During this holiday season, Americans will exchange a record 2.7 billion greeting cards, with the average household receiving 28.
Bearing images ranging from the Nativity scene to Snoopy, from Santa Claus to President Clinton, the cards will reflect our diversity and our outlook on life.There are more environmentally oriented cards this year, for instance, and the number of humorous cards has jumped dramatically - indicating perhaps that people are feeling a little more light-hearted with the economy stabilizing at last.
Except for the Post Office, everybody seems to love holiday cards. And nobody more so than the companies that make them. Hallmark Cards Inc., a private company with $3.1 billion in annual sales, said that 36 percent of all greeting cards celebrate the Christmas holiday season.
Hallmark, based in Kansas City, Mo., controls about 35 percent of the greeting card market.
Technology has started to make its mark on this tradition-bound business. Hallmark store customers can create their own cards on Macintosh computers, or buy cards featuring voice chips that enable the sender to record a 10-second message.