Not surprisingly, birthday cards have pervaded most aspects of our lives. We receive birthday cards not only from our friends and family, new acquaintances, and prospective partners, but we also receive professional birthday greetings and company greeting cards. We even receive birthday cards from businesses we’ve done no business with, as many are eager to attract new clients by means of little gestures of goodwill. We thus rely on one birthday card company or another for personal and professional purposes at most times.
Despite having become as pervasive as it has or perhaps specifically because of that, the gifting of birthday cards has its challenges. When picking birthday cards, not only do we have to be sensitive about matters such as the birthday card recipient’s age, likes and dislikes, and our relationship to them, but we also have to do it year after year, offering something new every time. In other words, not only do we have to find new birthday cards for countless people in our lives, we have to find new birthday cards that are also appropriate for the specific person at that specific time and place. We even buy birthday cards and birthday gifts for our pets, though this is arguably more for others to see and appreciate on social media than for the animals’ birthday entertainment. At last but not least, we have to spend money, considerable amounts at times, to see this pass, as no new, trendy birthday cards or any other such birthday gifts are free.