SCROOGE or Christmas spirit? Apparently your choice of Christmas card says more than just season's greetings to its recipients.

According to a survey conducted for the Country Living Magazine Christmas Fair, you should choose your festive cards with care.

Photo cards with cheesy family shots suggest the sender is self-obsessed with an over-inflated opinion of their own importance.

Classic art, with no reference to Christmas at all, implies you are more of a highbrow academic.

Nearly half of those questioned thought cards handmade by young children scream "overly proud parent" rather than "sweet" (13 per cent) although a fifth thought children's efforts were thoughtful and the sign of a good friend.

Guy Foreman, head of shows at Country Living, said: "Opt for a customary Christmas tree and most people will consider you unimaginative and boring.

"But plump for a jolly snowman and you'll be saying to the majority of recipients that you are friendly, cheerful and innocent."

If you want to say you are pretentious and have too much money, then opt for commercially handmade cards as this is how 85 per cent of those surveyed described the giver of this type of greeting.

But make the cards yourself and most people will consider you creative and thoughtful, with only two per cent thinking you are stingy.

Guy warns to be wary of humorous cards.

"While just over 50 per cent of recipients thought this showed someone light-hearted with a good sense of humour, a quarter thought that the giver might regard Christmas as a nuisance - and nearly one in 10 think that humorous cards are tacky and annoying."

If you don't want to be labelled a Bah Humbug, steer clear of contemporary photographs which reflect disdain for the festive season.

But according to Guy, if you're someone who wishes the true spirit of Christmas to all, choose a card bearing a dove.

Anne Filer, Mayor of Bournemouth, who has chosen a peace theme for her festive correspondence, reveals this is the first year she has ever sent Christmas cards.

"You see we're Jewish so we don't celebrate Christmas but I'll be sending cards as Mayor this year.

"One of the charities we're raising funds for is Tenovus, a local cancer research charity, and as they produce cards I thought it was only right to support them.

"I do really enjoy the Christmas period - the lead-up to Christmas with all the lovely familiar carols and the warm family atmosphere - but for me it doesn't become a shopping fest because we don't have to give gifts."

North Dorset based Gordon Haskell, who in 2001 narrowly missed out on the Christmas number one spot to Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman, said: "This year I am telling everyone I would rather give them some love as I am tired of feeling it has become a chore to send cards.

"They are welcome to think whatever they like but I feel there are a lot of us around who are tired of all the baloney. I feel the same about presents."

Jessica Winsall, regional marketing executive for Twentieth Century Fox, who lives in Muscliffe, is a little more bitten by the festive bug.

"I always send handmade cards - possibly because I'm a child and like to get stuck into glitter and glue, but it just feels more Christmassy.

"I love the way that everything looks beautiful at Christmas, and that people are happy.

"But in particular I love the fact there's a day that's just about you and the people you love being together."