The Christmas holiday period is more than likely the one major time of every year when it is not only acceptable but encouraged to really get personal in a usually-only-professional business setting. As a result of the very nature of the holiday—care and concern and involvement with and for our fellow humankind—there is a certain amount of good will and togetherness that naturally and irrevocably comes with the festive territory.
One major avenue you can utilize to show your holiday cheer is to send corporate Christmas cards. Corporate Christmas cards have over the years come to stand as a vehicle, signifying to your associates and customers that you are thinking of them, and you care enough to publicly acknowledge your appreciation of them.
As a business owner, you will likely send corporate Christmas cards to each one of your employees. This gives them the confidence to believe that you honor the work they do for you every day . . . and they are likely to continue on a positive path for you and your business in the year to come.
And also as the owner of the company, you usually follow that up by sending corporate Christmas cards to your customers—you are thanking them for their continued patronage; to occasional business—you are showing them that you’re paying attention, and this could very well bring them in for more consistent trade; and even to your peers and business associates—you are indicating your gratitude for any help they have given you in the past year, and that you’re willing to lend a hand in the future if they need one.
When have you ever honestly resented someone who has reached out to you? It is a rare occurrence that someone doesn’t, at some level, find pleasure when they know they have been remembered, that someone cared enough to extend a token of their interest. Corporate Christmas cards are such a public token. Sure, it’s a practice that in some ways has lost its brightest sheen because of the sheer number of businesses that take part in sending cards every year. The corporate Christmas cards themselves have become a booming business. Sending these cards is a part of company policy, a task that has to be done along with all other end-of-the-year tasks.
Yet on the other side of that, think about those companies that do not send corporate Christmas cards. They stand out, and not in a good way. Some responsibilities, while they do become part of a yearly corporate effort as much as they should be a personal effort, are still crucially important in that one-on-one sense of caring between people, and between companies.
So corporate Christmas cards are that proverbial double-edged sword, aren’t they? You will likely be ostracized at some level if you do not send them—your customers, your business associates, and your employees will all see you as not interested in taking the time to continue the practice. Yet when you do take the time and care enough to send them, often people will say you have done so only because it’s something required of you. How can you win?
If you are weighing the odds as to whether or not it’s worth the endeavor and cost to your company, especially during this particular year of tightened pursestrings, give special, careful consideration to the fact that the price of personal contact most often cannot be measured. If you are taking part in a long-standing, nearly universal practice, you know what you, in your individual credo, believe in. If that somewhat odd combination of personal and business interaction comes from your heart rather than a sense of obligation . . . you need to send out corporate Christmas cards.
Sometimes, at some point between that moment of “I have to do this” and “I want to do this,” there is an epiphany, a sense of the two melding . . . and you find that while you actually do have to send out corporate Christmas cards—for the company’s bottom line, you also want to do it—for the good feeling the very act gives you personally in return. Very rarely can you do something pure and sincere and good and not get your own reward out of that act.
It’s always going to be in your best interest—business and personal—to send out corporate Christmas cards. If you can spare the relatively few dollars the effort will cost you, you can’t go wrong. If you are honest with yourself, you will probably be watching your mailbox to see who sends a corporate Christmas card to you and your business. You don’t want to be Scrooge this year. Go ahead, send out corporate Christmas cards and watch the returns roll in—both for your company coffer and the health of your personal mindset.
Corporate Christmas Cards