Season’s greetings are still flowing through the mail at a pace that will keep Denver near the top of the list of the most prolific holiday-card-sending cities. But local businesses and just plain folks appear to be migrating toward new forms of conveying warm winter wishes.
The proof is in the mailbox.
Media personality Gloria Neal says she had received 25 Christmas cards by this time last year. This year, she has received five.
PR maven Wendy Aiello says dead-tree cards are arriving at her firm at half the pace of last year. “But e-cards are up 500 percent, or more,” she says.
There was a time, five years ago, when Denver Botanic Gardens spokesman Will Jones faulted his friends for sending e-cards.
“I’d say, ‘Oh, man, my friends are too lazy or too cheap to go buy a card and stick a stamp on it,’ ” he said. “But now, I’m shocked when I open the mailbox and see a card.”
The gardens pruned its own holiday-card list to 300 this year and sent out easy-on-the-environment e-cards to the rest of the 2,000-member list, Jones said.
Still, U.S. Post Office spokesman Al DeSarro said that on Dec. 14, the post office’s biggest mailing day, Denver stations processed nearly 3 million holiday cards and letters, putting the city in third place behind Santa Ana, Calif., and Phoenix for highest per-capita mailing.
“We’re seeing a pickup of interest,” DeSarro said.
Mark Brown, a partner at the Denver financial-planning firm Brown Tedstrom Inc., has contributed to the uptick.
For years, he said, his company’s holiday card has made a custom-designed statement at a cost of $8,000 to $10,000.
“Last year, with the whole economic meltdown, and we being in the money-management business, we decided, ‘let’s not do (cards) and see what it feels like,’ ” Brown said. This year, his firm has returned to tradition.
“When we didn’t do it, I didn’t feel good about it,” he said.
Icelantic, which makes handmade skis in Denver, took an online-only tack.
“We decided to share our enthusiasm for Christmas on our website,” said Ashley Hart, the company’s North American sales manager. Icelantic used the ElfYourself computer program, superimposing employees’ faces in a video of dancing elves.
“It’s a quick, free way to get it out there to folks,” Hart said.
Some people, however, don’t want to go to a company’s website to collect their Christmas card. They crave the perfect penmanship, creamy paper and heartfelt sentiments.
“This time of year, personalized sentiments and greetings are much more sought-after and valued than the e-mail,” said Jill Alyn, owner of Wordshop in the West Highland shopping district, which specializes in cards made by small-studio artisans and independent presses.
“I’m definitely seeing a return to meaningful, thoughtful, handwritten holiday mail,” she said. “I can tell from my sales.”
Regis Jesuit High School mails about 2,200 Christmas cards each year, with a personal touch — they’re created by the principal, the Rev. Philip Steele, SJ, who paints a watercolor scene of the campus.
And Papyrus manager Sara Wess sees a trend among businesses that ordered custom cards this year: “They’re more personal, less business-y.”
Browsing in Papyrus on Wednesday morning, Courtenay Avant looked at photo-frame cards. She had planned to use Shutterfly or Snapfish, online photo-storage and -sharing websites, to do photo cards, but by the time she made the decisions of colors and photos, it was too late and too costly. Now she’s thinking of making them herself, the old-fashioned way, but worries that it might take too long.
“Maybe I’ll just do New Year’s cards if I can’t get it done by Christmas,” she said.
It’s hard to tell whether the declining number of cards in the mail is a result of new technologies or age-old procrastination.
The post office is expecting another deluge of cards.
“We expect Monday to be big,” said DeSarro, “because it’s still four days till Christmas.”
As for Gloria Neal, she’s bought all her Christmas cards. “But I haven’t sent them out yet,” she said. “That’s the hard part.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
