Principal only sends holiday cards to his “favorite” teachers

Q: My principal sends personal family Christmas cards every year. It’s a traditional Merry Christmas card featuring a nice photograph of him with his wife, two young children, two cats and dog, along with a lovely, colorfully decorated tree in the background, and (if I’m being honest) a really cheesy paragraph on the back relaying something cutesy about each of them, pets included. I know I sound judgmental, but I actually have no problem with the card itself. In fact, I send out a similar card myself (minus the cheesiness, of course!). But I send my card to family and friends only. I steer clear of my colleagues. There are a few I do consider real friends, but if I’m not going to order cards for our entire (huge) staff (which would be expensive and feel too personal), then I’m not going to send one to any of my colleagues. My principal, on the other hand, does the opposite. He picks and chooses which colleagues get graced with his card. He sends cards to his administrative team, to a few heads of departments, and to the teachers he just happens to favor. How do I know? His favorite teachers then make a point of taping his card to a wall in their office or tacking them to a bulletin board in their classroom. This . . . irks me. I think they’re gloating and rubbing it in everyone else’s faces that they are the favored ones. They know that not everyone gets a card. Also, the school leader is supposed to unite, not divide everyone. His behavior sends a loud message that only some staff members are visible and worthy of his consideration. If he wants to send a Christmas card, I think he should send it to everyone. I have discussed this with at least 25 or 30 colleagues, and we all agree: This is the kind of morale-crushing behavior that destroys school culture. It’s simply not something a good school leader does, though none of us are going to complain to him about this directly. What do you think? Am I wrong? Or maybe I should ask, are all of us wrong?