As thoughts turn towards the festive season and I start adding Christmas items to my British Craft House shop, I had a question for you – do you still send Christmas cards?!
As a card maker, I don’t really have an excuse not to! And if you have read any of my previous blogs you’ll know I’m a big fan of sending cards just because! But over recent years I’ve had more and more conversations with people who have moved away from sending Christmas cards, whether it’s because it’s too time consuming at an already extra busy time of year, they prefer the ease and efficiency of sending an email to stay in touch or because they are trying to be more green.
So, if you’re sitting on the fence this year debating whether to make the effort, let me tell you why I think you should consider keeping the Christmas card tradition alive! Christmas cards are a great way to stay connected, and this year that’s probably going to be needed even more than ever. And it’s not just about reaching out to close friends and family – we all have friends and acquaintances who we wished we had more time to stay in touch with, and Christmas serves as the perfect opportunity to touch base with people and let them know you are thinking of them and what you have been up to over the last year. Admit it, who doesn’t look forward to that one family Christmas card every year that comes with a full on annual letter for you to have a good old nose at what certain friends have been up to?!
Everyone knows how busy the festive season can (usually!) be. In ‘normal’ times, it’s pretty impossible to attend every holiday party, dinner and festive drinks as you find your social calendar inundated with ‘pre-Christmas catch ups’ so for those you can’t fit in, sending a card is a great way to send best wishes for the holiday season without running yourself into the ground! In fact, the first Christmas card commissioned in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole came about because of this (you can read more about this here) and featured three generations of the Cole family raising a toast with the central
messages of the festive season being celebration and charity.
Studies have proven that receiving a card can spark an emotional connection and generate positive feelings, increase self-esteem and help to stave off feelings of loneliness and isolation. As the year draws to a close and it seems unlikely that we will get to celebrate Christmas as usual this year, it seems an even more important time than ever to think about sending a card. And lucky for you, you are spoilt for choice with a massive range of cards available for all tastes! If you are looking for something handmade I have a selection of mini Christmas cards available, or take a browse through the wide selection from my fellow card makers on The British Craft House here. Charity cards are a great option if you want to use the opportunity to donate to your favourite charity at the same time as sending some happy mail or if you want to send cards whilst keeping the planet in mind, check out somewhere like the Thoughtful Human and their range of plantable cards! There are also some great ideas on how to recycle and up cycle your own Christmas cards once the holiday festivities are over here.
So there you go, hopefully some incentives to have you reaching for the pen and stamps this festive season – let me know below if you still send Christmas cards and I’ll leave you with this fun Christmas card fact: do you know why robins appear so frequently on Christmas cards? Because during the mid-1800’s, Royal Mail post men were nick named “robin redbreasts” because of the red waistcoats they wore as part of their uniforms, so robins began appearing on cards as symbols of the men who delivered them!