Greeting cards

Printed postcards probably are one of the most undervalued things nowadays. Everyone is so used to writing emails and Facebook messages with greetings on every possible occasion that we tend to forget how impersonal those are.

But there are options on Facebook how to make your message pretty and add a flashy background, and a smile face or a blooming flower or a pink bunny — you may be thinking. Yes there are those options. And EVERYONE uses them. That’s how people get like a hundred and fifty birthday greetings from their contact list with the same flashy little things. Half of those people doesn’t even know how you live or what are you most exited or sad about at that moment. Because they just don’t care, they see a Facebook reminder of your birthday and they press a button. They feel that their job is done.

If you really care about the person who you want to greet on some occasion — at least get on the phone with him.

But in my opinion, to buy a real printed postcard and hand write a greeting is so much more powerful than any other way.

People used to do that all the time when I was a child. I remember few weeks before Christmas we used to start getting postcards from the relatives and friends even if they lived in the same city. It was so much fun! Every day I ran to the post box to see if there is a new one. Then my mom would carefully open the envelope and read the greeting. Then I would look at the picture and how all the words were written — from the corner or straight. My mom would always put all those postcards to the box, didn’t ever thrown them away. In my grandparents home I liked very much to go through the similar box with greeting cards. Some of them were really old, some of them were from people, even my parents never knew. And most of the old ones had pictures that were so different from those which were popular at a time.

That’s how you create memories, that’s how people just by looking at your postcard five years from now, instantly will remember how they felt that day, or what were they doing. They will read your greeting and they will remember that you really care about them.

Do you think that people will look at your Facebook greeting ever again no matter how many flashy things you will put on it?

I am not suggesting to write a real postcard on every little occasion, I now how busy people are with the million things on their minds every day. But you can surely spare a few minutes to write a postcard for your dear friend or family member on their special occasion, such as wedding or child birth or anniversary or birthday (especially if you’re invited to the party).

I know that it is an extra trouble to actually go get the postcard that you think this person would like and then think of the greeting to write, but believe me, it will be worth it.

It’s bad enough when people give such gifts like store credit coupon, because they don’t want to think of what that person would want and just gives them the coupon to choose for themselves. That’s how stores earns free money — a lot of people never use those coupons for multiple different reasons. But if you are really out of ideas and have like twenty minutes before the party, you can go with that coupon, just attach a personal hand written postcard, and you’ll be appreciated.