Still a hallmark: Greeting cards change with the times

Monday, Nov. 19, 2001 | 8:23 a.m.

Dangling a glossy blue paper spiral from her finger, Daphnie Herpst, a saleswoman at Alligator Soup on East Sunset Road, declared poignantly, "Now this is a holiday greeting card."

Indeed. Covered in silver stars and filled with a message of good cheer, the bouncing ornamental greeting would likely make a splashy impression on anyone who pulled it from its envelope this holiday season.

It is one of several finely detailed seasonal cards available to those who simply want to send the best if not the most unusual wishes for the holidays and coming new year.

And despite anthrax concerns and an economic slowdown, some greeting card publishers and local card retailers are anticipating that consumers will spend as usual if not more this year on holiday well-wishing, as more people feel the need to reach out to others since the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The holidays are typically a time when people want to communicate with people, return to family and traditions," Deidre Parkes, spokeswoman for Hallmark in Kansas City, Mo., said. "And in times of war, depression (and) recession, greeting cards do well."

Whether consumers choose to send words of hope folded between images of patriotism, or holly or heartfelt spiritual messages set among wintery scenes, the options are bountiful.

"After the 11th, the printing companies jumped on the patriotic designs," Herpst said. "We have a lot of beautiful sentiments reminding people of the security and strength of our country."

At the Hallmark store on West Sunset Road, manager Cindy Halstad said customers have already been asking for the patriotic-themed holiday cards.

Hallmark is one of several card publishers that released a line of patriotic cards, which feature snowmen waving American flags and Christmas wreaths woven with red, white and blue ribbon.

Alligator Soup carries boxed sets of American Flags on wooden sticks that open to warm holiday greetings, as well as more ornate patriotic cards that can be custom designed.

Las Vegan Julie Baxter mails about 200 holiday cards each year to friends and family throughout the country, enclosing a personal hand-written note with each one. Foregoing the long-standing tradition isn't something she would consider.

"I've always (sent cards)," she said. "If I didn't do that I'd think that something was really missing."

Originally from Augusta, Ga., Baxter said that she keeps with the Southern tradition of sending more embellished and unique greeting cards and invitations for events that she orders from Alligator Soup.

"I just don't like to send out the normal kind of card that you can go to Hallmark or the grocery store and pick out," she said. "I like to send something special."

This year Baxter selected her cards immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks and chose to have an inscription that includes hope for world peace.

Tina Benavides, executive director of card planning for American Greetings in Cleveland, said she expects that sales of cards depicting peace on Earth, multicultural unity and globally themed sentiments will be up this season, as well as cards with inspirational messages.

Cards through the eras

Mixing patriotism with holiday greetings is nothing new. Since holiday card-sending began in the 1840s, Parkes said, annual holiday greeting cards have embodied societal attitudes and feelings.

During the Depression, Santa Claus on greeting cards had holes in his shoes and was looking worse for wear. During the 1940s greeting cards were fashioned with warplanes and patriotic themes. The 1970s, she said, gave way to messages of peace.

During the '80s holiday greeting cards became more stylish and sophisticated to accommodate career women. During the "Jane Fonda era," Santa was a little slimmer during that period, Parkes said.

The '90s saw a renewed interest in family and home, Parkes said. Greetings featured more updated representations of traditional themes. Santa was seen at his computer.

To reach today's young and hip working professional, Hallmark last year released its line of square Fresh Ink cards that offer such warm greetings and more unconventional quips, such as "Wish you weren't so many snowflakes away." "Do you think this outfit needs a narrower belt" accompanies a card titled "Chubby Skater" that features a comical drawing of heavy woman in ice skates filling out a tight miniskirt/Santa suit.

The cards -- popular among women ages 18-39 -- were created after surveying hundreds of women and sold so well last year during the holiday that the company decided to introduce this year boxed sets of the cards.

E-greetings to you

According to the Greeting Card Association based in Washington, Christmas remains the most popular card-sending holiday. Sixty-one percent of holiday greeting cards purchased are Christmas cards. More than 2 billion holiday cards are purchased each year, and the association anticipates that this year will be no different.

More people will be sending more holiday cards than usual this year because they're feeling more sentimental and wanting to keep in touch since the Sept. 11 attacks, said Felicia Lindau, founder and chair of Sparks.com, a website in San Francisco that sells paper cards online.

One indicator, she said, is that people are sending Thanksgiving cards this year the way they normally send Christmas cards. "We've seen 30 or 40 orders for one (Thanksgiving) card. We had not seen that before."

Those who do decide to forego the United States Postal Service route, however, and send their wishes electronically will have no trouble finding a suitable e-card.

Electronic greeting card publishers have unleashed a slew of musical, animated, colorful cards -- some that offer games and humorous cartoon skits, followed by a personal greeting.

Uniquegreetings.com offers e-snowglobes to be personalized and sent. Users can select from Christmas trees, wreaths and holly, reindeer, Santas or manger scenes, then enhance the image by selecting one of four conditions: no snow, flurries, snowing and blizzard.

Among hallmark.com's e-greetings is an animated musical clip that pans from an evening sky filled with fuzzy snowflakes onto an artist's rendition of a quiet snow-covered village, cozily nestled in the countryside. A holiday greeting follows.

But no matter how charming or creative the e-cards can be, card publishers say it's unlikely that the e-cards will replace traditional paper cards.

"A lot of people will send both," Parkes said.

"(E-cards) can't replace getting cards in the mail, putting them on the mantle or sharing them with their friends."

David Poplar, spokesman for American Greetings Corp., which operates americangreetings.com and bluemountain.com., said that most people opt to send the more traditional paper cards at Christmas.

"The biggest occasions (for sending electronic cards) tend to be the smaller, non-traditional greeting card occasions -- Ground Hog Day, St. Patrick's Day, April Fools," he said, "occasions we don't really even make (paper) cards for."

Online shopping

But shoppers wanting to save time and energy can go online to purchase paper cards, saving themselves a trip to the store.

Consumers can also go online and create, then print their greeting cards onto cardstock at home.

Some websites even offer the service of signing and sending off the card for the consumer. At Sparks.com, hired scribes will personally handwrite messages onto cards for the consumer, sign the consumer's name, post and send the card.

The company previously offered fonts in which to print the personal message, but eventually discontinued the service, Lindau said, because "it was so overwhelmingly popular to have it handwritten."

Her customers, she said, have found it more convenient to buy cards online than sift through selections in card stores. "You can navigate so much more easily," she said.

Sparks.com features a selection of more than 13,000 paper cards from brand-names to higher-end, handmade cards from artists and smaller publishing companies. The cards are mailed the day the order is made.

Hallmark also offers the same services but uses typed fonts. Consumers can upload their entire electronic address book and have Hallmark personalize, sign and send the card.

"It saves time," Parkes said. "Last year it went extremely well."

Benavides said it isn't likely that shopping for cards online will replace the store shopping.

Perusing the aisles of a card store, she said, is a steadfast tradition for some -- especially during the holidays.

"I think people still like to go to the store and buy them in person," she said. "They love to look at cards, like to pick them up, look at them ... That's something they enjoy doing.

"People are still very traditional in nature when they purchase their cards."

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