Festive Friday

The world is changing so fast that it's easy to forget the small pleasures in life, like buying and sending a card to someone. It's such a lovely gift to receive a card too.

Here are five wonderful card sending initiatives that support more greeting card sending:

1. Just a Card

I'm a big fan of the Just a Card campaign to support independent retailers and designer makers. The campaign reminds us all that even small purchases with our independent retailers can make a big difference. As can buying a card by an small publisher. Follow #JustACard on social.

2. Thinking of You Week

Thinking of You Week inspires people to create a wave of love, caring and happiness by sending greeting cards to different people during the week. Thinking of You Week runs from 25th September - 1st October 2017. I like this reminder to focus on others for a week  by sending more cards. Be sure to involved this September.

3. Feel Good Friday

Feel Good Friday is a brilliant card sending initiative from London retailer Postmark. To encourage more people send cards, Postmark offer a free card from a special box on certain Fridays, as long as you write it in the store there and then. They’ll even post anywhere in the UK for you for FREE! Visit the stores to find out more.

4. The Greeting Card Project

Last year I realised that I don't send that many cards personally. As a New Year's Resolution for 2017 I decided change this. Each week I visit a different shop, buy cards and send them whilst sharing my experiences on YouTube and social media. This card sending initiative aims to inspire others to send more cards too. Follow The Greeting Card Project.

Festive Friday

Festive Friday is on Friday the 1st December 2017. The aim is encourage card lovers to send their Christmas cards early. The idea is that this wave of sparkly Christmas card sending will get everyone in the Christmas card sending mood. We have a lot of fun with Festive Friday each year in our offices. Why not join in this year?

If you love cards as much as we do, be sure to spread the word about these great initiatives.

Sharing is caring so get involved on social media and share your stories about card sending.

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I am so pleased to announce the launch of Festive Friday, a new card sending day for the greeting card industry, which will take place on Friday 29th November 2013.

Festive Friday is a day for the whole greeting card industry to write their Christmas cards and send them out to their friends, family and loved ones to start the Christmas card sending season with a bang.

There are an estimated 100,000 people working directly and indirectly within the greeting card industry and the idea is to create a ripple effect from this initial action.

This is a project that I have been personally involved with during my time on the GCA Council and last Christmas our business encouraged our staff to send Christmas cards as part of our marketing efforts for the card industry. It was really fun and had a great effect. Read more about it in this post: Have you sent your Christmas cards yet?

We hope that the cards and loving messages to young and old will inspire and excite and remind everyone of the importance of the festive season for keeping in touch and staying more connected with your friends, family and loved ones. Scientific research has proven that sending and receiving greeting cards makes people feel cared for and happier and can even help fend off depression. Read more about this study in our post Scientists prove greeting cards are good for your Mother.

So remember to set aside some time on Festive Friday the 29th November, for an hour or two, to write cards with your staff and send Christmas cards out to your friends and family. You can even save money by sending them second class post and they will still arrive in plenty of time for Christmas. Plus the more cards you send earlier the more you should receive in return. See the Royal Mail table below for last sending dates to various parts of the world and in the UK.

Please share this post and spread this message far and wide within the card industry. 

You can find out more about Blue Eyed Sun's Christmas cards for 2013 which were nominated for a Henries Award this year and are available at all good gift shops and card retailers.

Christmas is nearly upon us and it's time to think about sending your Christmas cards if you haven't already done so.

The Greeting Card Association have been running a campaign to encourage card publishers and retailers to send their Christmas cards early this year so as to remind people not to forget sending theirs. There are around 100,000 people working directly and indirectly with our industry. If each of us sent 10 Christmas cards in the first week of December it would have a fantastic ripple effect from those first million gestures.

At Blue Eyed Sun we decided to get into the Christmas spirit ourselves on Tuesday and held a 'christmas card writing hour' for our staff to write and send cards to their family and loved ones. We sponsored the cards, their time and the postage. All our team had to do was to write as many cards as they wanted to in the hour. We managed 107 Christmas cards between us, which have been winging their way via Royal Mail this week to their lucky recipients.

Our team had a lot of fun doing this together. Kathy and Danni even brought in homemade Christmas mince pies and jam tarts. We also put up a Christmas tree and wore Santa hats to get into festive mood. It's so heart warming to think about all of the love going out into the world from this short amount of time dedicated to card sending rather than card making and we'd recommend it to all publishers and retailers who read this blog.

Even if you are not in the card industry, it is a great time of year to connect with your customers, friends and loved ones. Send them a nice Christmas card with a warm message in it expressing your gratitude and wishing them all the best for 2013. Do it this week. Spread that festive cheer around the world. Come on. You know you want to :)

There are only a few days left to get cards in the post though, so do get started this week. I've listed the Royal Mail's last posting dates below. You can download the last UK posting dates in a PDF by clicking here.

Find out more about Blue Eyed Sun's Christmas cards for 2012 here. Available at all good gift shops and card retailers.

Worried about the cost? Read the truth about How Royal Mail's price increases affect your card sending costs here.