Greeting cards are a great way to send holiday wishes and special sentiments to friends and family. Retail greeting cards come in dozens of categories that include holidays, birthdays, romance, congratulations, and more. Used widely for Christmas, Mother’s and Father’s Day, and Valentine’s Day greetings, many other holiday cards are manufactured as well. Other holiday greeting cards include Easter, New Year’s, Chanukah, Passover, Rosh Hashana, and St. Patrick’s Day.

Birthday greeting cards are extremely popular and come in age or gender specific categories, as well as serious, humorous, and belated varieties. It is possible to find birthday cards for most any family relationship, from cousin to grandparent, spouse, or child, and even for your stepchild or brother-in-law. Also popular are birthday cards that hint about old age.

The romantic greeting card category includes those with sentiments of love, romance, missing you, or I’m sorry. Greeting cards that convey messages of congratulations are common for births, anniversaries, weddings, engagements, and other joyous occasions. Congratulations greeting card categories also include retirement, graduation, bon voyage, pregnancy, Bat/Bar Mitzvah, and baptism or christening.

Sympathy cards are available in religious and non-religious versions. Get well and feel better soon cards are also prevalent. Miscellaneous categories include those such as thinking of you, encouragement, friendship, and good luck.

A relatively new category of greeting cards are those for business or professional use. Many of the other categories, such as birthday or holiday cards, are now labeled “appropriate for work.” Other uses for business greeting cards include thank you cards, announcements, or cards used for keeping in touch with customers or clients. Now that there is Boss’s Day, Nurses’ Day, and Administrative Professional’s Day, card manufacturers have created greeting cards for these events.

As the cost of greeting cards has increased, more people design and print their own greeting cards using word processing or desktop publishing software, a personal computer, and a home printer. Others choose to create intricate handmade greeting cards. And as more and more communication is performed online, it is now possible to send electronic greeting cards.

Some card manufacturers have tried to create cards that appeal to a younger demographic as sales of greeting cards have flattened. Those cards that appeal to younger customers include chic graphics and trendy sentiments. Other popular trends include cards with unusual embellishments or unique paper styles. Because many people save greeting cards as keepsakes, it is likely that paper greeting cards will be around forever.