Christmas Cards

Facts

2012 Hallmark Christmas Card News

• Building Anticipation – Enrich the excitement of the season with interactive cards that feature countdowns, recordable wish lists and more. With these 20 new interactive and innovative greeting cards, you can tell loved ones what they need to hear at Christmas time while giving a keepsake that can be admired for years to come.
  • Recordable Wish List: Children can record their wish lists directly into this card to let Santa know what they'd like to receive for Christmas. Fun for all ages, the Recordable Wish List card is especially perfect for little ones who aren't yet able to write a wish list for Santa. It is also a great keepsake for family members to capture a child's voice and personality at that moment in time.
  • Countdown Cards: With the help of Mickey Mouse or one of Santa's friendly elves, these cards double as a holiday greeting and a functioning countdown clock. Display the card and watch the days and hours tick away, bringing you closer to the excitement of Christmas Day.
  • Elf Voice Changer Cards: With the help of voice change technology, the recipient of this card not only gets a festive holiday message, but also can have hours of fun hearing their voice changed to a humorous elf sounding voice. Fun for all ages.
• Hallmark Signature Collection – This collection of 72 new holiday cards is truly unique, just like a signature. Exquisite textures, premium quality paper and relevant messages help Hallmark Signature Collection cards become holiday favorites that will adorn mantles and be appreciated for several seasons. Many cards also feature fun embellishments such as removable ornaments and more.
• Hallmark Justin Bieber Holiday Greeting Cards – Tis the season of giving, and Hallmark wants to give Beliebers an early Christmas gift – a holiday collection of four singing greeting cards featuring the shining star. Complete with fun photos, bright holiday colors, and season's greetings, Hallmark Justin Bieber cards are sure to bring holiday cheer to mailboxes everywhere.
• Christmas 2012 will feature new innovative cards that bring the sights and sounds of the Christmas season to life. Each enhanced feature adds a unique touch to the card receiving experience that is sure to delight people of all ages. New capabilities include a built-in snow globe, and cards with unique sound, motion and lights effects.
• Mantle Worthy – Recipients will love to deck the halls with these cards featuring exquisitely layered processes, unique paper formats, and rich, emotional messages. These cards are the best of the best and are sure to stun the recipient.
• "A Very Tacky Christmas" – A line of cards entirely created of winning cards from a recent card-creation contest. Greeting card design and writing hopefuls were invited to create funny holiday cards featuring photos of holiday tackiness – a kitschy homemade gift, holiday food disaster, gaudy decor, or over-the-top Christmas fashion.
• A Very Funny Christmas – Humor is alive and well this Christmas. With a little something for everyone, no one will be left out of the gag. Imagery ranges from the Christmas Vacation house all lit up for the holidays to retro holiday photos with hilarious captions.
• Simply Christmas – A new simple photography collection that embodies the true sweetness of Christmas is back this year by popular demand. Each card serves as a warm wish for the season, and each photo captures a small, but memorable moment of Christmastime. Less is more with these beautifully simple cards.
• Advent Calendar – The PEANUTS® Gang helps you count down the days to Christmas in this card that doubles as an Advent calendar. A separate window for each day lifts up to reveal a holiday surprise.
• The widest variety of new Holiday greeting cards can be found at Hallmark Gold Crown® stores and include: 
  • Recordable Frame Cards: Place a child's Christmas drawing in the frame and then record the story behind the art by having your artist explain the drawing. This holiday keepsake will capture the excitement at Christmas and hold it forever. Perfect to send to grandparents who you can't be with over the holidays.
  • Arctic Animals: Grandsons can take a trip to the arctic with this card that expands to provide fun facts about arctic animals. In a tear-out, baseball card-style format, this interactive card provides interesting tidbits about animals like the polar bear and harp seal and also comes with stickers to adorn holiday decorations, nametags at Christmas dinner or other Hallmark cards.
  • Thomas Kinkade: Hallmark is honored to be able to offer 18 new, exclusive "Painter of Light" artwork greeting cards this holiday season. Four of the exclusive cards feature Kinkade scenes with Disney characters.
  • Reason for the Season: Cards by Dayspring capture the essence and true meaning of the season. The line feature religious imagery and beautifully-touching editorial.
• Boxed Holiday Cards – More than 250 boxed-card designs are available this year and cover a range of styles including Traditional, Faith-based, Elegant and Fun. Thomas Kinkade, Photo Holders and Regional Imagery cards are also available.
• At Hallmark Gold Crown, there is sure to be something for everyone. Brand new Boxed Holiday Card offerings include:
  • Pop-up Cards: Unique designs with distinctive pop-up features are usre to surprise and delight recipients. These cards make great holiday decorations, perfect for display on a mantel.
  • 40-Count Die-Cut Assortments: Each box includes four designs with sentiments for every sending need in a range of categories – Traditional, Fun, Faith and Elegant.
  • 40-Count Premium Cards: Priced at $16.99 each box includes designed envelopes and seals.
  • 40-Count Value Cards: These cards are made in the U.S.A. They value priced at $14.99 offering the price-conscious consumer a variety of images, icons and sentiments.
• Christmas card-sending is a snap on Hallmark.com. Consumers simply customize their cards with photo and words, upload their address books, and Hallmark will address, stamp and mail the cards for them. The service is free; consumers only pay for the postage.  

Hallmark has a Christmas card to suit practically every need:

• Prices begin at just 99 cents.
• For the season of light, Hallmark offers cards that twinkle, glow and glimmer – sometimes in time to music.
• Many Hallmark gift-card holder greeting cards feature hot properties.
• More than 250 boxed-card designs cover a range of styles including traditional, faith-based, elegant and fun.
• Seven photo-holder boxed card designs in a variety of styles accommodate 4-by-6-inch photos and enable families to share holiday memories.
• Hot licensed properties such as Thomas Kinkade, Peanuts®, Disney and Justin Bieber are featured in this year's individual card line. Boxed cards also feature Thomas Kinkade and Precious Moments designs, as well as the Peanuts® gang.
• Hallmark offers a card for just about every sending need, from active military personnel to the doctor, postal carrier, school bus driver or hairdresser. Hallmark Gold Crown® stores provide the largest selection of "niche-caption" cards with nearly 200 niche cards this season.
• Individual and boxed cards are produced either on paper with 20% recycled fiber content or on paper sourced from well-managed forests.

Hallmark meets the needs of ethnic consumers:

• Mahogany offers over 100 individual Christmas cards that resonate with the African American consumer. The line includes traditional, religious, and deluxe designs – including Money Holders and Cards With Sound. These cards capture the warmth of the holiday season and help people to share good and warm wishes with family, friends, and colleagues. Mahogany also offers 12 boxed card designs.
• Hallmark Sinceramente offers more than 300 individual Christmas cards that express the warmth of the tradition and the closeness of family and friends. Cards include Spanish editorial with English translations on back. This collection also includes popular captions such as Dear Family, Three Kings Day and Money Holders. Sinceramente also offers 12 boxed card designs.
  • New this year, Hallmark Sinceramente Boutique, a beautiful, highly-crafted six card collection perfect for the person looking to splurge on a card that has that little something extra.
  • Eleven Hallmark Sinceramente Cards With Sound will be sure to add fun and excitement to the offering this year. Designs feature popular songs in Spanish such as "El niño del tambor" ("The Little Drummer Boy") and other instrumental pieces.  

Hallmark cards do their part during the season of giving: 

• Hallmark’s partnership with UNICEF continues this year with seven individual and 15 boxed card designs avaliable. Hallmark pays a portion of the net wholesale sales of the cards to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

Hallmark.com also offers a selection of personalized Christmas cards:

• The Personalized card selection on Hallmark.com also offers a selection of over 375 unique Christmas greeting cards, invitations, announcements, and personalized stationery that can be customized with personal photos and messages.
• New for Christmas 2012 are three new card types - trifold, ornament, and magnet. The trifold allows personal storytelling with multiple photos and captions on the front and back. The personalized ornaments and magnets are unique, displayable keepsakes that recipients are able to display for the holidays.
• Hallmark.com offers a selection of over 20 personalized foil or premium paper designs, which enable senders to customize designs by adding their own name and/or photos - and have them printed in foil or on premium paper.
• Personalized paper cards have several new and unique options:
  • Consumers can shop for their Holiday cards by their preferred Design Style - Classic, Elegant, Fun & Playful, Homespun, Modern, and Vintage.
  • A selection of cards will offer consumers the ability to select up to four different color options for the same design.
  • Photo newsletters allow families to tell the stories of their year in photos.
  • Hallmark.com is partnering with UNICEF to offer 19 card and photo card designs in 2012. Hallmark pays a portion of the net wholesale sales of the cards to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
• Ecards are also available for Christmas, with over 45 different designs on Hallmark.com including cards that feature Hoops & YoYo, the Grinch, Peanuts, Maxine, and more. Both free and subscription ecards are available.

Holiday History

Englishman Henry Cole conceived the idea of Christmas cards in 1843. Too busy to write a personal holiday greeting, Cole hired well-known London artist, John Calcott Horsley, to design a card he could send to all his acquaintances.

Louis Prang, a German immigrant, is credited with bringing the idea of Christmas cards to America. In 1875 he printed a card that showed Killarney roses and the words “Merry Christmas.”

In Stores

Available at Hallmark Gold Crown® stores nationwide. Use the store locator on Hallmark.com to find the nearest Hallmark Gold Crown store.