Tis The Season For Decisions

How do you decide when to discontinue sending a Holiday card to someone?

As the person in my family responsible for cards, this has been left up to me. But each year as I pull out our low tech address book and stamps, I'm faced with numerous choices. To cite just one example, our current home is the third my wife and I have owned. In each of our two previous neighborhoods, we were friendly enough with several of our neighbors that we had dinner at some of their homes, they came to parties we hosted, our children played together. So when do I stop sending a holiday card to neighbors from our first home that we left in 1999? Is there a statute of limitations? It costs so little and it's a nice gesture, I know. And sending cards to only those who send to us is way too Scrooge-like. But at this point I'm not sure why I'm doing this with ex-neighbors (and many others) aside from habit.

I recall my Mother being very proud of how many Holiday cards she sent and received. She would tape them all around the door frames in our home. I also remember being impressed how many there were. Am I perhaps channeling my Mother's generous spirit? Or... her need for approval? Over the years, I've tried to invent logical systems for deciding who to send to. This year I began by thinking I'd send cards to people either my wife or I had seen over the previous year. I got as far as the "B's" in our address book before abandoning that system. So, any ideas for next year will be appreciated.