Manchester talkshow features festive card sending after GCA’s Pride march success
The wonder of physical Christmas cards received a strong airing this week to a Manchester audience still buoyed up by the GCA’s participation in the city’s Pride march in the summer.
Your Manchester talkshow hosts Belinda Scandal and Mark Llewellyn introduced the live interview with humour publisher extraordinaire Dean Morris on Wednesday, 13 November, by reminiscing over the designs they were given at Manchester Pride.
It was the GCA’s first outing at the city’s annual August bank holiday event, where around 25,000 designs were handed out to the massive crowd, but miffed drag queen Belinda admitted: “We saw Dean over Pride and he gave us some cards – but I’m that stupid I gave them to somebody else to look after and I’ve not seen them since!”
Dean then spoke of this being his busiest time of year to the hosts, who appear live every Wednesday at 8pm on Facebook, X and YouTube – his episode can be watched in full below – and they have had over four million viewers.
“I do not stop now until about 18 December, when the orders finish,” he explained. “Everyone has bought their cards by then, I hope, although I do still get some buying right up until the 23rd and then I can relax for a week over Christmas.
“But from September all the way through to the end of December, people are buying Christmas cards, and they’re buying them earlier and earlier. And I have to say they are still buying physical Christmas cards.”
Looking back over his 25 years in. the business, Dean talked about starting in 1999 with help from The Prince’s Trust, the price range of cards, and how his designs are all blank inside with short and snappy messages on the front.
To Belinda’s question about the importance of the Christmas card within festivities these days, Dean replied: ”I still think it’s very important – obviously I would say that being a greeting card publisher but, particularly with a lot of things that have been thrown at us over the last few years, what with postal strikes and the rise of e-cards and just the general recession, I think sending a Christmas card and receiving a Christmas card is still very important as it forges connections.
“I’ve got friends up in Scotland and on the West Coast of America who, obviously, I don’t get to see every day so we always send Christmas cards to each other, and it’s just a way of keeping that relationship going – also, Christmas cards look nice on your mantlepiece!
“I think people prefer, in this country at least, to write their own messages in cards, so I keep mine short and snappy and the joke is on the front. Most of mine are a little bit rude or quirky, as you said, Belinda – and I’m quite happy with that, having heard much worse descriptions!”
Dean then amazed Belinda by explained he’s already pretty much completed his 2025 Christmas range when she asked when he’d be starting the work.
“The world of a greeting card publisher is all over the place,” he laughed. “You’re never really not thinking about Christmas. I like to get my Christmas designs for the following year, done before the end of Christmas this year, because I’ve designed Christmas cards in January before now, and there is nothing less joyous when you’re not feeling Christmasy at all!”
