What is the difference between a Coprorate Christmas Card and Personalised Christmas Cards?

Personalised Christmas Cards
A personalised Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas season. Personalised Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day on December 25 by many people (including non-Christians) in Western society and in Asia. The traditional greeting reads "wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year". There are innumerable variations on this greeting, many cards expressing more religious sentiment, or containing a poem, prayer or Biblical verse; others stay away from religion with an all-inclusive "Season's greetings".

Corporate Christmas Cards
A Corporate Christmas Card is much the same, infact with no differences. Coprorate Christmas Cards tend to be from a company or trade name, sometimes including a company logo or aty the very least, business address and comapny name.

A Christmas card is generally commercially designed and purchased for the occasion. The content of the design might relate directly to the Christmas narrative with depictions of the Nativity of Jesus, or have Christian symbols such as the Star of Bethlehem or a white dove representing both the Holy Spirit and Peace. Many Christmas cards are secular and show Christmas traditions such as Santa Claus, objects associated with Christmas such as candles, holly and baubles, and Christmastime activities such as shopping and partying, or other aspects of the season such as the snow and wildlife of the northern winter. Some secular cards depict nostalgic scenes of the past such as crinolined shoppers in 19th century streetscapes; others are humorous, particularly in depicting the antics of Santa and his retinue.

History
The world's first commercially produced Corporate Christmas card, made by Henry Cole.The first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London, 1843, and featured an illustration by John Callcott Horsley. The picture, of a family with a small child drinking wine together, proved controversial, but the idea was shrewd: Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. Two batches totaling 2050 cards were printed and sold that year for a shilling each.

Early English cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. Humorous and sentimental images of children and animals were popular, as were increasingly elaborate shapes, decorations and materials. In 1875 Louis Prang became the first printer to offer cards in America, though the popularity of his cards led to cheap imitations that eventually drove him from the market. The advent of the postcard spelled the end for elaborate Victorian-style cards, but by the 1920s, cards with envelopes had returned.

The production of Personalised Christmas cards was, throughout the 20th century, a profitable business for many stationery manufacturers, with the design of cards continually evolving with changing tastes and printing techniques. The World Wars brought cards with patriotic themes. Idiosyncratic "studio cards" with cartoon illustrations and sometimes risque humor caught on in the 1950s. Nostalgic, sentimental, and religious images have continued in popularity, and, in the 21st century, reproductions of Victorian and Edwardian cards are easy to obtain. Modern Christmas cards can be bought individually but are also sold in packs of the same or varied designs.

In recent decades changes in technology may be responsible for the decline of the Corporate Christmas card. The estimated number of cards received by American households dropped from 29 in 1987 to 20 in 2004. Email and telephones allow for more frequent contact and are easier for generations raised without handwritten letters - especially given the availability of websites offering free email Corporate Christmas cards. Despite the decline, 1.9 billion cards were sent in the U.S. in 2005 alone. Some card manufacturers, such as Hallmark, now provide E-cards.

Commercial Christmas cards
Trade Christmas card promoting Royal typewritersMany businesses, from small local businesses to multi-national enterprises send Personalised Christmas cards to the people on their customer lists, as a way to develop general goodwill, retain brand awareness and reinforce social networks. These cards are almost always discrete and secular in design, and do not attempt to sell a product, limiting themselves to mentioning the name of the business. The practice harkens back to trade cards of the 18th century, an ancestor of the modern Personalised Christmas card.

Charity Christmas cards
Many organizations produce special Corporate Christmas cards as a fundraising tool. The most famous of these enterprises is probably the UNICEF Christmas card program, launched in 1949, which selects artwork from internationally known artists for card reproduction. The UK-based Charities Advisory Trust gives out an annual "Scrooge Award" to the cards that return the smallest percentage to the charities they claim to support.

In 2004, the German post office gave away 20 million free scented stickers, to make Christmas cards smell of a fir Christmas tree, cinnamon, gingerbread, a honey-wax candle, a baked apple and an orange.

Advances in digital photography and printing have provided the technology for many people to design and print their own cards, using their original graphic designs or photos, or those available with many computer programs or online as clip art, as well as a great range of typefaces. Such homemade cards include personal touches such as family photos and holidays snapshots.

The Christmas card list
Many people send cards to both close friends and distant acquaintances, potentially making the sending of cards a multi-hour chore in addressing scores or even hundreds of envelopes. The greeting in the card can be personalized but brief, or may include a summary of the year's news. The extreme of this is the Christmas letter (below). Because cards are usually exchanged year after year, the phrase "to be off someone's Personalised Christmas card list" is used to indicate a falling out between friends or public figures.

Environmental impact and recycling
During the first 70 years of the 19th century it was common for Christmas and other greeting cards to be recycled by women's service organisations who collected then and removed the pictures, to be pasted into scrap books for the entertainment of children in hospitals, orphanages, kindergartens and missions. With children's picture books becoming cheaper and more readily available, this form of scrap-booking has almost disappeared.

Recent concern over the environmental impact of printing, mailing and delivering cards has fueled an increase in e-cards."Green" alternatives to the glittery paper standard include those made with recycled paper and vegetable-based inks.

Since 2000, the U.K. conservation charity Woodland Trust has sponsored an annual campaign to collect and recycle Corporate Christmas cards to raise awareness of recycling and collect donations from corporate sponsors. Its goal for 2007 is to collect 90 million cards by year's end

International Christmas greetings
The traditional English greeting of "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" as it appears in other languages:

Albanian: Gëzuar Krishtlindjet dhe Vitin e Ri
German: Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein glückliches/gutes Neues Jahr
Dutch: Prettige kerstdagen en een gelukkig nieuwjaar
Danish: Glædelig jul og godt nytår! or simply God jul
Hungarian: Kellemes Karácsonyi ünneepeket ës Boldog új évet, or simply BUÉK
Finnish: Hyvää Joulua ja Onnellista Uutta Vuotta
French: Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année
Polish: Wesolych Swiat i Szczesliwego Nowego Roku
Estonian: Häid jõule ja Head uut aastat
English: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Portuguese: Boas Festas e um feliz Ano novo
Latvian: Priecigus Ziemassvetkus un laimigu Jauno gadu
Spanish: Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo
Swedish: God Jul och Gott Nytt År
Italian: Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo
Vietnamese: Chúc m?ng Giáng Sinh
Basque: Gabon Zoriontsuak eta urte berri on
Catalan: Bon Nadal i Feliç Any Nou
Irish: Nollaig Shona Duit
Indonesia: Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru
Filipino: Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon