54% Finns see Christmas greetings as most valued mail items

More than 50% of Finns consider Christmas cards, letters and parcels sent as Christmas greetings their most valued mail items, according to a survey commissioned by Posti in November.

Greetings with a more affordable Christmas no-value indicator stamp must be mailed by Tuesday, December 13 at the latest, said the national postal and logistic services operator Posti in a press release on Thursday.

More than 60% of Finns intend to send Christmas greetings, such as cards, letters or parcels, through Posti. Christmas cards are the most popular option. These include purchased and self-made postcards as well as cards made using a personal photo.

Christmas greetings are important to recipients. More than half (54%) value Christmas cards, letters and parcels the most as a Christmas greeting. Text messages or personal social media messages as greetings are valued by 8% of respondents.

Christmas cards are sent mainly because they are intended to make the recipients happy. And this is reported as the reason by 96% of those who send Christmas cards.

“According to our research, Christmas cards are a way to make people happy. They convey a personal touch and warm thoughts from the sender. Maintaining traditions is also important for Christmas card senders,” said Sami Määttä, Consumer Mail Business Unit, Posti.

Among those who send Christmas cards, 93% considered personal reasons to be important, and 89% stressed the importance of tradition.

Last year, sending Christmas greetings was a popular choice, as 83% of the respondents said they received greetings in the mail.

The majority of these were Christmas cards, either bought, handcrafted or made using personal photographs. Paper Christmas cards delight recipients for a long time, as 88% of respondents say they keep them throughout Christmastime.

Commissioned by Posti, the survey was conducted by IROResearch Oy's national consumer panel on November 8–16, 2022, with one thousand respondents. The survey’s margin of error is approximately +3.2 percentage points at most.