Greeting cards can be wonderful ways to send messages to your friends, families, and loved ones. They can be sent on various occasions and you can have a variety of cards to choose from. They are also physical reminders that won’t disappear with age or time. So with all these things considered, why do so many people hate greeting cards?

Even though greeting cards are being bought in higher numbers than they ever used to be, especially by millennials and the younger generations and not just the elderly, there is undeniably a negative connotation for many people’s minds about greeting cards.

The reason for this is simple, many greeting cards used to be sent in the past in a very impersonalized manner. They were bought in bulk and sent all together without a care for making each one special. It would save time and be easier than sending everyone a letter for example. Most times these bulk-sent cards would either have no message or, perhaps worse, a simple generic message that is sent to all its recipient.

Instead of making those who receive that card feel special about receiving it, such assembly line cards were received with either annoyance or apathy. There was nothing personal about these cards, nothing special or memorable.

A card is supposed to make a person feel connected to its sender. It can be an intimate way of building and maintaining all kinds of relationships through life. By sending such generic cards, you are doing the opposite. Instead of it being a heartfelt gesture, it instead feels like a gesture made due to societal pressures or in the worst case, done out of disingenuous reasons.

How to change this?

The easiest way to change this is by sending cards that are meaningful, heartfelt, and individualized. Each card should be sent for a purpose and it should have some meaning behind it. The meaning can be as simple as keeping up connections with a humorous line, or as dour as expressing sympathies for a dearly departed. If you are not meaningful in sending your card, it will never be received as anything more either.

Your cards should also be individualised especially anniversary  cards.  Don’t just pick the first card that is in your budget and send it without a thought. Take some care to think about how it will be received and what the person receiving the card would think and feel about it.

Finally, make it heartfelt. Add in a personal message in greeting cards  or note within the card to show that you have thought about the one receiving the card and that you have put in at least a little bit of effort behind sending this greeting card. The message should be appropriate to the occasion and suited to the person receiving it.