Agreeting card is a piece ofcard stock, usually with anillustration orphoto on its front cover, made of high-quality paper featuring an expression of friendship, love, celebration, or other sentiment. Greeting cards are traditionally given on special occasions such asbirthdays,weddings,anniversaries,baby showers,baptisms, andgraduations, or during theholidays, includingNew Year's Day,Valentine's Day,Easter,Halloween,Thanksgiving, andChristmas. Greeting cards can also be sent to express other feelings, such as givingthanks,sympathy,encouragement, or best wishes toget well from an illness or injury.
Greeting cards are usually packaged using anenvelope and come in a variety of styles. There are both mass-produced and handmade versions available and they may be distributed by hundreds of companies large and small. While typically inexpensive, more elaborate cards withdie-cuts, pop-ups, sound elements or glued-on decorations may be more expensive.
Hallmark Cards andAmerican Greetings, both U.S.-based companies, are the two most commercially successful producers of greeting cards in the world today.
In Western countries and increasingly in other societies, many people traditionally mail seasonally themed cards to their friends and relatives during holiday seasons, especially in December. Many service businesses also send cards to their customers in this season, typically with a universally acceptable non-religious message such as "happy holidays" or "season's greetings." Many people also usually includemoney orgift cards that are placed into greeting cards.
The concept of a khaki fabric card appeared in 1899 during the first Christmas of the Boer War and was issued by a business in Glasgow. In New Zealand, it was not uncommon to receive a khaki greeting card, even the premier,RJ Seddon is said to have received one. An example of a fabric card is held by theAuckland War Memorial Museum, and is a small square of fabric with a heavy fringe created by threads with a hand written greeting. [9]
The custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back to theancient Chinese who exchanged messages of good will to celebratetheNew Year, and to the earlyEgyptians, who conveyed their greetings onpapyrus scrolls.[10] By the early 15th century, handmade paper greeting cards were being exchanged in Europe. The Germans are known to have printed New Year's greetings from woodcuts as early as 1400, and handmade paper Valentines were being exchanged in various parts of Europe in the early to mid-15th century, with the oldest Valentine in existence being in theBritish Museum.[10][11] The card was written toBonne of Armagnac by her husband,Charles Duke of Orleans, who was imprisoned in theTower of London at the time. Not surprisingly, its message is rather downbeat. Its opening reads: ‘I am already sick of love / my very gentle Valentine.’[12]
By the 1850s, the greeting card had been transformed from a relatively expensive, handmade and hand-delivered gift to a popular and affordable means of personal communication, due largely to advances in printing, mechanization, and areduction in postal rates with the introduction of thepostage stamp.[13] This was followed by new trends likeChristmas cards, the first of which appeared in published form in London in 1843 whenSir Henry Cole hired artistJohn Calcott Horsley to design a holiday card that he could send to his friends and acquaintances. In the 1860s, inventor Hugh Pierce Jr., inspired by the Christmas card, invented theBirthday card. Companies likeMarcus Ward & Co,Charles Goodall & Son, and Charles Bennett began themass production of greeting cards. They employed well-known artists such asKate Greenaway andWalter Crane as illustrators and card designers. The extensiveLaura Seddon Greeting Card Collection from theManchester Metropolitan University gathers 32,000Victorian andEdwardian greeting cards and 450Valentine's Day cards dating from the early nineteenth century, printed by the major publishers of the day.[14]
Technical developments like colorlithography in 1930 propelled the manufactured greeting card industry forward. Humorous greeting cards, known asstudio cards, became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s. A 1958 article about the U.S. greeting card business cites the trade’s reference to its contemporary, postwar offerings as “Modern Cards,” as opposed to “Traditional Cards,” noting that the preceding decade’s U.S. sales had grown from three to four-and-a-half billion cards yearly: “The Modern Card has not won over old customers, so much as it has brought into card shops millions of Americans who had never bought a greeting card before.”[15]
In the 1970s,Recycled Paper Greetings, a small company needing to establish a competing identity against the large companies likeHallmark Cards, began publishing humorous, whimsical card designs with the artist's name credited on the back. This was away from what was known as the standard look (sometimes called the Hallmark look.)[citation needed]
During the 1980s, reduced costs of small batch printing and die cutting together with a growing taste for handmade cards made it economically possible for smaller niche companies to set up in competition with the large established brands. Innovative companies such asNobleworks andMeri Meri[16] grew from their foundation in the 1980s to becoming significant influencers in the industry. A thriving market was established for what were now called "alternative" greeting cards. The name stuck even though these "alternative" cards grew to embrace a vast range of styles and ultimately changed the look of the industry.
The largest recorded number of greeting cards sent to a single person went toCraig Shergold, a beneficiary/victim ofchain letters and later chain emails.
In theUnited Kingdom, an estimated one billion pounds are spent on greeting cards every year, with the average person sending 55 cards annually.[17] In the United States, approximately 6.5 billion greeting cards are bought each year, at a total cost of more than US$7 billion.[1]
A counter card in the U.S. typically sells for $2 to $4.[1] Boxed cards, which are a popular option for Christmas cards or other times when multiple cards are sent, tend to cost less.
The Greeting Card Association is a U.S.trade organization representing the interests of greeting card and stationery manufacturers.[18] John Beeder, former president of the Greeting Card Association, says greeting cards are effective tools to communicate important feelings to people you care about: "Anyone feels great when they receive an unexpected card in the mail. For me, there’s nothing like a greeting card to send a special message. I’m proud to be a part of an industry that not only keeps people connected, but uses both imagery and the power of words to help us express our emotions.”
Since 1988, the Greeting Card Association has held an annual award ceremony for the best greetings cards published that year. The awards are called Louies in recognition ofLouis Prang, described as the Father of the American Christmas Card.[19]
Apostcard or post card is a piece of thickpaper or thincardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without anenvelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare.
In some places, one can send a postcard for a lower fee than aletter.Stamp collectors distinguish between postcards (which require apostage stamp) andpostal cards (which have the postage pre-printed on them). While a postcard is usually printed and sold by a private company, individual or organization, a postal card is issued by the relevantpostal authority (often with pre-printed postage).[20]
Production of postcards blossomed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[21] As an easy and quick way for individuals to communicate, they became extremely popular.[21] The study and collecting of postcards is termeddeltiology (from Greekdeltion, small writing tablet, and the also Greek-logy, the study of).[20]
