From lockdown with love

While we all know that letter volumes have fallen significantly, colleagues have noticed that they are delivering many more handwritten envelopes and far fewer typed corporate statements.

Apart from the occasional greeting card, most of the letters we received before lockdown were bills or statements. Although the ongoing pandemic has brought with it an endless list of worries and stress, there’s no denying that it has also brought a whole lot of love.

Facetime, Skype, WhatsApp and the like have certainly filled a certain gap, but there’s nothing quite like receiving an unexpected yet utterly welcome note from a loved one. Putting pen to paper can be cathartic, romantic, and deeply personal and with many of us locked-down away from our friends and family, people have been resorting to the old magic of penning their thoughts and popping them in the post.

During the first few weeks of lockdown, Christina Lessani – the Glaswegian calligrapher behind @lailalettering – began sending her friends handmade cards to brighten their day. Reactions to her missives were so positive that she decided to offer them to her clients. ‘With everyone being away from loved ones and all of us needing to rely on technology to reach each other, I thought bringing back old ways of communication was important,’ she told Magzter.com.

‘People get a lot from a handwritten card. I think it’s the fact that someone has stopped and taken the time to think of the message they are sending and write it. It beats any bill or letter from the bank coming through the letterbox.’

For this week’s Loneliness Awareness Week, we partnered with the Department for Media, Culture & Sport (DCMS) and the Post Office, to encourage people to send letters to loved ones who are still isolating as lockdown measures ease.

Loneliness minister, Baroness Barran, has encouraged people to make contact with friends, family, elderly neighbours or anyone else who is clinically vulnerable.

‘Writing letters might be a slightly forgotten art, but it’s more important than ever to connect with people’ said the Baroness. ‘Putting pen to paper is an excellent way of making sure our friends, family and neighbours know we’re thinking about them.’

Remember, as a result of our partnership with Hallmark UK & Ireland, who are giving away half a million greeting cards across the UK, we have now delivered more than 250,000 free Hallmark greeting cards.

Reaching out is more important now than ever before, so keep showing you care by letting that special someone know you’re thinking of them. Visit www.Hallmark.co.uk/careenough now to sign up to receive your free pack of three gratitude cards, while stocks last.