Canada Post workers strike impacting deliveries of Christmas cards. The cherished tradition of sending Christmas cards disrupted

The Canada Post strike, now in its third week, is wreaking havoc on a cherished holiday tradition: sending Christmas cards.

 

Erica Miluzzi, a new mom to baby girl Ava, mailed out 30 custom cards that included a family photo, a baby portrait, to friends and family on Nov. 14, only for Canada Post to go on strike the next day.

 

As the strike drags on, her hope that the cards she spent more than $80 on would be delivered on time has dimmed.

 

“I know that the impacts of the strike, especially on small businesses before the holidays, stretch way beyond just my own cards,” Miluzzi said. “But I was definitely just disappointed for myself.”

 

For Miluzzi, the strike has raised broader questions about the future of sending physical cards. “It just made me kind of think I could have sent a digital card, and people would have definitely received that, and it can still be personalized in that way,” Miluzzi said.

 

The strike is also impacting more than just personal traditions. Small businesses in their busiest season are facing setbacks — including in some layoffs — while charities that rely on Canada Post to send cards to people who are homebound are also struggling.

Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have yet to resume negotiations after a special federal mediator temporarily suspended talks last week. Disagreements over Canada Post’s delivery model and wage increases had led to the breakdown of discussions.

 

While Canada Post recently presented a “framework” to resume talks, the union said it is prepared to return to the table, though the proposal “remains far from something members could ratify.”
The impact on small businesses and charities

 

PostNow, a Canadian company that provides thousands of direct mail marketing campaigns for businesses every year and solely partners with Canada Post, has seen orders plummet to five per cent, forcing the company to lay off eight of their 15 staff last week, said Nate Schick, the company co-founder.

 

He added that some mailings scheduled for December have been canceled because businesses don’t want to risk sending out mailings later that might appear disingenuous.

 

“I feel left aside, pushed aside, like small businesses don’t matter.”

 

St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic church in Ottawa, which has an annual tradition of sending mass Christmas cards to isolated people in the community since the pandemic, is also facing challenges.

 

Father Robert Laroche, the parish priest, designs a unique card every year, which the church prints and sends via Canada Post out with personal messages written by volunteers, said Christopher Adam, the executive director of the church.

 

“It tells them that they are not forgotten by the community. The sense of belonging is so important, especially during Christmas time,” he said.

 

Adam said the church now has about 100 cards in its office waiting to be written, and plan to divide them to volunteers in different regions so they can go door to door to distribute the cards.

The Christmas card tradition

The tradition of sending Christmas cards dates back to 1843 when Sir Henry Cole, too busy to write individual holiday greetings, asked his friend, painter John Callcott Horsley, to design a festive card with a brief message. A thousand copies were printed, and soon mass-produced Christmas cards replaced handwritten greetings across Europe and the U.S.

Joanne McNeish, the marketing professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said she doesn’t believe the Canada Post strike will break the habit of sending Christmas cards.

 

“If it’s important to people to do it in terms of wanting to communicate authentically and tangibly, then they’ll do it when they can,” she explained.

 

Though many people have stopped sending letters due to the decrease in the cost of phone calls, McNeish believes there will always be a group who prefer physical cards, drawn to how paper engages the senses in a way that digital communication cannot.

 

“They’re a hardcore loyal group. It’s part of how they communicate with people, and so after the strike is over, they’ll continue to do it.”

 

McNeish noted that many younger generations, like GenZ, are gravitating toward traditional hard-copy items, almost as a form of resistance to the digital world they live in.

 

In an age when handwriting is becoming less common, McNeish said Christmas cards represent the effort people put into buying a card with a handwritten message.

“All of that the receiver understands it in a powerful, emotional way,” she said.

Next year, go digital?

 

Miluzzi loves to send Christmas cards every year — a tradition she inherited from her grandmother.

 

“It’s always nice that you open up the mail and see a note that somebody took the time to send to you,” Miluzzi said.

 

This year, she took it a step further and created custom cards to express her gratitude for the support of her friends and family during her wedding, pregnancy, and the birth of her baby — especially to those she knew she wouldn’t be able to meet during Christmas. But her cards still sit in the mailbox down the street from her house.

 

Miluzzi said she is not sure if she will still mail out Christmas cards next year.

 

“I don’t know if it’ll make me a little bitter and go toward the digital e-card, because they make nice ones, too.”

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star