Birthday cards

Although the practice of sending greetings cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, who
began sending goodwill messages for New Year, the birthday card is a fairly modern phenomenon.
Birthday cards first became popular in England about 100 years ago. They were sent by way of an
apology if the sender was unable to make a birthday celebration and since then they have grown in
popularity right across the world.

The greeting cards industry is now a huge one, with birthday cards making up the majority of sales.
Walk into any newsagent or large stationers and you’ll find a wide range of birthday cards to cater
for different ages , sexes and personality types. Designs range from simple pencil drawings on a plain
white background to brightly coloured full bleed cartoons and giant over-sized cards for that very
special person in your life. They can be funny, cute, formal or positively gushing with emotion and no
matter who you’re sending a birthday card to, with a little hunting around you’re bound to find one
that’s just right and conveys what you want to say.

Today, most people will bring a birthday card to a party even if they’re going to see someone, but as
was the case 100 years ago, if you can’t be with the birthday boy or girl, birthday cards are a great
way of sending your love and letting the person know you’re thinking of them. And if words don’t
come naturally to you and you’re not sure what to say to someone special , then spend a little more
time in the card shop and read as many as you can until you come across a message that seems
right. Copywriters are employed by greetings card companies for a very good reason – they know
how to put in to words exactly what people are feeling!