Kick off deluge of Christmas greetings by joining in tomorrow’s card-sending fun
Cards ready? Pens ready? Address book ready? It’s time to get your Christmas head on as tomorrow is Festive Friday – the days the greeting card industry gets writing and sending those important seasonal missives.
Receiving cards reminds people to send their own so the GCA, publishers, suppliers and retailers lead by example on the last Friday in November each year, by sitting down to write and post their Christmas messages and get an early start on the exchanges.
And Wendy Jones-Blackett, the publisher and designer behind this year’s livery, has also come up with a cute poem to tell folk what it’s all about and remind them second-class post is only 85p – and there are some lovely festive stamps of cathedrals as shown in the Post Office reel below.
Wendy’s poem…
We all love to be caring, we all love to spread joy
We’re sending our cards for 85p with more time to enjoy!
We’re writing out Christmas cards early so we can save some cash
And get them in the postbox so the postman won’t have to dash.
A Christmas card is better than a text, a message or a call
It shows that they’re remembered, worth more than “send to all”…
It need not be expensive, homemade is always great
So get your cards sent second class – they’re fun to send, why way?!
In addition to Wendy’s poem, which she’d love people to share on social media, Raspberry Blossom’s Rebecca Green has come up with some wonderful downloadable social media graphics that are hosted on the GCA website, as part of the downloadable #Cardmitment toolkit.
International Cards & Gifts and House of Cards are among those well up for Festive Friday frivolities already but, if you’ve not organised your activity yet, there’s still time to organise somewhere to sit, with colleagues if possible, and get those cards written – more details on the GCA blog here.
House of Cards helps all staff at its seven stores across the Home Counties, by covering the cost of posting any Christmas cards they write on the day – and do make sure to let both PG Buzz and the GCA know of all your Festive Friday fun, with pictures too please!
And it also means they’ll be well in time for the last posting dates, which are Wednesday, 18 December, for second class, and Friday, 20 December, for first class to guarantee delivery by the big day, or Tracked24 is Saturday, 21 December, while special delivery is Monday 23 December.
International dates for untracked mail are:
Tuesday, December 3 – Africa, Asia, Australia, Caribbean, Central & South America, China, Far & Middle East, New Zealand.
Wednesday, 4 December – Cyprus, Malta, Portugal, Spain.
Thursday, 5 December – Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Eastern Europe (except Czech Republic & Poland), France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey.
Friday, 6 December – Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Poland, Sweden, USA.
