The problem in many cases is your Auntie Ethel. She's not close, which is why you thought she'd died in 1997, except that was your second cousin Marjorie who had a similar halitosis problem so it was an easy mistake to make. Only now Ethel has sent this Christmas card with a postal order for £1 like she's done since you were seven and her email address and everything's in it. And you've missed all the last posting dates.
Logically, you should send her an e-Christmas card. The thing is, where to start? Starting off sending electronic cards of any description can be more than a little dodgy if you don't know what you're doing. Always read the terms and conditions, for example. One website which was drawn to our attention and which had mysteriously vanished by the time we logged on to check had started sending out cards only on condition that the recipient would allow a little applet to open up in the background, ferret around in Microsoft Outlook and send offers to everyone in the address book. The shortcut to reading all of the terms and conditions on every site is to send e-cards only from websites you trust.
Bluemountain.com has been there since the year dot and has a selection not only for Christmas but birthdays and religious festivals - Islamic and Jewish as well as Christian. You have to join to send one but it's been around for a while and you'll know you're not transmitting viruses by sending the cards around. Also apparently virus-free is E-cards.com, which not only offers still and animated cards but adds sounds and allows you to customise your cards so they can be tasteful and select or garish and noisy depending on who it's aimed at.
Established greetings card manufacturers have woken up to their electronic upstart competition, and Hallmark.com is in the area with a vengeance. But it's three clicks before you get to the cards, although they are pretty good.
When you receive an e-card, make sure that it is not an attachment. Virus writers have been disguising their wares since the I Love You virus from a couple of years ago. If a card downloads on to your computer then check it for viruses before it runs; cards you open up on websites are almost always safer. If your card tells you that your system needs to download an application before you can read your card be very wary unless it's Macromedia Flash - many of them need this. It's harmless, it's free and it'll make you swear if you're not on broadband.
Understandably, quality and content of cards varies. If you want to be obtuse, unseasonal and downright anoraky then http://bbc.co.uk/drwho has a few freebies on offer, as do many of the other cult areas at the Beeb. Traditionalists will find humour and chocolate box material at http://uk.greetings.yahoo.com/browse/Holidays/Christmas, while the same source offers http://uk.greetings.yahoo.com/browse/Holidays/Christmas/Christmas_Eve. If it weren't free it would be a rip-off.
There are a few to avoid. Laughspot.com took ages to load even on a broadband connection, mostly because of the pop-up windows to which loggers-on are treated when they arrive; the cards might be achingly funny but your reviewer got bored waiting and pushed off.
Jibjab.com has a lot of pics of Santa on the loo; the drawing isn't great, Raymond Briggs long ago did the "miserable Santa" to greater effect.
The informal award for the best card has to go to the enterprising people at friendsreunited.co.uk . You can choose to send a card to old friends which arrives on their computer and informs them "I'm sending you this e-card because you're not worth the price of a stamp". Which, presumably, is why you're sending e-cards in the first place.
