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.