Partner among many whose bad taste permeats holidays

DEAR MISS MANNERS: My partner and I are having a disagreement over the proper etiquette concerning holiday cards. I have always included a very short, handwritten note in each holiday card, including the recipient’s name and that of their family members, as an addition to the greeting printed on the inside of each card.

My partner complains that this is a colossal waste of time, and implores me not only to abstain from writing a greeting, but also to purchase a stamp of our combined signatures that we can then imprint on every card. Short of this, he says we could create a “form greeting” on the computer and run each card through the printer, which would automatically fill in the recipient’s name and family information.

I think that such an impersonal greeting would be rude. Perhaps the card envelope may have a printed address but surely a handwritten note inside is the most appropriate.

My partner insists that since most of these greetings I write are very similar in wording, the recipients would know that I spent little time on their particular card, and would not be offended by a typed message instead.

However, this sounds very rude to me, and suspiciously like the form “holiday newsletter” which I deplore. Your thoughts?

GENTLE READER: Who are you, Tiny Tim, that you think personal sentiment should be part of the holiday?

And if the gentleman thinks your own handwritten sentiments will be scorned, what does he believe you would accomplish with a preprinted formula?

Miss Manners would be wary of such a one, in regard to life, as well as to correspondence. But perhaps his attitude would be welcome to those who feel that the holidays have not become sufficiently rote and commercial.