Express & Star

Still love sending Christmas cards? We find out if the postal system is first class

We may live in the digital age but nothing says Christmas has arrived like getting a festive card in the post.

Published

More than 75 per cent of people say they prefer to receive Christmas cards rather than a festive email or text message.

And more than 70 per cent of people will have sent out Christmas cards this year.

With that in mind the Express & Star put the Royal Mail to the test to see how long it would take for Christmas cards to reach far-flung corners of the country.

Five plucky volunteers with family outside of the Black Country and Staffordshire took up the challenge.

All letters were sent out first class on Friday afternoon.

Louise Rouvray, 28, sent her Christmas card to her mother Shareen 128 miles away in Islington, London.

She was the first to announce she had received her post at 10am on Monday morning.

Rob Golledge's card was the next to arrive 95 miles away in Winterbourne, South Gloucestershire.

His grandfather Maurice received the card at 10.20am on Monday.

Just 10 minutes later was Kirsten Rawlins' card which was delivered to a relative 350 miles away in Grandtully, Perthshire, Scotland.

One hundred miles away, Alex Ross's family in Bristol picked up their Christmas card on Monday afternoon, having been out of the house when the postman visited.

But poor Jack Averty's family in Jersey had to wait until Wednesday morning for the card to make the 308 mile journey to the Channel Islands.

Stephen Agar, managing director at Royal Mail, said: "From the very first cards that we helped send back in 1843 to the millions of Christmas cards we handle each year, we are proud to still be delivering season's greetings across the UK over 170 years later."

Figures by the Greeting Card Association puts the total UK Christmas card sales at a value of £374.6 million and with volumes of 1.12 billion cards.

Sharon Little, chief executive of the Greeting Card Association, said: "Christmas cards epitomise all that Christmas represents to us in the UK.

"They are all about keeping in touch, keeping the emotional connection, reaching out to spread caring and goodwill at Christmas time.

"They are a physical manifestation of someone's regard that people keep and display.

"People value being sent real Christmas cards and being surrounded by these tokens of caring as part of their Christmas decorations in the home. You can't put an e-card on your mantelpiece."

Across Europe, people have distributed wood prints with religious themes for Christmas since the Middle Ages. The custom of sending Christmas cards as we know them today started in Britain from 1840, when the first 'Penny Post' public postal deliveries began,

The first Christmas card was commissioned in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole who had helped to introduce the Penny Post service three years earlier. It was designed by John C Horsley. It was printed and then hand-coloured.

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