My husband and I moved away from our hometown when my son was just under a year old. We were far from friends and family for the first time so when Christmas rolled around we started a new tradition for our new family: the photo holiday card.

Because Christmas card exchanges seem to be a dying art, this 21 year old tradition may be coming to an end. The amount of cards we received peaked around 1998 and has steadily decreased every year since.

I keep track of my holiday cards old school. Address books used to come with pages that had columns to mark “S” (sent) or “R” (received). Those pages used to fascinate me because they appealed to the organizer in me. They wasted about 4 pages at the back of the book and soon they weren’t included anymore because no one used them. I do. Yup, I have a list. I keep very careful track of my cards sent and cards received and I add and subtract from the list every year. With only a few exceptions, if someone doesn’t reciprocate with a card for a couple of years, they are off the list!

I love getting cards! If they come with pictures — BONUS! The pictures are my favorite part. I have never thrown away a picture that family or friends include with their card. Every single picture is put into a photo album (now 3) that grows with each year. Every year, we lug them out of storage (along with the damn tree) and flip through decades of memories. It’s amazing to actually see faces change and their children grow along with our own.

As our kids grew, it got harder to corral them into a family picture. Honestly, I tired of the fights and threats it took to get that one smiling picture out of 50 snarling, blinking, blurry ones. I gave up 8 years ago and we went to the beach and I just snapped pictures unbeknownst to them and put several into a card. The next year, I didn’t even plan an outing. Instead, and since then, I’ve just plucked pictures from throughout the year and tried my best to showcase any trips, hobbies, or life milestones.

Last year we received around 20 cards and I suspect there’ll even less this year. Maybe that’s just what happens when the kids get old enough to start their own lives. I don’t imagine that I’ll be sending a Christmas card in another year or two because who is going to want a picture of just me and my spouse? … exactly!

In this day and age of electronic communications and easy holiday greetings at the push of a button, I don’t expect to receive too many more years of traditional greeting cards. I am sad to watch the tradition die. Our generation may be the last of the old guard who will even remember that it ever existed in the first place.