The British are prolific Christmas card senders. Even in the face of steeply rising postal costs, the Royal Mail estimates that it handles 150 million cards a year and each British adult receives an average of 17 cards per year. Most surprisingly of all, there are reports that Christmas card purchases are rising in the 18-30 age group, a sign perhaps that a generation that has grown up with a battery of instant communication methods at their fingertips has come to value the old-fashioned pleasures of the traditional card.

Here's our four-point guide to Christmas cards:

Choosing your Cards

There is evidence that some retailers are seeing a rise in single card purchases, indicating that consumers might be making discriminating choices about their cards, rather than opting for big variety boxes.

There is also evidence that many people are choosing to make their own cards, complete with stick-on glitter and home-printed imagery. Just remember that, with the possible exception of senior politicians and the royal family, sending out a photograph of your fabulous family is not the ideal Christmas greeting. It smacks of self-satisfaction and self-promotion, and these are not emotions that you should be disseminating during the festive season.

Buying Christmas cards that support a charitable cause is a venerable tradition, and it is estimated that Christmas card purchases raise an impressive £50 million per year.

Finally, think carefully about the imagery. If you’re sending out cards to a cross-generational mix of friends and relatives, you might have to consider carefully before sending out cards with rude jokes, saucy images or obscene greetings. You might have to consider buying different sets of cards for different groups of recipients. If you’re highly secular, religious images might seem incongruous – recipients who know you well will be puzzled by your appropriation of religious imagery.  Take care when sending cards to those of other faiths: to this end ‘Season’s Greetings’ may be more appropriate than ‘Merry Christmas’.

If you care about recycling or you’re sending your card to someone who is very eco-conscious, avoid choosing a foil or glitter design. Choose a gloss or matte finish card instead, as these can be recycled.

Addressing your Cards

The days when we all had over-stuffed address books, which were a palimpsest of our social history, full of crossed-out and new addresses for our oldest friends, are long gone. Many people no longer keep a record of their friends’ addresses (no longer necessary when everyone can be contacted by text, email or social media) and the Christmas season involves a mad scramble as would-be card-senders struggle to find current addresses, postcodes etc.

Learn from experience and find a way of recording addresses. This might well be a spreadsheet that you keep on your laptop rather than an old-fashioned address book, but just remind yourself how useful this level of organisation can be.

Writing your Cards

Christmas cards are a great way of keeping in touch with old friends, but you should use them as a simple aide memoire rather than the vehicle for an epic recounting of all your last year’s triumphs and travails. It is not practical to write extensive messages in every card you write, and your prosy greetings will get lost amongst all the other incoming Christmas communications.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can circumvent the onerousness of writing repeated long messages by sending a reproduced ‘round robin’ newsletters. Because these rambling accounts of your family’s doings are aimed at a wider audience, with no element of personalisation, they tend to become boastful, heedless monologues, which can be off-putting rather than engaging.

Keep your message short and sweet. It’s fine just to sign your name/s, or you can add a simple message of the “I hope you have a great Christmas and am very much looking forward to seeing you early in the new year’ variety.

Tailor your message to your recipient. If you’re sending a card to your manager, a neighbour or your child’s teacher, it’s not appropriate to sign it with ‘love’ and xxxx. Revert to the more formal ‘with best wishes’ type greeting. For semi-formal cards, sign with your forename and surname, for example ‘John and Jane Debrett’, rather than ‘Mr and Mrs Debrett’.

Handwrite your message and, if possible your envelope, in ink. Even for those who do not recognise your writing, handwriting makes it look like you have made an effort. People who are close to you will be familiar with your handwriting and – without opening the envelope – will feel a pleasurable pulse of anticipation and recognition.

Sending your Cards

Christmas cards are traditionally sent in envelopes with diagonal flaps. Always use stamps on Christmas cards – never put cards through your office franking machine. Keep an eye on last posting dates and make sure to get them in the mail on time – Christmas cards on the mat in the dog days between Christmas and new year are a somewhat depressing sight. Remember, it is fine to hand-deliver cards around your neighbourhood but, if possible, put them through the letterbox as it slightly undermines the gesture if you are physically handing over a Christmas card.

Rest assured, recipients will be delighted by the effort that has gone into writing and sending (or delivering) their card. They will recognise that you have had to purchase cards and stamps, find their address, handwrite a personal message and walk down to the postbox to mail the card. This represents so much more investment than merely sending an e-card, or texting a quick Christmas message, even if it is embellished by seasonal emojis. It would appear that the number of people who continue to send Christmas cards would agree that all that effort is worthwhile.