Is the end of the company christmas card nigh ?  I hope not ….otherwise I started this blog a couple of weeks ago for nothing.  I guess this blog in years to come may turn into my struggle to keep the corporate christmas card alive.  The reasons for thinking the christmas card days are numbered are self evident and if christmas cards lose their appeal then it is almost certain to start in the business community.  An interesting article by Richard Donkin, a columnist for the Financial Times mourns the passing of the corporate christmas card.

Heres Why (with my responses close behind in grey)…

Christmas cards are bad for the planet.    in response : Recycle. Christmas cards are recyclable in just the same way as other paper report.  That 100 page report that was photocopied for the MD last week just so that he could read the summary on the final page made it to the recycle bin.  Make sure your christmas cards do to.  Look for christmas cards produced from pulp from sustainable forests or if you want your cards to be as green as possible and do not mind if they look like they have been soaked in the milk dregs of a bowl of wheatabix then choose a totally recycled christmas card.

Everybody will be sending E-Cards.   in response : Maybe, but first you need to hope that it arrives in the recipients inbox in the first place.  Some of the e-cards I received were dismissed as spam and instantly placed in my junk mail filter.  Those that made it to my inbox were the same old dire pieces of flash animation that made me wonder why I bothered pressing the “click here” button and risk getting a virus in the first place.   Also, emails are just so impersonal.  Every recipient knows there email address was just copied from the company’s customer database and pasted into an online application that is spitting out hundreds of emails a minute without once stopping to lick a stamp or scribble a handwritten message or signature.  Rupert Goodwins of ZDnet.co.uk sums my point up perfectly in his post Electronic Christmas cards: the curse of our modern age.

Donate to charity instead.  in response : Ok, I cant argue too much with this one other than to say why not give to charity as well.  I am not just saying pick a charity corporate christmas card because most companies offer these as a matter of course.  I am saying keep the festive tradition alive and send a company christmas card and make a company donation to charity as well.  The company christmas card should not be looked at as an unnecessary expense it should be viewed at as a marketing tool that conveys the company image and brand and builds customer relations.   Happy customers mean more sales and even more bottom line dosh to give to charity next year. 

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