Paper Christmas Cards in 2009

How many paper Christmas cards did you receive in 2009?

According to The Washington Post, “fewer people are sending holiday cards via snail mail in 2009”.

Michael P. Woods, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, says first-class mail was down 11 percent in the first two weeks of December, when most cards are mailed. The Postal Service estimates 16.6 billion cards, letters and packages will be mailed over the holidays, down from 19 billion last year.

How is your experience?

Free Post Card Free Postage

Google is offering to send a free post card for you anywhere in US.

Spread some holiday cheer, one card at a time.
Holiday cards

Sure, email is great, but there’s something uniquely heartwarming about the kind of card that comes in the actual mail — especially for folks who don’t hear from us as often as they should, simply because they aren’t online.

So we’ve made it as easy to send snail-mail holiday cards as it is to send email. Simply fill out the form below and we’ll send one free holiday postcard on your behalf. Yes, through the mail and everything.

Acceptance of Electornic Greeting Cards

According to the recent “Intel Holiday Mobile Etiquette” study conducted by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Intel Corporation, 62% of online adults would send an electronic greeting card or e-mail in lieu of a traditional card, and 88% of them would not be offended if they received an e-mail or electronic thank you card in lieu of handwritten notes of gratitude.

How about you?

The Year of eCards in UK?

Is this the year of eCards in UK?

According to The Time, “Royal Mail’s chief executive has painted a bleak picture of the industry’s future — and warned that the current strife could result in people deciding that this was the year they would stop sending Christmas cards.”

I don’t think people in UK will stop sending paper Christmas cards. The strike will definitely have some effect, but there are still many weeks away from Christmas. There are enough people who believe that paper cards are a special part of their holiday. For many people, paper Christmas cards are often set out on the mantel or some other conspicuous place. Try to do that with eCards.

Maybe we should add the functionality for the recipients to print out their ecards so they can put the “cards” on the mantel-:)

Paper cards vs ecards

According to An e-card for Valentine’s Day? Honestly, you shouldn’t have, ecards and paper cards are not the same.

Cedric Chin-Yick won’t soon forget the year he sent his wife an e-card for her
birthday. She made her disapproval quite clear.

“She prefers the hard copy. It’s substantial. It’s a material thing,” Mr. Chin-Yick, 44, said Tuesday as he fought the crowds shopping for Valentine’s Day at a Carlton Cards store in downtown Toronto. But he noted that he’ll back up the paper card with an electronic one.

Despite dire predictions a decade ago that e-cards would lead to the demise of the traditional card business, the two have found a happy co-existence. While Valentine’s Day is the busiest day of the year for electronic cards, many shoppers wouldn’t think of sending their sweetheart an online greeting.

“It certainly has not ended the card business,” said Sally Babcock, general manager of americangreetings.com, whose parent company also operates Carlton Cards stores. “What we see is that people send e-cards to different people than they’re sending paper cards to. They also supplement their card-sending with an e-card.”

However, there are many reasons to use ecards.

  • Artistic, animated ecards can express your sentiments that may be difficult to do through words only. Sometimes a picture, a video or an animation is worth more than a thousand words.

    “Of the many, many ways to express loving feelings, the Japanese red crowned cranes’ dance and the graceful movements of trumpeter swans are among the most beautiful.” – About.com”

  • Ecards are environment friendly.
  • For the friends, coworkers, and business contacts that you don’t generally send paper cards, you can send ecards to keep in touch.
  • In the countries where the post mail is not reliable, the ecards get there on time.
  • You can save time and money on the paper cards and postage. No more trips to the store to pick out cards and waiting in line at the post office.