Description

It is time to get your holiday greetings ready to send. Is it ok to ditch the stamp and just send an e-card instead? Rhiannon spoke with an expert who dishes on what your greetings say about you.

Transcript

Host: It’s time to get your holiday greetings ready to send but is it okay to ditch the stamp and just send an e-card instead. A lot of people do it. Rhianne spoke with an expert who dishes on what your greetings say about you. Rhianne: Lisa Potash is here from PiPo Press to tell us the proper greetings to send and what the hot trends are this year. Now, Lisa, first of all, we have Twitter, we have Facebook. We have text messaging, do people even still send holiday cards? Lisa: Yes, definitely. I know I always look forward to receiving them every year and it is definitely one of the most treasured and anticipated holiday traditions. In fact cardstore.com recently conducted a survey and it said that 2/3 of people actually prefer receiving a greeting card over a $10.00 bill in the mail and nearly half said that they thought that sending a greeting card via a social networking service was actually inappropriate. So I think while Twitter and Facebook are great ways to stay communicated and connected throughout the year for holidays, I think people prefer something a little bit more traditional. Rhianne: So no text messages either. What about e-cards? Do you think those are okay? Lisa: I think e-cards are okay. It’s probably for a very specific audience, maybe a younger generation. I don’t know if your grandparent would appreciate getting one. If they can even get into their email but I’m sure it’s okay for certain people. Rhianne: So what do we have here, what is the proper etiquette this year? We have some very personalized cards which are always nice to get now? Lisa: I mean, the main etiquette that we want to communicate is that you should definitely send one. It’s so easy. There’s so many online retailers that are available and so easy to use. Ecardstore.com for example even sends out their cards for you. You could just upload your address book and they will print the cards, stuff the cards and ship them out in the mail for you. All just for the pay price of postage. Rhianne: So we have these great cards here. We see pictures on there. If you’re thinking about sending some to your coworkers, maybe your boss versus your family, should you change up what you’re sending or is it okay to send one universal card? Lisa: You could do either. Both of those options are perfectly acceptable. A lot of these card designs and companies offer small quantities so if you wanted to make the extra work and do some separate greetings for separate people, you definitely certainly can do that. It’s also acceptable to send family pictures to coworkers. Rhianne: That’s good to know. So what are the hot trends this year? Lisa: The card designs tend to follow the fashion and lifestyle segments and we’re seeing a lot of plaids and a lot of bold graphics, beautiful font styles. The peace message is always very popular and it still continues to be a very strong message this year. It’s just always been a very nice universal and still relevant message even in today’s— Rhianne: If you do upload a picture and make one of these beautiful cards, do you need to include a written message maybe sign your name or is it okay to just send it? Lisa: We’ve seen both. If you’re short on time, it’s perfectly okay. You can put whatever greeting you want on there so you can always put with love or xoxo already or if you want to write a little note on there, there’s definitely room on most of these cards to do that and you could also put the names of the people that the card’s going to. Rhianne: And you mentioned, have a few extra on hand, why? Lisa: There’s always going to be somebody that you maybe forgot. If you hand write it and it’s not organized, and maybe this is the year, you get organized. I know PiPo Press has these great coordinating return address mailing labels that come preprinted with your return address and they can be fed right through your home printer and if you have your spreadsheet all organized you could use that and— Rhianne: Just all ready to go. Lisa: So maybe this year, you get motivated by these instead of the white levels. Rhianne: Thank you so much Lisa. How would you like to get all of you holiday cards for free? That’s right, I said for free. Cardstore.com is offering a great giveaway for our viewers. Audra has the details. Host: This is watch and win week and whether you need holiday cards or thank you notes, you can win $100.00 worth of custom cards. You can go to bettertv.com, watch the segment called Etiquette Christmas Cards then click on the click to win button just below the story. Four lucky winners are going to be chosen this month.