Christmas greetings no longer in the cards

If it seems as if you're getting fewer holiday cards this year, don't worry. Chances are it has nothing to do with your popularity.

The practice of sending Christmas cards is fading, collateral damage of the digital age.

After slowing growth since 2005, Christmas card sales declined in 2009. While the drop was slight, 0.4 percent, according to research firm Mintel International Group, evidence is building that the next generation of correspondents is unlikely to carry on the tradition with the same devotion as their parents.

The rise of social networking, smart phones and Apple iPads is changing the way friends and family stay in touch, diminishing the Christmas card's long-standing role as the annual social bulletin.

"People are up to date all the time on Facebook," said Kit Yarrow, a Golden Gate University professor who studies the 20- and 30-somethings of the Generation Y culture. "Gen Y-ers are notorious for not sending thank-you notes and not RSVPing. I just think that method of communication is foreign to them. And that doesn't bode well for the future of holiday cards."

Americans sent more than 1.8 billion Christmas cards through the mail last year, according to greeting card industry statistics. That figure is expected to drop to 1.5 billion this holiday season. Facebook, for its part, passed the 500 million member milestone in July.

Erika Maschmeyer, 30, won't be sending holiday cards. She has mailed holiday cards only once in her life, in her early 20s, when she had time on her hands.

While Christmas remains the holiday that sparks the most greeting card sales, fewer people send cards each year, according to Unity Marketing. The percentage of consumers buying greeting cards for Christmas fell from 77 percent in 2005 to 73 percent in 2007 and to 62 percent in 2009, according to the market research firm's 2010 report on greeting cards and stationery.

The outlook is particularly weak for teenagers and college students, who are accustomed to communicating in ways that are more immediate, more efficient and more cost-effective, said Pamela Danziger, president of Unity Marketing.

"Compared to these instant forms of communication, addressing a preprinted card and sending it via snail mail seems like an antiquated waste of time," Danziger said.

The recent decline doesn't mean Christmas cards can't make a comeback.

While no data are yet available, Danziger has gathered anecdotal evidence in recent weeks that suggest consumers are feeling the need to connect outside the electronic world, for Christmas in particular.

American Greetings and Hallmark -- the two biggest greeting card publishers in the United States, accounting for more than half of the market -- are doing their best to grab consumers' attention with high-tech cards that light up, record music and connect to the Web.

"We see social networking as a tremendous opportunity," said Steve Laserson, vice president of greeting cards at American Greetings. "The more people stay connected, the more likely they are to also correspond with a paper card."