Cards on the table

Are people still sending Christmas cards? Yes, discovers JOHN EVANS, and quality, specialist ones like these are in more demand than ever

- JOHN EVANS

If recent trends are a reliable indicator, we will buy fewer box sets of Christmas cards this year but more individual cards.

Following recent increases in the cost of stamps and a growing aversion to posting dozens that will only end up in the bin, box sets of cards are being replaced by email and text. But an electronic message doesn’t really cut it with close family and friends, so to them we're likely to send a handpicked card.

Amanda Fergusson, head of the Greeting Cards Association, says: “Sending cards is definitely not a dying tradition; it’s a changing one. We're seeing people put more effort into choosing individual cards for people they love and spending more on them.”

Lee Lacey, founder of hansenfineart.co.uk - an online gallery devoted to, among other travel and transport topics, automotive art in print and original forms but also as greetings and Christmas cards - doesn’t need reminding. “People still buy cards for close friends and relatives, and I'm sure each generation will continue to do so,” he says. “I send out around 20,000 each year and am flat out from September to the middle of December. Eighteen-hour days packing and sending them are not uncommon.”