Hints for Sending Holiday Greetings

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In 1843, Sir John Henry Cole was too busy to write personal holiday greetings, so he hired a London artist, John Calcott Horsley, to design a Christmas card. The illustration showed a family raising wineglasses in a toast, drawing vocal criticism from the temperance community. The controversy helped popularize card-sending. This year, Americans are expected to send almost 2 billion cards.

Despite ads encouraging us to mail and ship early, we still like to wait until we’re in the holiday mood to send greetings and gifts:

• The U.S. Postal Service delivers 20 billion letters, packages and cards between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The busiest mailing day is traditionally the third Monday in December with almost 1 billion letters and packages being processed in a single day.

• UPS expects to deliver 15 to 22 million packages a day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, peaking at 22 million deliveries on December 18th, its busiest day.

• FedEx expects its busiest night to be December 15, with almost 12 million packages moving through the FedEx Express and FedEx Ground networks.

Hints for sending your good wishes to friends, family and business associates:

• Traditional holiday cards should be in the mail by mid-December. The last day to mail a holiday card is the day before Christmas. If you haven’t sent holiday cards by January 1, save them for next year.

• New Year cards can be mailed any time before January 15th. (In Europe, it's customary to send them any time during the month of January.)

• If you are uncertain of the recipient’s faith, choose a neutral card without any religious connotation or symbolism. General greetings include happy holidays, season’s greetings, wishes for world peace, and prosperity in the new year. Neutral images include winter trees and landscapes or snow scenes. If you have the option, buy two card styles: one for friends and colleagues who celebrate Christmas; one for those who may not.

• Ideally, cards should be addressed by hand. But you’ll have to balance the personal touch with your ability to get the cards finished and the demands on the U. S. Postal Service to process and deliver your cards on time (especially if you have terrible handwriting). Possible alternatives are having someone with good handwriting address the envelopes, running envelopes through an office printer using a script font or printing clear labels with a script font.

• Use courtesy titles (Mr., Ms., Dr., etc.) when addressing the envelopes to an individual or a couple. Postage stamps are preferable to metered postage. Send cards for business associates to the office, in the name of the company. If you know the associate socially, then the card can be sent to the home.

• Sign the cards personally and add a short handwritten message, even if you’ve had information preprinted on the card. Omit courtesy titles (Mr., Ms., etc.). No last names are necessary for cards sent to friends and relatives. When cards are sent on behalf of the whole family, use a signature such as “The Smiths – John, Karen, Michael and Susie."

Ideas for adding your own greetings to holiday cards