Christmas cards are passe

Greeting each other on festivals has changed as with WhatsApp, FaceTime, Messenger and other messaging and video calling apps taking over what cards used to do earlier

Hyderabad: Remember the last time when you sent a Christmas card to a friend, relative or faraway sibling? Many don’t, while many more do not even know what a Christmas or New Year greeting card is.

The way people wish each other on festivals and other occasions is changing every year, with WhatsApp, FaceTime, Messenger and other messaging and video calling apps now taking over what cards used to do earlier.

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Though the pandemic has triggered some campaigns in some places, with some trying to reviving the age old practice of sending cards to near and dear ones, there’s not much of a Christmas sparkle in shops which once used to stock Christmas and New Year cards in huge numbers. From occupying entire stores, Christmas and other greeting cards now have been reduced to one single rack in most shops.

“The sale of greeting cards, not just for Christmas but round the year itself, has come down a lot. Because of the pandemic, we did not get any stocks at all. Even the Christmas cards came very late,” says Anitha G, store in-charge for Shraddha Extension Exclusive on S D Road, Secunderabad, adding that New Year cards haven’t even arrived. “The cards we have are small and medium sized ones, ranging from Rs 15 to Rs 50,” she says, adding that cards haven’t exactly been in demand for quite some years now.

“We still stock cards though, ranging from birthday, anniversary, farewell and other relation cards, though the sales aren’t that encouraging. Last year, we might have sold about 100-150 cards. This year, it hasn’t been even 30,” says another bookstore manager, adding that even managements aren’t keen on stocking cards when people do not ask for them anymore.

For the very few who still hang on to the tradition, things are quite sad. The act of putting pen to paper, those few lines which were more intimate and thoughtful than all those WhatsApp forwards, the joy of seeing the postman slip one bunch of cards onto the porch, or hanging up the year’s collection of cards on a string near the Christmas tree, all are becoming passé.

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