E-cards Celebrate Thanksgiving Harvest of Family and Friends

E cards Celebrate Thanksgiving Harvest of Family and Friends Image

American and Canadian Thanksgiving Days are forms of harvest festivals, age-old celebrations held worldwide from the Ikore in Nigeria to the Chuseok in Korea. Each holiday entails succulent feasts prepared with foods gathered from recently harvested crops; gratitude for the bounty of not only life-sustaining sustenance, but also, and more importantly, that of family and friends; and much merriment.

Today, however, with immediate family often far from extended family or a vast network of family and friends nearby but attending different holiday dinners, the question becomes: how do we remember, how do we show our thankfulness, for those dear to us that we will not see on Thanksgiving Day? Or even, how do we find an innovative, heartfelt means to further celebrate the important individuals with whom we do celebrate? Since their inception in 1996, electronic greeting cards have made conveying sincere thoughts, feelings and well wishes considerably easier. Furthermore, e-cards are timely in our going green cultural climate because their carbon footprint is significantly lower than that of paper card companies and no paper product is used.

When choosing an e-card, you may wish to consider the following factors: Is the e-card a multi-media experience from beginning to end? Is the card distinctive? Do you connect with it on some level? And how much does it cost?

With one exception from their Nature's Sketchbook, Hallmark's online catalogue selection is humorous. They offer some free e-cards. Their higher tech cards are on average $1.99 per card. American Greetings cards begin with a simple Your e-card is loading with a load bar atop a background. Most selections include photography, and watermarks incorporated into font usage, with minimal animation as overlay. Once a customer provides an e-mail address, they introduce their $15.99 per year membership fee.

Unlike their corporate counterparts, Jacquie Lawson's and Ojolie's sites are operated by individual artists who create animated e-cards. Both artists provide a multi-media (visual and musical) display. Both artists provide remarkable artistic visions. Both artists explain membership costs readily.

The fall color palette that Lawson's cards employ tends to be more somber. Her cards contain traditional Thanksgiving imagery, such as the pilgrim's hat and bounty in her Turkey in the Straw and Harvest Song selections as well as the barn owl, corn, and conestoga wagon with harvest in Homecoming. Her most lively offering is perhaps Pumpkin Pie, in which viewers click on pumpkins and then watch the pie being made. Lawson's membership fee is $12 for one year or $18 for two years.

On Ojolie, artist Frederikke Tu's vision is contemporary and immediate, yet still employs a passion for wildlife and nature. In Turkey Day, the Click to view card introduction grows pumpkins on vines. The card contains four elaborate, animated scenes, leading to a modern day, extended definition of family to include pets. In Tu's Inventive Squirrels, which begins to play when the viewer clicks on a jay who tips over a greeting card, how animals, people, family, and harvest are interlocked is emphasized . Culinary Masterpiece, incorporates deep, vivid fall hues and creative playfulness at its best, with a song from The Nutcracker performing in the background while food becomes, well, more.significantly more. Ojolie's membership is $10 for one year or $15 for two years.

This year, how are you going to express the spirit of giving thanks for precious harvests of family and friends?

For additional information about Thanksgiving e-cards, please visit: