Christmas season, analysing the choice of songs in 6 Christmas services. Because Cathy was recuperating from serious surgery in December 2018 we didn't actually make it to any carol services at all. But in 2019 I made it to three services, a Methodist evening carol service, an Anglican midnight communion service on Christmas Eve, and the Christmas day service at a non-denominational charismatic church.

The longest set-list was at the Methodist carol service, although they had fewer pieces by the choir this year. The songs featured were:
Once in Royal David's City (solo / congregation)
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Cradled in a Manger, Meanly
Away in a Manger
Born a Stranger (choir)
Come and Join the Celebration
In the Bleak Midwinter (choir)
Jesus is the Heart of Christmas
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
O Come All Ye Faithful (all 5 verses!)

I quite enjoyed this service because it had a few unusual songs and also we were spared from singing the glurge-dirge that is In the Bleak Midwinter. Born a Stranger was a lovely song while Jesus is the Heart of Christmas encouraged us all to think about Jesus while decorating the house and mentioned tinsel and stockings and stuff.

The sermonette also referenced the Protoevangelium of James. a second century apocryphal book that included a story about Joseph's reaction when he found out Mary was pregnant. As a church history buff with an interest in alternative early Christian writings, I found that quite interesting.

There were four carols in the Church of England midnight communion service:
Once in Royal David's City
Good Christians All, Rejoice (this has been updated from Good Christian Men, Rejoice to be a bit more gender inclusive)
O Little Town of Bethlehem
O Come All Ye Faithful

Looking back to two years ago, this is the exact same setlist as the midnight communion I went to in 2017 in the same church, so it seems they have found a selection they like and are sticking with it. I'm not complaining, these are all great carols.

There were only two "carols" in the Christmas Day service, along with two other songs, which I've bracketed. The songlist was:
The First Noel
(Praise the Father)
(O Come Let Us Adore Him - which is the chorus of O Come All Ye Faithful, but with additional lyrics set to the tune of the chorus)
Joy to the World (with updated, unnecessary lyrics)

The data-set now includes 9 services, and the most popular carol is still O Come All Ye Faithful.

In order, the most popular carols are:
1) O Come All Ye Faithful (8)
=2) Once in Royal David's City (5)
=2) Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (5)
4) O Little Town of Bethlehem (4)
=5) Silent Night (3)
=5) Away in a Manger(3)

I hope to continue this in future years, but I think I will have to try and attend a few different services in some other churches to get a more representative sample.

The Big Annual Christmas Card Audit 2019

Well, here it is. I've been teasing the ACCA on Twitter and Facebook, and judging by the comments I get from people on social media, in person, and in some of the Christmas cards that you send, this is the only thing on my blog that you lot are interested in.

The auditing process...

After several years of declining numbers our number of Christmas cards received stabilised this year, which was pleasing. The trends were interesting again this year. Still, no dogs in Santa hats, although there were a couple of other behatted animals, and a dog with a stocking. Christmas trees were very popular this year, as were cards featuring 'wintery scenes', possibly because we don't get snow any more in our warming world.

A word about the audit process, because I know some audit nerds read this every year. I tend to count cards by the most prominent 'theme' or most important aspect of the card. So, for example, Santa in his sleigh being pulled by reindeer would count as a 'Santa' card . If it was just the reindeer with the sleigh waiting patiently on a rooftop next to a chimney, it would be counted as a reindeer card. Some cards are unclassifiable, even with all the new niche categories I keep adding.

In the religious category, it works like this: if the card features Mary, Joseph and Jesus it counts as a 'Nativity' card, even if the wise men and shepherds are also depicted. If it's just baby Jesus, then it's also a Nativity card. So the Wise Men category is just the wise men; the shepherds the same. Angels appearing to shepherds would be a shepherds card. Angels on their own would be in the angels category. It's arbitrary, but at least I've been consistently arbitrary since I started.

On a final note, a few people have started picking cards that they think will break my categorisation. No one has succeeded in doing that yet. It does amuse me that people try.

Anyway, on to the audit. New categories are asterisked. (I probably should stop adding new categories.)

Total number of cards: 83 (last year: 82)

Hand-made / home-produced cards: 5 (down from 7)
Cards designed by kids: 4
Cards with glitter: 13 (down from 17)

Charity cards
Cards sold in aid of charity (or fundraising):51
Total number of charities represented: 42 (up from 36)
Most popular charity represented: British Heart Foundation were the winners again this year, with 11.

New for 2019: charity card cause breakdown
Cards raising money for cancer charities: 26
Cards raising money for other health issues: 31
Animal charities: 2
Children's charities: 13
Overseas development charities: 11
[Cathy noticed that, possibly for the first time ever, we received zero Oxfam cards]


Religious themes
Religious-themed cards: 24 (down from 30)
Cards featuring the Nativity: 14 (down 1 from 2018)
Christmas story 'characters':
Three kings: 6 (same for the third year running)
The shepherds: 2 (up 1)
The star of Bethlehem: 0
Angels: 2
Choirboys: 0
'Cartoony' religious: 1

Other themes
Santa: 3 (half as many as 2018)
*Christmas Elf: 1 (nice that the workers who keep the whole shebang running get a look in)
Penguins: 2
Bears: 1 (can you believe that one year we had 12 cards featuring bears; that's a trend that has receded as fast as the polar ice shelf where they all live)
Deer/reindeer: 3
Christmas decorations: 5 (up from 2)
Christmas trees: 12 (double the number from 2017)
Christmas food: 2 (both sprouts!)
Robins: 0
Donkeys: 0
Sheep: 0
Other animals with or without Santa hats: 6
Winter scene/scenery: 12 (up from 3 in 2018!)
Snowmen: 6
*Snow / snowflakes: 2 (I can't really believe this has never been a theme before)
Licensed characters: 1 (The Snowman of Walking in the Air fame)
Llamas: 0 (This was a new category last year, but maybe the llama fad is over)
Hares and Moons: 1 (Another new category last year, and presumably not over)
Holly and wreaths: 0

Messages on the front of the card 
Cards that mention 'Christmas' on the front: 26. Just 1 of them was religious themed. This just confirms my repeated observation that religious themed cards don't use the word Christmas. Also, again we just had the 1 card saying "Nadolig Llawen".
"Seasons Greetings": 3
Mentions "Jesus": 0 (again)
Bible verse: 2 (same as in 2018)
*Lines or titles of Christmas carols: 7 (same as 2018)
*Lines or titles of Christmas songs: 1 (and that's pushing it because the words were "Fa la la la la")

Catch up on previous years
2012
2013
2014
2015 plus 10 favourite cards, senders analysis and Bible verse breakdown
2016 plus favourite cards
2017 plus a dozen favourites and Christmas carol audit
2018 plus 15 favourites

Bye bye Christmas for another year

All the decorations (which in our house means a lot of toys) are back in the loft now. But here's something a lot of people don't know about the traditional Christmas story. There was a fourth wise man and he brought the baby Jesus the gift of style and a love of capes...

Of course, after Christmas comes the Annual Christmas Card Audit! It's on its way.

The big Annual Christmas Card Audit 2018 (ACCA18)

I get a lot of questions about this audit, mainly along the lines of 'Are you going to do your audit again this year?' It seems to be the most interesting thing I do, which, now that I think about it, doesn't make me sound like the most thrilling person on the planet. (And quite a few people are deliberately sending me cards trying to bugger up my categories. I know who you are.)

But I do find this sort of thing interesting. The trends. Why are the rich, well-dressed three kings of the Orient so much more popular than the smelly shepherds? Why do religious Christmas cards almost never mention Christmas? Why are penguins perennial paradigms of Christmasness? What happened to all the dogs in Santa hats (none again this year!) The numbers. The charitable causes. The glitter.

Ah, the glitter.

Can I have a word about the glitter? It's incredibly bad for the planet. But never mind that, just when I've finally managed to hoover every stray bit of tinsel and fake green bits off the tree (why do plastic trees shed?), I then have to take down the Christmas cards. Glitter doesn't stay stuck. It's one of the laws of physics, I think. (Maybe I should have paid more attention in science class. If it's not a law, it should be.) Or rather, it doesn't stay stuck where it should, so I now have a glittery carpet, glittery socks, glittery thumbs and by the end of this, a glittery keyboard too, no doubt.

I'll get to the stats in a minute, but first something we've never received before - a very early Christmas card that doubled up as an advent calendar.

And so, on we go. New categories are asterisked.

Total number of cards: 82 - a year-on-year decline of 8 

Hand-made / home-produced cards: 7 (same number for the fifth year in a row)
Cards designed by kids: 5
Cards with glitter: 17 (exactly the same as last year)

Cards sold in aid of charity (or fundraising):50
Total number of charities represented: 36
Most popular charity represented: British Heart Foundation were the winners this year with 6. Cancer Research UK and the Traidcraft / SCIAF / CAFOD / Christian Aid combination were joint second with 5.

Religious themes
Religious-themed cards: 30 (down 1 from 2017)
Cards featuring the Nativity: 15 (down 1 from 2017)
Christmas story 'characters':
Three kings: 6 (same as last year)
The shepherds: 1
The star of Bethlehem: 1
Angels: 1
*Choirboys: 3 (All three looked very much alike - groups of choirboys in red and white robes standing outside a village church in the falling snow.)
'Cartoony' religious: 1

Other themes
Santa: 6
Penguins: 3
Bears: 1 
Deer/reindeer: 1
Christmas decorations: 2
Christmas trees: 6
Christmas food: 4 (mainly Christmas puddings)
Robins: 2
Donkeys: 1 
Sheep: 3
Winter scene/scenery: 3
Snowmen: 5
Licensed characters: 0 (no Star Wars cards this year)
*Llamas: 1 (Cathy wanted this as it's own category, even though it's really just a Peruvian deer)
*Hares and Moons: 2 (This year's 'dogs with Santa hats' type of trend, maybe? But less joyful. Because a dog in a Santa hat is always fun, even if it's a grumpy pug. but hares by moonlight look a bit mournful.)
*Holly and wreaths: 3

Messages (front of card only)
Cards that mention 'Christmas' on the front: 30. Only 6 of them were religious themed. This just confirms my annual observation that religious themed cards don't use the word Christmas. Also 1 card saying Nadolig Llawen. 
"Seasons Greetings": 1
Mentions "Jesus": 0 but 1 card did have "Emmanuel" on it
Bible verse: 2 (Well, kind of. They both said "unto us a child is born" which is a Bible verse, but neither had a Bible reference saying where it was from. But I'm going to count them because otherwise there would be zero.)
*Lines or titles of Christmas carols (including) "Joy to the World": 7
*Lines or titles of Christmas songs: 3

Previous years:
2012
2013
2014
2015 plus 10 favourite cards, senders analysis and Bible verse breakdown
2016 plus favourite cards
2017 plus a dozen favourites and Christmas carol audit

A dozen Christmas Cards from the ACCA '17

There seems to be some competition among people who send us Christmas cards as to who gets their card featured on the blog. One or two people have asked me about it. So, in the spirit of competition, I've picked 12 out of the 90 we received to showcase in this year's ACCA supplementary post.

First up, as regular ACCA readers will know, I audit the number of religious and secular themed cards that we get. Most of the religious ones this year were a bit dull, but I really liked this one produced by Oxfam. I'm a little concerned about the blonde Aryan baby Jesus, but overall it's a really nice card.

I like robins in real life and as a Christmas card theme. This card also had glitter, which is a card feature I started counting this year for the first time.

It's not quite a robin, but I thought this was a charming Christmas cockatoo, on the card from my Australian cousin, Trefor.

The other birds to feature heavily on Christmas cards are, of course, penguins. We have had a lot of penguin cards over the years and they did well as a theme this year. Cathy really liked the funky penguins on this card, and I have to agree with her.

But how about penguins commandeering a bus to go Christmas shopping? Sounds like an awesome concept, doesn't it? I really liked it.

Several schools produce Christmas cards as a fundraising scheme, featuring artwork from kids. My friend Sarah's daughter drew this tree, which was also the only card to wish us Happy Christmas in Welsh. Christmas trees were one of the most popular themes.

Snowmen are also a well-performing theme, as you would perhaps expect. I liked this card from my sort-of-cousin, Sue, as she keeps chickens and so the card was very apt.

One of the themes that again was sadly lacking was 'dogs in Santa hats'. However, like last year, we had a card with behatted sheep to make up for it. Also featuring a pun!

'Christmas food' is an odd category and I've thought about dropping it. However, last year we had the really great puddings card and this year a cheery, cheeky walnut.

Keeping on the theme of nuts, Cathy gave me a card covered in squirrels and with a pun(!) on it. I love puns.

These days, it's not the festive season without the release of a Star Wars film. I liked this Star Wars theme Christmas jumper mash up card.

But I have saved the best until last. The moment I opened this card, I knew it was going to be my favourite card of the year. Surprisingly, it also got counted in the religious side of the audit. It's one of the very few cards to actually mention Jesus, and it was sent to us by Cathy's cousin Adam and his wife, Bonny. (I'm not sure if naming them is giving credit or blame, to be honest.)

So, here you go... click on it to see it in all it's glory.

The big Annual Christmas Card Audit 2017

Welcome to the ACCA for 2017! (I've started calling it the ACCA. I've done this for 6 years now so it feels fairly safe to say it's annual.)

I like the sentiment

I'm just going to crack on with the figures and make comments as I go along. Links to previous years are at the end of the post. New or altered categories are asterisked.

Total number of cards: 90 (a new record low, although we only had 91 in 2016)

Hand-made / home-produced cards: 7 (same number for the fourth year in a row)
Cards with embellishments (bits stuck on): 3
Unusually shaped cards: 3
*Cards with glitter: 17

Cards sold in aid of charity (or fundraising): 57 (2 up from 2016)
Total number of charities represented: 41 (down from 48 in 2016)
Most popular charity represented: Macmillan had 6, as did the Traidcraft / SCIAF / CAFOD / Christian Aid combination. British Heart Foundation had 5. Children in Need and the Phoenix International Charity both had 4.

Religious themes
Religious-themed cards: 31 (3 down from 2016)
Cards featuring the Nativity: 16
Christmas story 'characters':
Three kings: 6 (still much more popular than the shepherds)
The shepherds: 3 (staging a bit of a comeback after 1 card in 2016 and 0 in 2015)
The star of Bethlehem: 2
Angels: 0
"Joy to the World": 0
'Cartoony' religious (various themes): 0 - clearly 2017 was a much more serious religious year than 2016.

Other themes
Santa: 5 (still a long way down from 14 in 2015)
Penguins: 3 (drop from 5 in 2016)
Various cartoon bears: 1 (this seems to be seriously decreasing after the all time high of 12 in the first ACCA in 2012)
Deer/reindeer: 5 (increase)
Christmas decorations: 5 (the same)
Christmas trees: 10 (increase)
Christmas food: 1 (the same)
Robins: 3 (increase)
Donkeys: 1 (decrease)
Sheep: 1 (the same)
Winter scene/scenery: 2 (a big drop from 8 in 2016)
Snowmen: 6 (decrease)
Licensed characters: 3 (stayed the same)

Messages (front of card only)
Cards that mention 'Christmas' on the front: 37. Only 5 of them were religious themed. I've mentioned before how religious cards don't really use the word Christmas. It's quite odd.
"Seasons Greetings": 1
"Winter Wishes": 1
"Let it Snow": 0
"Ho Ho Ho": 0
Mentions "Jesus": 3
*Bible verse: 3 (only counting them if the verse is on the front of the card)

Non-scoring themes (from previous audits): 'Political' fund-raising cards; Dogs in Santa Hats; Mistletoe; Owls; Peace

Previous years:
2012
2013
2014
2015 plus senders analysis and Bible verse breakdown
2016 plus favourite cards
New for 2017: Christmas carol audit

A dozen Christmas cards that featured in the 2016 Christmas card audit

We got 90 cards for Christmas 2016, which was a bit of a drop on the previous year. I've picked out 12 that I liked or that illustrate some of the new categories added to the audit.

Firstly, I separate out the religious and non-religious Christmas themes. To illustrate what counts as 'religious' here are three designs that all appealed to me.

Despite there being a large proportion of religious cards, very few cards mentioned Jesus by name. This one was one of only 3.

Technically that card should be classed as an Epiphany card rather than a Nativity card, as it features the Kings not the Shepherds. The Nativity comes in all shapes and sizes, but is best when small children play dress up.

There are, however a plethora of other themes that 'look' Christmassy enough to go on a Christmas card. Penguins are often popular. This year, though, the sub-theme for penguins was 'penguin couples cards', like this one:

Charity cards are another aspect of the audit and we always have a high percentage of cards sold in aid of good causes. This year one of my favourite cards was raising funds for Ty Hafan. In terms of a design theme, this comes under 'Christmas food'. It particularly like that it is bespoke and has their logo on the design because a lot of charity cards are very generic.

Every year we find new charities in the list. I think this year was the first year we had a card raising funds for The Donkey Sanctuary. It pleased me that it featured donkeys.

Other animals got a look in too. We didn't have any dogs in Santa hats this year, more's the pity. However we did have sheep in woolly hats instead.

Bears are also always popular. They don't have to be polar bears, although I just couldn't resist this chappie in his Christmas jumper.

I mentioned in my post about the audit that one friend tried to find an unclassifiable card and failed. Special mention for him though, his name's Chris and the card he sent had a pun on it about a moose named Chris. Which I think could be a contender for most obscure category - puns involving the card sender's name. This got put into the deer / reindeer theme, which covers all antlered animals.

A new category this year was unusually shaped cards. The scan cut off the bottom of this mug of hot chocolate, but I liked it for the handle you could hold to make it look like you were holding a mug.

And finally, we had a new category this year of licensed characters on cards. First up we have Snoopy, playing the part of Santa with Woodstock getting in his way as he goes about his stocking-filler duties.

And, then there's this. I have no idea where my wife got it from but it's the best 'Husband' Christmas card ever.