It’s Christmas and the bay window is covered in cards, which is nice. But while we did receive a particularly nice hand-made eCard from an artist friend of ours, I’m pleased to say that, in general, eCards have been thin on the ground and have been fairly corporate in nature. And now I see Royal Mail’s delivered 100 million more items than expected, so it looks like the whole eCard thing is a novelty that’s had its day.

But if eCards do have an advantage, it’s that there are times when you realise you’ve forgotten someone and/or they live abroad. Even here I feel a bit cheap. So I’m pleased to discover that Telegrams are alive and looking wonderfully old fashioned. That’s right. Telegrams are not just something the queen sends out on a hundredth birthdays (although they have been updated with flower, chocolate and fruit basket options). And they can go almost anywhere in the world, reaching the recipient by courier. Which I think is rather cool and far more exciting than yet another e-mail. They add a kind of drama to receiving a message that hypes up its importance. Good for announcements like weddings (better; elopements), births and, I guess, deaths (better; declarations of love, so think Valentines day).

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