Why Do We Send Photos of Our Kids as Holiday Cards?
Across the country, it's holiday card time. These cards often highlight family and particularly children. Usually the card itself is a family portrait, or a portrait of the kids. Often there are numerous photos of the kids on a single card.
This practice is so consistent and defining for the tribe of parents I study in New York City that one year, when my husband and I sent out a "mere" card, several people told us, by email and in conversation, "You forgot the photo of the kids!" For many members of the Manhattan parent tribe, the kids are the whole point of the holiday card, and a holiday card without kids is no card at all.