Andy Rooney may have been a curmudgeon, but when it came to Christmas cards, he was no Scrooge. Rooney devoted one of his first commentaries to holiday mail, laying out different cards and pointing out his favorites.
There are the Santa cards and the simple cards — those that just say “Joy” or “Peace on Earth.” Simple cards were among Rooney’s favorites because they are, as he was, direct.
Religious cards, Rooney said, were usually early arrivers to his mailbox, while cards with photos caused him a conundrum. “A lot of people send out cards with their picture on them or pictures of their family,” Rooney explained. “One of the problems with these is, of course, you feel terrible throwing them out, but you don’t really want to keep them.”
Some of Rooney’s favorite holiday cards were those with images of snow and sleighs, church steeples and old-fashioned scenes. He called them the “over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go” cards.
But Rooney didn’t love all Christmas cards. “Christmas colors are red, green, and snow white,” he said. “I don’t want a brown Christmas card.”
That excludes most cards with birds and many cards from a particular Southern state.
“I think most of them come from Florida, some place they don’t have snow or reindeer,” he said. “Let’s face it, Florida. You’re a nice state, but when it comes to Christmas cards, you’re really out of it.”
