In the past, the arrival of Christmas cards from friends and loved ones by mid-December signalled the beginning of the season.
Similar to the Christmas tree, Christmas cards have long been associated with the celebration of Christmas with the first card dating as far back as 1843.
However, technology seems to be changing how people send greetings and wishes these days as the patronage of such cards has dropped.
“A text message or WhatsApp message is easier and cost effective as compared to buying a card and sending it through the post,” Nicholas Amoah, a shopper this reporter spotted in a supermarket, said.
He said he believed the decline in sending letters through the post had also affected the patronage of Christmas cards.
Origin
According to catholicdoors.com, the first card was produced by Sir Henry Cole and John Horsley. It was framed in three panels.
The centre panel was a home table scene of children, parents and grandparents seated at a table raising a glass to a toast. The side panels depicted acts of Christmas charity. On the left was a scene of feeding the hungry and on the right was the scene of clothing the naked.
Underneath the panels was written, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.”
At first, the cards were exclusively religious in nature but over the years they branched out to become humorous and non-religious in sentiment.
Christmas tradition
For some people, however, Christmas is not complete without cards. Though they agree that sending a message is cheaper, they believe sending cards is still the ideal way to send wishes during the festive season.
Unlike messages that are easily duplicated and sent to a large number of people, the greetings in a card are usually custom-made for the season and so people feel special and thought of when they receive such cards.
A shop attendant at a gift shop at Labone Junction in Accra said they had some customers who came to the shop every year to buy cards as they believed that sending cards still brought joy and pleasure to their loved ones during the holiday season.
She said the cards also helped people to keep in touch, especially with long distant friends and relatives, who were not able to travel to town for the festivities.
“When a card is sent to someone, it reminds the person of the sender and it shows him or her how much they care. Sending a card means taking time out to select a card with special greetings and wishes to communicate their feelings instead of just sending a text,” she added.
Low patronage
She stated that patronage kept falling year after year as people saw the sending of messages as a convenient option.
As of Tuesday, December 22, the only Christmas cards available at the shop were cards from the previous years that were not purchased.
In order not to incur debts, the owner of the shop had reduced the prices of the cards to clear and unlike other gift items and hampers that had filled the shop and put on display, the cards stand, which had gathered dust, had been tucked in a corner.
Even big supermarkets such as Melcom at Accra Central did not have any Christmas cards on display when The Mirror visited the store.
Corporate cards
Aside the ‘diehard’ patrons of Christmas cards, corporate institutions also send greetings to their business partners through customised corporate cards usually designed in the colours of the institution with the institution’s logo embedded on them.
A well-designed corporate Christmas card is unbeatable and brings one’s business closer to all recipients as it is an opportunity for saying hello to a client you have not spoken to in a while.
Marketing experts believe it is a way of saying thank you to the clients you are dealing with and an opportunity to start a conversation which could mean more sales for your business.
Personalised/handwritten cards
Some people also believe that sending personalised or handwritten cards is better than buying cards which has its own greetings.
For this reason, some people write special notes or buy blank cards and write their own greetings depending on the recipient.
Families who really love Christmas sometimes take Christmas-themed photos and design them into greeting cards for their loved ones.
Currently, there is a Ghanaian online card store that designs locally themed cards for seasons.
And for the Christmas, Yobbings has designed themed cards based on some humorous events that happened during the year.
For instance, there is a card with a picture of a goat with the inscription: “Wanted dead or Alive. Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year.”
Their cards, though sophisticated, are mixed with fun and according to Ama Asantewaa Diaka, one of their representatives, the idea is to break away from the westernised cards and do something which Ghanaians can relate to.
So in place of themes such as Santa Claus and Christmas trees, they create other themes that Ghanaians can relate to and also design customised cards for businesses and individuals.
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