It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere we go . . . but, really, what does Christmas look like? Is there only one particular look to a holiday that encompasses so many ideas, cultures, and customs? How do we identify exactly what this holiday looks like in any given year?
The “looks” of Christmas are as varied and numerous as the snowflakes that come down in the crisp, dry air in colder climates during the season itself. And as part of a world that, in general, holds great stock in greeting cards, many of us love a good Christmas card and will look far and wide for our most favorite Christmas card designs.
Many of us will buy boxed Christmas cards in the department, grocery, or drug store, cards that have about 5 or so designs per box, and maybe 30 cards and envelopes total. Those Christmas card designs usually show maybe a winter scene, a graphic (“Merry Christmas” or “Joyeux Noel” or something similar), a fireplace with the stockings hanging above a roaring fire, Santa and his reindeer or the like, and a religious scene which has the baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, the local animals, and all in the manger.
Others of us will find Christmas card designs which come one design to an elaborate, more expensive box of cards . . . this is for those of us who don’t need variety and have a special design in mind for what we want to send out as our Christmas cards.
Some will even buy singular cards, one by one by one, each with a different Christmas card design. This is an expensive route but allows for those of us who are big on picking out just the right card for just the right person. If you have, say, 10 cards to send, this may not be a bad way to do it. If you’re sending out 150 cards, however, you might want to buy bulk. It’ll save you money and time, and probably a case of Carpel Tunnel.
Some people make their living doing nothing but creating Christmas card designs. Every year, all year, they sit at their desks, day and day out, thinking of and creating new ways to portray the Christmas experience for people who want to find and buy what is essentially a piece of artwork on paper to send it out to family and friends. When a specific artist is found who is especially good, some people will buy only cards with designs done by that artist. That’s loyalty to a good product.
There are also cards which we, the senders, design ourselves. We find a scene which we think will make a great Christmas card design and take that to a printer, online or near our home, and we present it to be made into our Christmas cards. Or we create Christmas card designs with personal photographs. These are very personal ways to share our holiday spirit.
What sort of Christmas card designs do you find most appealing? How do you select your cards, and the designs on your cards? It’s all a matter of taste and personal belief. Some people will not send out a card without a religious Christmas card design because of their personal philosophy of Christmas as a Christian holiday. Others are exactly the opposite – the holiday is a day of sharing family and friends, and a time which signifies the winter season and, often, that’s the Christmas card design these folks will employ on the front of their greeting card.
Christmas card designs are an art form, yet they are also a business which printers all over the world take very seriously and work down to the financial bottom line. A lot of their yearly revenue arises from the sales of holiday cards, and the bestsellers are almost always those with the most innovative and attractive Christmas card designs. Of course, the first thing someone sees when they look at a card is the front, so it’s logical that the front design is what sells the card. The sentiment inside may make or break the final decision but rarely is a card bought if the buyer dislikes the front of the Christmas card. It is that design which brings them in.
Keep in mind how many cards go out every year, and how every year new Christmas card designs must be developed to be able to generate added sales for that year. If any one of us had the task of putting together the new designs for each year, we’d realize how much of a job that is, and how very important the artist is to the value of the card on the market. Without a good artist, the Christmas card design is less than appealing, and the card usually sits on the rack, never seeing the signature on the inside of the card, the close of the envelope, the stamp on the outside, or the process of travel via the postal system.
Yes, without any doubt, the job of the Christmas card designer is one of the most important jobs in the holiday gift card business . . . year after year after year.