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Merry Christmas, And A Happy New 42 Years (And Counting)

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Raymond Pearson and Steve Ford have been sending each other the same Christmas card for the past 43 years. The tradition, reports the Daily Mail, began in 1975 when the two men worked at the Royal Mail, the postal service in the U.K. Pearson sent Ford the glaringly green card with a Santa on the flap as a joke. Ford sent it back with his own note, and they've been doing it ever since. The messages are mostly rhymes like, over to you in '92, and, an utter bore has been '04, or, I'm on a crease, let there be peace - written on the crease of the card, of course. This year, it's Christmas time 2019. The card is making news. May your year be full of tidings bright and devoid of blues. The pair say they are running out of space inside the card. So maybe next year, they'll have to start writing on the back. One more thing - the former postal workers hand deliver the card to each other every year because they say they don't trust the mail not to lose it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Lulu Garcia-Navarro is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. She is infamous in the IT department of NPR for losing laptops to bullets, hurricanes, and bomb blasts.