The weird and wonderfull card habits in England

Christmas cards, Birthday cards, Easter cards, etc. With Christmas coming there are tons of cards available in all sizes, colours and shapes. England seems to be a card crazy country. And if you have not been born in this card-land it might seem a little bit insane to you.

In Poland, where I come from, we also have cards for various occasions. Admittedly probably not whole shops devoted to them, but nevertheless there is a choice. The major difference however is that of to whom and when cards are presented.

The popularity contest

It seems like holiday cards are a way of showing off - look, I have so many friends, people who care, etc. The more the better. To the point, that the whole experience of choosing a card and sending it to a person, has been reduced to a chore that you are forced to obliged.

Well, that is if you send the card at all. Personally I was used to viewing holiday cards more as postcards, and a means to say to people I care about, but will not be seeing over a particular holiday or occasion, that I remember them and hope there will have a lovely time even despite the fact we cannot meet.

And in that sense it was very strange at first to buy cards for not only someone you WILL be seeing during Christmas, but who you actually live under the same roof with! For people both close to you and almost strangers.

Alternatively you could say in Poland cards are “little presents” given to people you might not have a close enough relationship to warrant gifts (or where gifts would even be inappropriate). This way you can still show you remembered about that person, and that they are more than a stranger.

Who gets the card?

Every year nearly all families in England (and probably in places like the US, that inherited some of the British traditions) go out and mass shop for Christmas cards. Numbers running above a hundred or two, would not be terribly uncommon. UK citizens frantically tick of their lists starting from close relations, through third cousins, to end up on neighbours, co-workers, local postman and the corner shop staff…

This approach to Christmas cards leads to their depreciation. If you are going to buy 150 cards, you are not going to pick each and every one of them by hand. You will probably grab a ready pack, which also has the advantage of a reasonable (cheap?) price.

Even if you start out with the earnest intentions of writing a witty personalized message for most of these cards, quite possible after going through half of them you’ll just run out of ideas… Not to mention all that writing.

At the office last year we have only put our signatures on the mass of corporate Christmas cards. And that was enough to make your wrist hurt.

What about the environment?

With such huge amounts of paper circulated around it does beg the question, why not cut down on cards? If you really want to send Christmas cards to a huge number of relatives, neighbours and friends, why not use email? Leave paper for closer relatives, and hand-pick those special cards.

This way you will not only help save probably quite a substantial number of trees, but also help your pocket. And money savings definitely cannot be overlooked in the current economic situation, no matter how small they might seem.