If there is anything about holidays I really like, it is holiday cards. With most people, holiday cards are a means of getting their loved ones back home share in the memory and experience of their holidays. But with me, holiday cards are an unnatural obsession. I find myself uncontrollable in the face of holiday cards. Not only do I buy enough to send to family, friends and even mere acquaintances back home, I also collect entire sets of holiday cards to carry back as memorabilia associated with my brief respite.

I don’t exactly remember how and why I got into this obsession. Maybe it all started with a holiday card from Hawaii that my family received from a distant cousin. The feeling I got then was so powerful, I can still recall it with a good degree of passion. I felt so good to hold that holiday card in my hand, it almost felt like I was in Hawaii having a great time with a faceless cousin. I guess that is when I realized that if holiday cards could produce such an effect on me, they would surely have a similar effect on others.

When I had grown up, got a job and began to make a little money, I started to go on holidays on my own. And each place I went to, I would make it a point to stop by at the nearest tourist center to send a set of holiday cards home. More often than not, my family and friends learnt to keep track of my busy schedule through the number of holiday cards they received from me on a yearly basis. It is rather strange when I admit it even to myself, but there are a few people I know that I only communicate with through holiday cards! There is barely time for me to even remember their names on regular communication times, but when it comes to holidays, I never fail to send them all holiday cards.

So much so that my holiday cards obsession has overtaken even the obsessive way in which some people sit down to send out cards for festive occasions. My mother makes it a point to ensure that Christmas season is a card sending event. But even her admittedly mammoth efforts pale in significance when compared to my rather frequent and always exotic vacations abroad. So the next time you get a holiday card from me, know that I remember you even when I was away having a good time. And yes. I wished you were there with me.