Tag: e-cards

C is for…Christmas Cards

It’s that time of year again folks!

I was thinking, as I wrote my cards this year, how is it, that we live in a world of E-mails, Text Messaging, Snapchat, Twitter, Virtual Reality, etc. etc. – in a world that is supposed to be saving its natural resources – we still send these real life cards?!

I know there are online ‘e-cards’, but they’re not quite the same are they? I even know someone who doesn’t put his cards up, (If you’re not from the UK… We display our received cards along with the Christmas decorations, either hung, cheesily a la 1970s on a line strung across a wall, or blue-tacked to a wall or door). This guy, he puts his in the shredder!!!! Immediately!!!!

I know there are also some truly horrendous cards out there – especially the photos used for the ‘personal touch’ cards; I’ll sprinkle a few of these throughout for your pleasure – like hideous snowflakes! Here’s your first…

christmascard1
Poor kids, call Child Services! Hideous Christmas card #1

So, I decided to collect a few factoids together about cards for you. Enjoy.

  • The first commercial Christmas card was created and sent in 1843 in the UK. It cost 1 shilling (5 pence/8 cents today)
  • The most expensive Christmas card, was this very same, first card. Sold in November 2001 for £20,000 ($28,158).
christmascard2
Whoa there dad! Hideous Christmas card #2
  • Christmas cards (of a kind) had already been a thing in Ancient China and 15th century Germany.
  • The Greeting Card Association report for 2017 states that:- Nearly 100 million Christmas single cards were sold, add packs of cards, bringing the total for the Christmas card market to one billion cards sold in the UK.
christmascard3
Purr-fectly awful. Hideous Christmas card #3
  • The US apparently sends around 2 billion cards annually.
  • Christmas cards with glitter often cannot be recycled.
  • Millions of tons of cards and wrapping paper end up in landfill sites each year.
christmascard6
Yikes! Hideous Christmas card #4
  • The first Christmas postage stamp in US was issued in 1962.
  • There are around 123 companies that make Christmas/greetings cards.
  • What are Christmas cards made of? Wood pulp, part textile waste, acrylic, inks, parents tears and fake conviviality.
christmascard4
No words…Hideous Christmas card #5
  • According to one magazine, House Beautiful, the polar bear is this years most popular design for Christmas cards. (Get yours now, these animals may be extinct in 15 years if climate change continues)
christmasCard best
My personal favourite – and actually quite fitting

 

 

http://www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk/resources/for-publishers/the-market/facts-and-figures

https://recyclenation.com/2014/12/recycle-greeting-cards/

https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/cards.shtml

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Greeting-Card.html