Your guide to the last minute sending of LGBT+ Christmas cards ¢Å¨
While queer culture is being appropriated left, right, and centre, with everything from flannel shirts, to fleeces, to dungarees and Doctor Martens being seized by the Straights™, it seems only fair that we should get to take something back from them. And this year could well be the year that the queers steal Christmas.
All grand plans start with small steps, and this one begins with the sending of LGBT+ Christmas cards.
Trust us, it’s all part of the agenda.
1 Tree Cards
Becky, from 1 Tree Cards, explains: “We started the business after receiving some awful cards ourselves. Our favourite had to be from my mum who sent us the only lesbian card she could find which showed two little girls ice-skating and read, 'To my super cute daughter and daughter-in-law'.
"It did make us giggle because we would never describe ourselves as 'super cute' and we're not children(!) but it just showed us that there was a serious lack of representative queer cards on the market. So we decided to make our own – coupled with our mission to help the environment."
1 Tree Cards are 100% recycled. A tree is planted when you buy a card, and you also receive a seed token which says, "A tree has been planted for you" which can then be planted to grow flowers for our declining bee populations.
To top it off further, their cards are printed with vegan inks. Their initiative launched only this summer, but they’ve come off to an incredibly strong start; they are already stocked in 15 shops in the UK.
Take a look at their quirky and environmentally conscious cards at 1treecards.com
The Rainbow Cards Project
The Rainbow Cards project is a non-profit initiative that sends birthday, holiday, and special occasion cards to LGBT+ people whose families have stopped sending them cards since they came out.
Jane explains, "The aim is to combat the isolation that can come from receiving a negative reaction when you come out to family, and to remind recipients they are part of a huge community that is a kind of family in itself."
Last year they sent over 2000 holiday cards to 300 recipients. The website works out the postage and numbers of each type of card that they’re trying to send, so you can really see the funds that they need to raise.
If you agree that this is a LOVELY idea, then be sure to check out their website and support the cause here
Merry Queermas
These cards are another carefully crafted addition to the gay card circuit. Thea Wilkins, who creates the cards, learnt that the cards we traditionally send do not represent the diversity of society through receiving some very disappointing ones.
She said that when she married her wife, they received a number of straight cards – even living in Brighton!
However the cards by Nova (Thea's artistic alter-ego) fills this dirge of representation in glamorous and creative ways, taking inspiration from pop culture to create a range of trendy cards.
Sleigh all day, Henny… Or should I say, Happy Holigays! madebynova.com (See more from Thea in the December issue of DIVA magazine)
Oh, and also check out Greeting Card Universe and Etsy (naturally). Both have a great selection of queer-themed fodder for all year round.
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