Seasoned Greetings : Cards Are Returning to the Tried and True

When Americans open their holiday cards this year, many are likely to be covered in simple scenes reminiscent of 19th century life--clapboard houses covered in snow with jolly St. Nick, chubby and cherub-faced, ready to climb down the chimney.

Greeting card companies say that there continues to be a return to more traditional and religious themes this season, as Americans look to buy cards that will rekindle family traditions and spiritual ties. Other popular themes include world peace, the environment and multiculturalism, industry officials say. They say consumers are moving away from the humorous cards popular in the 1980s.

“The closer we get to the millennium, spirituality is something that is important to people,” Hallmark Cards spokeswoman Rashena Lindsay said. She said Americans want to find inspirational and uplifting cards.

“People are putting their religious feelings on a card,” said Don French, director of marketing for Cincinnati-based Gibson Greetings Inc.

The holiday season is the biggest time of the year for the greeting card industry. Out of the 7.4 billion cards projected to be sold this year, card sellers expect Americans to exchange 2.7 billion of them during the holiday season alone. That’s an increase of 100 million over 1994.

Card companies say they try to keep abreast of changing consumer desires through market research and extensive consumer testing. Card writers meticulously read magazines, watch television and visit malls and other public places.

Robin Leedy, spokeswoman for the Greeting Card Assn. in Washington, said that the current trend toward the old-fashioned includes an increase in nostalgic cards that portray the Victorian era and are filled with turn-of-the-century scenery and images of Santa Claus. She said that this represents a longing “to recapture the good memories of Christmas.”

Holiday cards are also reflecting the growing complexity of American families. For example, they are finding new ways to address unmarried couples living together, households with stepparents and even baby sitters and other care-givers.

Although nontraditional clans can always use the standard stock phrases, “To Someone Special” or “To a Loved One,” the new cards use phrases such as “You Are Just Like a Mother,” or “You Are a Very Important Person in My Life.” For unmarried couples living together, cards can say “You Mean So Much to Me” or “I Really Appreciate You.”

People in any type of relationship--including gay couples--could use these cards, said Chris Riddle, Christmas program director for Cleveland-based American Greetings Corp. He said card companies try to shy away from the words “step-parent” or “step-family.”

Ethnic cards are also in demand this season. Laurie Henrichsen, spokeswoman for American Greetings, said cultural diversity is important as well, particularly bilingual cards and ones that depict African Americans.

Cards for other holidays that occur around Christmas--particularly Kwanzaa, which celebrates traditional African values--are posting higher sales. Hallmark estimates 10 million Americans will celebrate the African American holiday this year, up from about 2 million just three years ago.

Although no exact figures are available for the sale of Kwanzaa cards, EthnoGraphics, a Santa Barbara-based greeting card company and one of the nation’s largest sellers of Kwanzaa cards, expects to sell 60,000 of the cards this year.

Carol Weinstock, founder and president of EthnoGraphics, said her company sells more Kwanzaa cards than Christmas cards. She said demand for her greetings, especially ones that depict black men, increased after the Million Man March last October.

The 8-year-old business, which donates a portion of all its sales to various scholarship funds, also produces many Hanukkah cards. Consumers are buying more boxed sets of Hanukkah cards, Weinstock said. Traditionally, the biggest card buying Jewish holiday is Rosh Hashanah, she said.

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Getting Carded

Americans will spend an estimated $2.2 billion on greeting cards this holiday season, the biggest time of year for sending cards. The custom of giving cards began in the mid-1800s, spurred by the rise of literacy, low postal rates and modern methods of printing in color. Today, many people give cards with themes, leading to a near-doubling of card sales in the last 10 years. A brief look at the greeting card industry:

THEMES

The top 10 holiday card trends of 1995:

World peace

Environment

Traditional

Changing family relationships

Ethnic diversity and multiculturalism

Business

Causes and charities

Religion

Nostalgia

Antiques, history, Victorianism

* Note: Trends are not ranked

HOLIDAYS

Christmas card purchases account for nearly two-thirds of greeting card sales. The five most popular greeting card holidays, based on billions of cards sold in 1994:

Christmas: 2.6 (billion)

Valentine’s Day: 0.950

Easter: 0.156

Mother’s Day: 0.155

Father’s Day: 0.102

SALES

Retail sales of greeting cards have almost doubled in the last 10 years. Trade groups expect the trend to continue and project that 7.4 billion cards will be purchased in 1995. Total U.S. retail sales of greeting cards, in billions of dollars:

1995: $6.3*

* Estimate

Sources: Greeting Card Assn., Hallmark Cards, Robin Leedy & Associates, Times reports. Researched by JENNIFER OLDHAM / Los Angeles Times