Considerations When Choosing Sympathy Cards

Choosing a sympathy card shouldn't be done in a hurry, especially if you're giving it to a dear friend or loved one. You'd want a card that goes with the situation and is able to express what you simply can't say glibly in a time when someone grieves. Hence, before you grab or order a card from the “sympathy cards” section, here are some things that you have to think about first:

Recipient's Religious Beliefs

Be considerate and choose a card that matches the belief system of the receiver. Go for cards with sayings or designs that reflect the religious beliefs of the bereaved. This would make your condolences more meaningful and kind. If you don't know the receiver's religion, settle for plain and simple sympathy cards.

Message

Before paying for a card, take time to read the message written inside it. Make sure that it's suitable to the situation and the words used are appropriate and comforting. Of course, other than the message in the card, you likewise have to make your personal note, which needs to be compassionate and not tacky or belittling.

Card Cover

Since there is a possibility that the recipient might display or mount the cards he receives, pick a cover that won't look out of place. Popular choices are cards with images of candles, open skies, and white flowers.

Thanksgiving Cards—the Better and Trendier Holiday Greeting Cards

Thanksgiving cards are starting to become an integral tradition of the Thanksgiving holiday. You may buy these items from a local bookstore or card shop, or you can buy them online. They are perfect for personal use and business use. Thanksgiving cards for business are a great means to connect with clients and promote a lively workplace atmosphere for employees.

A Brief Look at Hanukkah Customs and Rituals

Hanukkah may be a strictly Jewish holiday, but that doesn't stop non-Jews from taking part in it to some extent, as even the White House hosts Hanukkah parties every year. This is mostly attributed to the fact that Hanukkah takes place just weeks before Christmas. Thus, the giving of gifts to children and greeting cards is also quite common during this time.

Though it is one of the most well-known Jewish holidays in the world, Hanukkah is in fact considered a minor holiday (religiously speaking), and therefore businesses are usually open during the eight-day celebration (except on Sunday). The word itself means “dedication”, in homage to the Jews who purified the Holy Temple and lighted the candelabra with a drop of olive oil that miraculously lasted for eight days. This is celebrated by lighting candles on the Hanukkah Menorah at nightfall, a candelabrum with eight branches reserved for meditation, and a raised branch called the shamash that's used for everyday lighting purposes. Traditional hymns are sung each night, right after the candles are lit.

Aside from the candle-lighting ceremony, Hanukkah celebrations include playing with the dreidel, or a spinning top with Hebrew characters printed on it. Fried foods such as sufganiyot (fried donuts filled with jelly) and latkes (fried potato and onion pancakes topped with applesauce) are also served. In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, these foods are cooked in olive oil.

How to Pick Business Holiday Cards

Sending out holiday cards is a great way for business owners to show their appreciation to their clients and thereby strengthen professional relationships. It is a nice gesture of goodwill and a subtle way of promoting your business at the same time. That said, business owners need to pick the right card for their clients.

Pick high-quality cards printed on quality paper. If you pick a poorly crafted card, your clients will think you're nothing but a cheapskate who couldn't care less about creating a wrong impression. High-quality cards at competitive prices are available, so there's simply no excuse to send out shoddy holiday cards. Aside from the quality of the card itself, you need to make sure that the contents of the card are just as tasteful.

Keep in mind that you’re not sending a card to your old drinking buddy, so steer clear of crude humor. It's also important to be mindful of the recipient's religious beliefs or cultural background when picking the type of card. For example, if the recipient is Jewish, it may not be a good idea to send a Christmas card. A simple card that delivers a straightforward message, be it “Happy Birthday” or “Happy Holidays,” is preferable to avoid inadvertently offending anyone.

The Greeting Card Business: The Next Big Thing?

In-depth industry knowledge is necessary for anyone who's thinking about making and selling their own handmade greeting cards on a wholesale basis. Even someone who's interested in just selling a small number of cards to friends, family, and colleagues will benefit from basic knowledge of industry trends. After all, with the global greeting card business poised to exceed US$30.4 billion by 2015, serious competition awaits would-be greeting card makers.

Every year, about 7 billion greeting cards are purchased, with annual retail sales estimated at more than $7.5 billion. To break it down even further, analysts compute an average of about 30 greeting cards purchased yearly per household. Judging from these figures, the greeting card market certainly shows no signs of slowing down in the immediate future—a factor you can definitely take advantage of if you're really dead-set on starting your own greeting card empire.

If you truly plan to tap into this business opportunity, then you'll have to educate yourself first by loading up on all the necessaryfacts and figures as well as by conducting in-depth research about your target market. You might also want to learn about how established greeting card companies managed to grow and sustain their market share over the years.

Inspirational New Year Quotes For Business Cheers

The beginning of the year is a great time not only for personal renewals or resolutions, but also for refreshing your professional connections from various sectors. Sending thoughtful New Year greetings to current and potential clients or partners is a good way to keep your company's products and/or services at the top of their minds, especially during such a period when business plans and strategies are likely being formed. As with other business greetings, though, it is always best to keep your messages short and simple, but warm and sincere, so you can spread some good will and thereby make a sufficiently good impression on existing as well as prospective clients. Below are a few memorable quotes from famous people that may work perfectly for your New Year business greetings:

·         “Whatever you do or dream you can do – begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• “Every man should be born again on the first of January. Start with a fresh page.” - Henry Ward Beecher

• “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”  - Abraham Lincoln

The Magic of Christmas & the First Christmas Card

The magic of Christmas does not diminish with age. From little ones to grownups, everyone enjoys receiving gifts, attending parties and family reunions, and demonstrating love through acts of kindness. Aside from the parties and sumptuous food, many people look forward to receiving old-fashioned Christmas cards through snail mail. Christmas cards have a timeless appeal, as they are affordable, readily available, and can be personalized with messages and snapshots.  

Christmas cards were first sent 170 years ago. In 1843, Henry Cole sent the first commercial greeting card with a Christmas theme in London. Cole’s painter friend John Callcott Horsley designed the card, which was composed of three sections. Two side panels had images of a person feeding the hungry, and another, clothing the naked.

The middle panel showed folks gathered together for a Christmas party with a message that read: “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” This historic holiday greeting was colored by hand on a stiff cardboard sized five and an eighth inches by three and a quarter inches. Felix Summerly’s Treasure House had 1,000 copies of the original card and sold each for one shilling. Only 12 of those cards, including the one Cole sent to his grandmother, have survived over the years.

Sending Christmas Cards via Mail is Still Worth It

The holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for families and businesses. Lack of time, together with the fact that 80 percent of all correspondence is now electronic, may make people think twice about sending out standard Christmas cards. However, before you decide to click 'send' on that electronic card, listed below are a few reasons why it's better to send a Christmas card through standard mail.

Aside from being an opportunity to give people a snapshot of what's going on in your life, sending out Christmas cards allows you to keep up to date with everyone's current addresses. It's also a good way to keep in touch with people who aren't tech savvy. Moreover, Christmas cards are great mementos that can be displayed above the fireplace.

Sending tasteful Christmas cards with a snapshot and a short, heartfelt message is also more personal than emailing e-cards or scribbling greetings on someone's social networking account. You could also schedule a family portrait to be taken, which you can add to your cards. Several companies personalize greeting cards for individuals and businesses that may not have the time to create their own. Aside from being convenient, this option also ensures that you send out unique keepsakes that your friends and family will appreciate year after year. 

Sending Greeting Cards the Old-Fashioned Way

You can get a nice birthday card for $2 to $4, scribble a genuine, heartfelt message, and still induce a smile on the recipient's face even if you bear no gifts. Birthday cards are among the most affordable things you can give celebrants on their birthdays, and the card can contain a simple message of no more than 50 words. Though most people these days rely on Facebook and other forms of social media to remember birthdays, the Greeting Card Association says that social networking has not reduced card traffic all over the U.S. Moreover, mailing greeting cards keeps snail mail alive.

Experts believe that writing letters in longhand or notes on cards is what keeps people from shooting off irate messages when they're mad. We've all heard stories of people who've destroyed relationships with angry emails and rants on Facebook. Writing things down can help us understand the consequences of our actions, and will keep us from losing our heads. Moreover, etiquette experts believe that sending someone a proper birthday card is more appropriate than greeting someone happy birthday on their social media account.

Social media will not bring the curtain down on the greeting cards anytime soon, as there's nothing quite like sending a card with a short but sweet message. For many, it feels more genuine to receive a tasteful birthday card with a heartfelt message than having a wall flooded with posts on their birthday.

The Greeting Card: From Papyrus Scrolls to Digital Cards

Made of cardboard with printed images or text, greeting cards are inexpensive ways of expressing concern for other people. Greeting cards have become quite common objects in the lives of people, that even the digital virtual world has weighed in. Did you ever wonder how humans began to exchange notes to express sympathy or other sentiments? How simple cards can mean the world through the power of words?

The act of writing down one's sentiments in the form of greeting notes can be traced back to ancient Egypt. Historians believe that ancient Egyptians wrote greetings on papyrus scrolls that are received by messengers and passed on to their addressees.

During the early 1400s, handmade paper cards with greetings on them passed around in Europe, while the Germans, in particular, used woodcuts as greeting cards.  Around the mid-1400s, exchanging handmade Valentine cards began; in fact, the oldest Valentine still in possession is preserved in the British Museum.

It wasn't until the 1850s that companies started mass producing cards, mainly due to the technological breakthroughs of the printing press and postal services. Today, even though cards are increasingly being sent through the Internet, many people still buy a card from a store.

So next time you pick out a card for someone you appreciate, take a moment to  acknowledge just how far your humble greeting card has changed through time.