Greeting Cards Should Be a Place for Short Stories

Greeting cards are tangible, timeless, and show appreciation. Regardless if the greeting cards arrive early or late (for Christmas, New Year’s Day, St. Valentine’s Day, a birthday, or any other day), they’re an illustrated message that express all of the human emotions, such as serious or humorous affection, goodwill, gratitude, sympathy, or other sentiments. In Egypt, the exchange of symbolic presents, like (scent bottles and scarabs inscribed au ab nab, meaning all good luck) was a way for the new year to be celebrated. The Romans would exchange strenae, which were originally branches of laurel or olive, frequently coated with gold leaf. 

Greeting Card
Photo by Ranurte on Unsplash

Maybe you prefer eCards, but physical greeting cards can be similar to a bouquet of roses, a souvenir, or simply cash. If you couldn’t care less about the awe-inspiring designs and skim past the overall message, you probably would rather be playing board games or knitting. Reading a short story in a card can still be a go-to gift, but the person has to appreciate the simple things in life as well as mawkish poetry. The type of person with a way with words probably wouldn’t have to worry about creating mawkish poetry, but the person receiving the greeting card should appreciate it. Better yet, how about adding a short story to the greeting card, regardless if it’s fiction or nonfiction, and if it’s poetic, even better.

Would Short Stories on Greeting Cards Make You a Loyal Customer?

Hallmark, a top U.S. greeting card manufacturer innovates many designs and cards in the realm of novelties, animation, three-dimensional effects, and visual and sound effects. If an African-inspired paper goods and lifestyle brand like AfroTouch Design were to have short stories and/or beloved poetry in greeting cards, would Hallmark try to use the same competitive strategy to keep their customers? Wouldn’t you love to read a short story written by someone you love, where it’s not the same heartfelt message you may get annually or biannually? 

Realistically, if you want a greeting card to have a short story, the greeting card will have to be short enough to fit inside or may have to be customized, having multiple pages. Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers would be excessively long to fit on a standard-size greeting card. You’d need to minimize the font size and grab a microscope just to read the letters. Hemingway was once asked to write a full story in six words. He cleverly responded, “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn,” but it’s debated by some critics if he originally wrote it. Hemingway also wrote six-word sequels. I think it’s safe to say that numerous customers would spend more time in stores reading stories on greeting cards before buying them, giving them time to get hungry, and buy food.  

Greeting Cards
“Greeting Cards” by Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine is marked with CC0 1.0.

In the spirit of using six words in a story, Smith Magazine invited other writers to attempt the same. Some of the notable memoirs from the writers are Phil Skversky, writing “Alzheimer’s: meeting new people every day,” and Anita Kawatra writing “Yale at 16, downhill from there,” which can be easily appreciated on a greeting card. Such content is viewed as a short story by some writers, but by people in general, a short story at least has a paragraph. Dr. Seuss’ editor, Bennett Cerf, made a bet with him that he couldn’t write a book using 50 or fewer words. Thus, in the 1960s Green Eggs and Ham was written, and ever since then, it sold more than eight million copies. 

Being Creative with Your Greeting Card

Handmaking your own greeting cards is practically a part of learning origami. You can be as creative as your heart desires. Instead of handing out store-bought cards, showcasing your artsy side can boost the interest of your loved ones. If there’s a restaurant you love going to with someone, maybe a representation of the restaurant can be on the greeting card. Or maybe the person would love to have a greeting card specifically from the restaurant, full of nostalgic moments. You taking the time and effort to work on a personalized greeting card for someone should be valued. 

Have fun while creating your greeting card. Because you’re a writer, it does not mean you have to focus on writer’s block. Free your mind or at least think of what content you can add to the greeting card next. Another way of giving yourself a pat on the back would be to celebrate by taunting when nobody in the area can see it as an extraordinary way of getting in the mood or cooling off. Taking a break from your ongoing project is fine, but you don’t want to forget about it to the point that it becomes a belated gift. 

Homemade Card
Homemade Card (image owned by Kyle Gipe)

Finding a mini greeting card inside of a basic greeting card can spark a person’s interest. It builds a form of curiosity. Open the mini greeting card, and maybe you have another one to open and you’re left with secret recipes for your favorite foods and beverages. It could be that you’ll find a printout photo of your friendship or relationship. Maybe you’ll find an unexpected picture of a family-friendly hotspot in Belize. Maybe you’ll find a pressed flower inside, which can be a birth flower, state flower, or all-time favorite flower. You may find tickets to an anticipated event, such as a movie, play, concert, sporting event, and other endless possibilities. 

Seek & Find Greeting Cards?

What if a page from a seek and find children’s book series, (like I Spy and Can You Find It?) was placed on a greeting card, and in the bottom section, there was a handwritten message? The last time many of us remember hearing The Three Little Pigs, we probably don’t recall listening to a 32-page story with 8,000 words. There’s a way to fit a short story into a greeting card and, arguably, people already put short stories on greeting cards. 

If Mainstream Authors Wrote on Greeting Cards

If mainstream authors wrote on greeting cards, they’d have to abide by the company policy instead of writing how they want. Unless the professional writers who customize their own greeting cards, there likely won’t be a whimsical writing style like Dr. Seuss (who arguably invented the word ‘nerd’ in a 1950s book If I Ran the Zoo) and the poetic Maya Angelou (who became the first black streetcar conductor).

Maya Angelou
Clinton Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Angelou managed to write words for a line of cards, bookends, and pillows for Hallmark, and if you never threw away the greeting cards she worked on, you have a collector’s item. She partnered with Hallmark because she wanted her work to be read, being placed in the hands of people who don’t buy books. Could this indicate that people buying greeting cards do not want to read books in general? 

A greeting card can have regular content saying, “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be grateful” and usually cliche content. Such repetitive expectancies can be somewhat of a snoozefest to those who do not see the value of genuine acts of kindness. A message in a greeting card can have innovative quotes and poems, which can still be considered a story. The overall content of a greeting card doesn’t have to be the size of a paragraph. 

Give your cards a touch of handwritten quotes and poems and, hopefully, you’re a poet. If you’re not a poet, it’s the thought that counts. Maybe your short story can have the saying “To be continued” at the end, which allows the recipient to look forward to Chapter Two.