Christmas Card Printing

Ever since the commercial Christmas Card was invented by Sir Henry Cole in 1846, the tradition of sending cards has remained popular around the world, and nowhere more so that here in the UK. A report by the Greeting Card Association showed that nearly 100 million Christmas cards were sold in the UK in 2018, and that Britons buy more cards per person than any other nation, averaging at 33 a year.

Even with the introduction of e-cards, social media and video calling, Christmas Cards are still the number one way in which people choose to pass on their best wishes at the festive time of year.

The quantity of cards you should order will depend largely on how you intend to use them. If you’re printing personalised Christmas Cards to send to family and friends, then get everyone who the cards will be from to write up a list of who they want to send a card to and combine them for your total. It’s always worth ordering a small amount more than you need in this case as it’s inevitable that you will have forgotten a few people!

If you’re sending out the cards from a business, it may not be possible to send a card to all of your customers. Determine your budget to have the Christmas Cards printed and the postage to send them, and work backwards from there. Prioritise the customers who mean the most to you as a business or who you feel are showing signs of loyalty.

Finally, if you’re printing Christmas Cards to sell in a shop, online or at events, this will require some careful consideration. If you’re launching some new designs, it might be a good idea to order in low quantities to start with to find out which are popular and which aren’t.

Once you know which designs are selling, you then need to decide on how much demand there is and forecast how many you think you will need. It’s easy to re-order from us if you’ve already supplied us with your artwork and your new batch can be with you fast to help avoid you selling out.

It’s also worth considering how much storage space you have, and whether you plan to re-use these designs in future years. Ordering in bulk will provide you with better value for money, but this is only sensible if you’re not going to be left with a lot of unsold cards which you have no use for or are unable to store safely and conveniently until the next Christmas.

When it comes to the message you have printed in your Christmas Cards, it’s important that what is written aligns with the tone and design of the card itself, as well as the business or brand where applicable. Some cards warrant a funny message, while others may feature a religious design and speak more about the true meaning of Christmas.

For most however, something short and sweet such as ‘wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year’ works well. If you’re struggling for inspiration, this blog post from Good Housekeeping gives some greeting ideas for different types of cards.

In a study that we carried out focussing on buying habits in 2018, we found that the highest number of Christmas Card printing orders we received in any one day was on Tuesday 5th December. Aiming to have your cards designed and printed by early December then allows for them to be sent soon afterwards, arriving with the recipient 2-3 weeks before the big day.

This will be early enough to avoid any potential delays that can be caused when the postal service gets incredibly busy, but not too early to seem unusual to the person receiving it. The Royal Mail have a page on their website dedicated to Christmas which includes useful information such as last posting dates.