In a world that has picked up speed like never before, the Christmas greeting too has gained in pace: by going virtual.
The hassle of going to the card shop, choosing the right one and sending it by snail mail appears to have prompted the younger generation to opt for virtual cards that reach their destination in a just a click. E-cards have animation, music and surprises at the end, making them all the more appealing to general next. What is more, almost all e-cards come free and the same card can be sent to multiple destinations.
A huge range of virtual Christmas cards can be found on the Internet. Some of them include Lantern Parade, Mountain Bells, Christmas Boogie, Sleigh Ride, The Little Shepherd, Santa’s Flight, etc. There are cards that allow the senders to add their photos, even put them into the scenery. There are also talking cards like the Merry Mistletoad talking card which allows the sender to record a greeting in her own voice and have it play while animated toad in a Santa hat appears to be reading the message.
There are e-card baskets containing animated video greetings with music and elaborate personalization options. Some of them come with cartoon characters, popular music and TV shows.
Mobile apps
Mobile applications such as WhatsApp also provide a huge variety of Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) cards that are almost invariably funny, but sometimes thought-provoking too.
Dhanalakshmi C. Nair
