Is There A Future For The Traditional Christmas Card?

Saturday is the last day to mail Christmas cards to ensure they arrive in time. You may have noticed fewer cards in your mailbox this year. Perhaps you send out fewer than you once did. Christmas card sales have dropped steadily in recent years. But card companies are using technology to try to keep the tradition alive. I spotted George Cooper heading toward the door of the main post office in Columbus. In his hand, he carried a small stack of green envelopes stamped with red poinsettia postage. Cooper was about to mail his family’s Christmas cards. Reporter: Well your cards look very festive. They’ve got a gold return address label on them and they’ve got Christmas stamps on them. Cooper: Well, my wife fixed them up; I’m mailing them. Reporter: So it’s something that you do every year? Cooper: Oh, yeah, we do it every Christmas, long as I can remember, clear back to childhood. Cooper, like millions of Americans, sends holiday greetings to friends and family through the mail. But he says he’s sending fewer cards than in years past. Reporter: Do you send as many as you used to? Cooper: No. It’s hard to know if there’s a decline in the number of Christmas cards being sent. It really depends on who you ask. One possible resource, the post office, only keeps tabs on holiday volume. “We don’t measure Christmas cards separately,” says David Van Allen. Post office spokesman David Van Allen says holiday mailings have decreased substantially. “In 2011, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, we had 16.5 billion cards, letters and packages. In 2012, it went down to 15.2 billion, cards, letters and packages, and in 2013 it was 14.7 billion letters, cards and packages. So you can see a decline,” Van Allen says. Christmas card mailing is on a definite downward trend. This year the Greeting Card Association estimates Americans will send somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.4 billion cards. That’s down about 30 percent from a decade ago. E-mail, Facebook, the rising price of stamps have all contributed to the decline. Still 1.4 billion is a lot of cards says Hallmark company spokeswoman Kristi Ernsting. “It’s really a time honored-tradition that millions of people still enjoy in the U.S.,” Ernsting says. But the largest greeting card producers – Hallmark and American Greetings – say their revenues remain stable. American Greeting’s Megan Baucco says her company sees a different trend. “The paper greeting card is not really dying at all that’s just a perception. Our numbers have remained pretty stable over the past few years for paper greeting cards,” Baucco says. One explanation? Companies like Hallmark and American Greetings are adapting. Electronic cards – those that you email – have been around for years. But now sophisticated, user-friendly web sites allow customers to create a paper card online, include a family picture and write a greeting. At American Greetings you can do it through a smartphone app called Cardstore. American Greetings will even mail the cards for you if you upload your address list. Natasha Rankin directs the Greeting Card Association. She says customized cards appeal to a new generation. “What we’re actually finding is especially in the millennial generation and among those people making $35,000 to $65,000 a year we’re actually seeing the reverse of the trend of a decline of sending greeting cards and are starting to see an increase,” Rankin says. Rankin says the holidays are an ideal time to reconnect with friends and family. And greeting cards, she says, are an important part of that tradition. “Greeting cards and holiday cards have been part of our holiday tradition for over 150 years and we expect them to be a part of our tradition for the next 150 years and beyond,” Rankin says.