Bespoke cards costing £20 push the envelope for those seeking the personal touch
WHEN it came to Christmas greetings it used to be a case of picking a card from a charity multi-pack and jotting a quick festive message. But people are increasingly willing to spend nearly £20 on “statement” cards for their loved ones.
It appears that in an era when traditional handwritten letters are in decline the novelty of receiving a fancy personal Christmas card has become all the more welcome.
Latest figures show that 105 million individually sold cards have been bought this year and although that number has remained the same, the amount of money spent on each card has gone up.
UK consumers have lavished £184million on 105 million individual cards this year – £15 million more than in 2015, according to the Greetings Card Association (GCA).
And despite the long-heralded death of the Christmas card in the face of e-mailed greetings and postings on social media, the total number of cards, individual and multi-pack, sold this year has dropped by only 10 million (0.01 per cent) to 1.05 billion. The GCA estimates the Christmas card £384 million.
Sharon Little, chief executive of the GCA, said: “People are sending slightly fewer cards, but are spending more on the ones they are sending to family and close friends.
“Everyone predicted the end of the greetings card because of the fashion for digital. But it’s the one area of print communication that proved extremely resilient.”
Industry experts put this down to a vogue for more personalised or bespoke Christmas cards, hand made total sales value of UK this year to be by artists and frequently sold through high-end stationers and department stores. The online handmade card retailer Gibson Doyle sells a range of individual Christmas cards for as much as £18.95 each.
Festive cards at Harrods retail for as much as £24.95 for six (£4.15 each), or even £42.95 for eight (£5.36 each), while a set of Katie Leamon’s 12 days of Christmas cards sells for £25 at Harvey Nichols.
A study by the Royal Mail this month has found that 72 per cent of people who celebrate Christmas would prefer to receive printed cards.
Only six per cent would rather get a festive greeting via social media and 10 per cent via text. Indeed more than 60 per cent of people questioned still keep addresses and postcodes of friends and relatives written in an address book.
Mrs Little said: “Sending and receiving a greetings card is still a prized form of communication.
“There’s an emotional connection between people for something that is handwritten and expresses a personal message.”
She added: “Furthermore a Christmas card can be hung up and re-read over the festive period, brightening up a house in a way an easily deleted email simply can’t.”