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The U2 Fan Christmas Card Exchange owes its existence to Mike Mills of REM.

Back in '94 or so, before I discovered Wire, my first encounter with Internet fandom was OICM3H -- the Organization Intended to Catapult Mike Mills into Musical History. There was no general R.E.M. mailing list at the time, and I've always been about giving props to underappreciated bass players, so I signed up. Just about everyone was a newbie to this email stuff way back then; it seemed everyone was thinking, "Gee, this is pretty cool, talking to people all over, sending messages without stamps or delivery delays or long distance bills -- but it all feels kinda flat too. Like, wouldn't it be nice to actually get to tear open an envelope every once in a while, instead of just staring at a computer monitor?"

So a bunch of us signed up when someone suggested we all send each other Christmas cards. There were a lot of us -- not 5,000 people, mind you, but a sizable number which I've completely forgotten -- so the list got broken down. Everyone sent and received 10 cards.

It was great. I loved getting all that real mail from around the country and from other countries too. After I discovered Wire, I waited to see if anyone there would suggest a card exchange for U2 fans. When no one else did, I put my hand up.

The Wire/U2 Fan Christmas/Holiday Card Exchange (it's gone by a few names) is now seven years old. Last year was the first in which I wasn't the coordinator; my day job had me sending out Christmas cards by the hundreds, so my enthusiasm for such activity in leisure time wasn't so high. Arienh, a fellow @U2 staffer, graciously took over in 2004 and is just as graciously letting me helm the ship this year.

If you've never done the Card Exchange before, let me tell you a bit about how it works:

• First, sometime before December 1st, you send your name and snail mail address to u2christmas@gmail.com. (I have to stress this is snail mail, regular mail, sent-through-the-postal-service mail-some folks have thought we're just sending e-cards here. We're not. We want to tear envelopes open and look at the cool stamps and handle cards that have traveled some distance to get to us.)
• After the December 1st deadline, I'll send everyone out a list of names and addresses. I usually send you 20 addresses and ask you to send at least 10 cards. That way, you don't have to spend your whole holiday budget on stamps, but you have extra addresses in case the spirit moves you to send a few more than the minimum. (If you plan to send more than 10, say so. I try to put all the people who want to send more cards on the same list -- that way the people who send more cards receive more, too.)

And that's it, really. The great thing is that people have run with the idea. We usually get 200 or so people participating from more than 20 countries.

Yesterday morning I spent a few happy hours going through my collection of old cards. Check out the variety of U2-ey signoffs people have used: "Pop peace to all," "dream out loud," "U2 forever," "In the name of love," "Always." Here are some of the salutations: "Radostne Vanoce a stastny novy rok," "Craciun fericit," "Beatha agus slainte," "God Jul och Gott Nytt Ar," "Prettig Kerstfeest, Gelukkig Nieuwjaar." One card described Trinidad's Carnival season in great detail; another showed a golden retriever in a Santa hat with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. I've gotten a postcard of Northumberland and a panoramic photo of Jerusalem's old city wall at night. A girl in Australia explained how her family ditched the traditional English Christmas feast for something more suited to the climate: "seafood, seafood, seafood and more seafood...and my favorite: plum pudding ice cream!"

A few fans have designed their own cards. "Eggnog, cookies, candy canes, love," says the outside of one. On the inside: "...and U2!" One card looks like a wrapped present on the outside, while on the inside a pop-up winged heart flies in partly cloudy skies over the words "Let love light up your Christmas tree." One fan wished everyone a "BeaU2iful Christmas and a Bono New Year!" while another said, "May the spirit of U2 fill your home this Christmas...long after you have purchased your HTDAAB Collector's Edition." Some folks used those cards with the photo sleeve on the front and stuck concert snaps in 'em, so, for instance, a border of bounding reindeer would surround a shot of Bono and Edge mid-bullfight. But my personal favorite will probably always be the picture of Bono and Edge after U2 got the Freedom of the City of Dublin, when they took lambs into St. Stephen's Green to exercise their newly-acquired pasturing privileges, which was captioned "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night..."

 

© @U2/Pancella, 2005.

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@U2 Calendar

3/22 - 5/10/2010 8th Annual "Build a Well for Bono's Birthday" Drive Begins The goal is $50,000. April 4 2010 08:00 PM - 11:00 PM - Easter with Hollywood U2 No, there won't be an egg hunt. Full Calendar