For seven years running, when I take down my christmas cards in early January, I have counted and sorted them into different categories. We get 50 to 70 cards, with not much change over these years, and the statistics are not very different this year from the last one ( you can see the analysis of 2020 cards here ).
I sort them into shape - square cards continue their rise and now account for more than 50%, homemade - a steady 34%, charity cards - 32%, and various subject categories including the ever popular trees, birds and animals in snow scenes. Some of the images are very similar to each other and some cards are ones I have been sent in previous years (I’ve no idea if from the same people). This christmas card analysis habit has made me look at them differently, when I open the envelope I am hoping for either a high quality, well designed example of the classic snow scene/nativity or for some originality.
This (above) is what I mean by classic, it is big (200mm across), bright and shiny and has an inner page glued in with the writing on it.
And these (below) are what I mean by original, they are all christmassy and also a surprise - the strong colours look good when on display.
There was an unwelcome trend that I noticed this year, writing on the front of cards - 30% of them. As you can see from a selection of these below, some of the writing is on the best homemade card variety, while some just disfigures pretty standard or really badly designed cards. I continue to be amazed at how awful and drab so many of the commercial card designs are, something I’ve never dared mention before as I still love and hope to continue receiving them.
