Editing Christmas card (section)

===Commercial Christmas cards===
[[File:Tucker Corporation Christmas Card, 1947.jpg|thumb|120px|Tucker Corporation Christmas Card, 1947]]

Many businesses, from small local businesses to multi-national enterprises, send Christmas cards to the people on their customer lists, as a way to develop general goodwill, retain brand awareness and reinforce social networks. These cards are almost always discrete and secular in design, and do not attempt to sell a product, limiting themselves to mentioning the name of the business. The practice harkens back to [[trade cards]] of the 18th century, an ancestor of the modern Christmas card.

In September 1964, it was reported that, during the previous eight years, British industry had increasingly stopped sending "official" Christmas cards, including Granada, ICI, Schweppes, Shell and Unilver.<ref>Philip Phillips. "The BBC regret - no greetings". ''The Sun''. 15 September 1964. p 1.</ref>