The First Christmas Card

The First Christmas Card ©

By Michael Casey

I was having a pain few days so when I got my first Christmas card of the Season it cheered me. It was from Martina my cousin’s wife in County Kerry, the memories flooded back as I opened the card. I’d spent 3 Christmases in Kerry in the 1970s, it was so much fun and plenty of feasting, I remember putting on a stone, 14 pounds as the Americans call it, or 6+ kilos if you are metric, in just 2 weeks. I was a teenager then, and not a single white hair on my head.

The Christmas card evoked memories of times past, of doing The Dying Fly Dance on the floor of a cousin’s house, it was a big thing from Tiswas, my big hearted Auntie Delia jumped down on the floor to accompany me, Delia was 17.5 stones and only 5feet something tall. She was and is the best Auntie ever, 30 years on she is still remembered with love and laughter by all of us.

She once even prevented a jail break from Killarney Police station.She had a cleaning job there and one of the tourists who was backpacking decided to make a break for it in the morning after been arrested for having drugs. There was only one Policeman on the very early turn, so the backpacker made a break for it. So Aunty Delia helped the Police by rabbit punching the backpacker, 17.5 stones of punch, so saving the day.

Christmas cards from Kerry have very pretty stamps on, religious ones, angels and so forth, you can feel Xmas when you see the cards sticking out your letter box. They have a tradition of leaving a lighted candle in the window too, so as you drive in the dark all over the Dingle Peninsula you can look over the bay and see all the candles in the window, guiding you with Hope and Love.

Some say Christmas cards are a waste of time, a waste of paper. We used to have washing lines full of Xmas cards hanging in the living room, plus every shelf had cards on top of them. The card total would reach 150 to 200 cards when both my sisters still lived at home. All manner of cards and all manner of designs. The Holy ones came from Ireland and Irish relatives in USA, while the modern silly ones came from England and younger friends. I’m sure you can judge a person’s character by the design of the card they send. All are welcome.

You can send free ecards nowadays, which can have dancing elves where you put your own face on the elf. See how technology has changed the face of Christmas. Whatever kind of card you send, just send them with love and a few lines of news for your relatives, for a card is all about love, and love is what we all need in today’s bad world.

this is where my mum was born and lived with 8 siblings till she was 12, County Kerry Ireland