Posts Tagged ‘greeting cards’
Mother’s Day 2011: Mom by the Numbers
My mom kept me on track with my second-grade math. In 1978, we had a massive Amana Radarange microwave oven with manual dials to turn for the minutes. She would set two minutes on the Radarange to heat a cup of water. I had that long to finish a multiplication worksheet (sans calculator), so I could ace my math test in Mrs. Karrell’s class. She did this math ritual with me over and over. This Mother’s Day, consider the numbers behind our appreciation of Mom.
- According to 2008 U.S. Census figures, there are 85.4 million mothers in America.
- Mother’s Day ranks second among gift-giving holidays; Christmas is first.
- An estimated 83.1 percent of Americans will celebrate Mother’s Day 2011.
- Total 2011 U.S. spending on Mother’s Day is expected to reach $16.3 billion, up 11% from last year.
- Mother’s Day accounts for one quarter of holiday flower purchases.
- An estimated 75 million Americans will dine out for Mother’s Day today.
- Americans will send 139 million Mother’s Day cards, making it the the third-largest card-sending holiday. (Christmas and Valentine’s Day take the top spots.)
- Hallmark offers nearly 900 different greeting cards for Mother’s Day 2011.
- In 2010, Americans made 11.3 percent more calls on Mother’s Day than during the rest of the year.
I’m fortunate to have a great mom. It’s time to call to let her know and tell her about the charitable donation I made in her name to Meals for Moms.
Tags: dining, flowers, for her, for mom, giftology, greeting cards, mother's day, surveys
I’d almost given up on Hallmark. Then in 2000, the greeting card giant released its Fresh Ink line. These cards are colorful, clever, odd-shaped, off-beat, even snarky at times. Fresh Ink is my first choice when seeking a greeting card. Today Hallmark celebrates 100 years of cards — still fresh after a century.
Tags: greeting cards
You’ve heard love is patient; love is kind. This year, love is practical. With the soured economy, the National Retail Federation predicts Americans will spend $20 less on average on Valentine’s Day gifts than last year. And the NRF survey found more will exchange Valentine’s Day greeting cards this year (58 percent) than in 2008.
If you are giving a Valentine’s Day card, consider sending it with a special postmark. Loveland, Colorado’s post office offers a Valentine re-mailing program, a tradition since 1947. First, buy the card in advance so you can mail it out the first week of February. Seal the card in an envelope with your funny Valentine’s address and finish it with a Valentine’s stamp. Now put that envelope into a larger 1st class envelope with the right postage and mail it to:
Postmaster
Attention: Valentines
446 E. 29th St.
Loveland, CO 80537-9998
Loveland’s post office volunteers hand-stamp a love-poem postmark on thousands of Valentines and send them to sweethearts. I treated my wife to this tradition while we were dating, and she still has the envelope. Kudos to author Michael Webb, who introduced me to this idea in his book, The RoMANtics Guide.
Tags: books, greeting cards, surveys, tradition, valentine's day
If you’re from Detroit, Cleveland or Buffalo, chances are, you know about Sweetest Day. According to Retail Confectioners International, those three U.S. cities top the list celebrating the fall holiday for sweethearts. For me, the day is all about giving chocolate, but flowers and greeting cards are also popular. (Hallmark has 147 varieties of Sweetest Day cards for 2008.)
But let’s get back to chocolate. My wife and I love the smooth, creamy taste and sweet aroma of the confection. Right now, I’m humming “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
We both enjoy chocolate in so many forms: milk chocolate bars, chocolate pretzels, hot chocolate, fudge, dark chocolate, brownies, chocolate mousse, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate muffins, chocolate liqueur (but only the real stuff), chocolate cake, chocolate donuts, s’mores, chocolate truffles, chocolate biscuits, chocolate-covered raisins, chocolate beer, chocolate-dipped strawberries, chocolate malts, and chocolate ice cream (or better yet frozen custard). I just gained three pounds writing that sentence.
Now my wife has discovered a new chocolate taste: Godiva single-serve coffee pods for our Senseo Coffee Machine.
Tags: chocolate+candy, coffee, flowers, gift ideas, greeting cards, indulgences, movies, music, sweetest day
I bought Rule the Web
- Use sizeasy.com to estimate the size of gift gadgets by comparing them to common objects like a deck of cards, a CD case or a credit card. I entered the inch dimensions of Rule the Web and compared the book to a wine bottle. Sizeasy.com then offers a 3-D rendering of both objects together.
- Early adopters seeking the newest technology may find these gadgets debut in Tokyo or Seoul. Online importer Dynamism.com buys the latest notebooks, cameras, and mobile phones in Asia and Europe and modifies them to fit U.S. consumers.
- To avoid presents with a mass-produced look, try Etsy to shop for handmade gifts from more than 100,000 sellers worldwide.
- Use BookFinder4U.com to locate the best price on books from more than 130 stores. I searched for Rule the Web, and half.com by eBay offered the best price (cost plus shipping) at $10.48.
- Tap Metacritic.com to find the best DVDs, music and books. The site combines the critiques of many reviewers into a single metascore. 100 is the best score (given to The Godfather), and 1 is the lowest (reserved for Pauly Shore’s Biodome). Stick with scores highlighted in green for critically acclaimed choices.
- Kiva.org allows you to set up microloans between $25 to $1,000 to assist business entrepreneurs in developing countries. Give an online gift certificate that allows your giftee to choose a business plan to support.
- Delivr.net uses Flickr photos to send free online greeting cards to friends and family.
Tags: books, charitable gifts, dvds, for her, gadgets, greeting cards, guy gifts, music, photos, takeaways
