Another year, another hunt to find the perfect quirky Christmas cards for family and friends. Save yourself the last minute shop scramble this December by getting onto some amazing and sustainable Australian Christmas card brands early!
Where to buy Australian Christmas cards online
If you are the organised type (which means you are reading this BEFORE mid to late December), you have an entire ocean of beautiful Australian made Christmas cards right at your fingertips, on the internet! Here are a couple of suggestions.
Australian made Christmas cards
The Nonsense Maker
If quirky Australian made Christmas card are your thing look no further than The Nonsense Maker. Melbourne artist Emily May painstakingly hand illustrates every design with fine point pen before colouring digitally, and printing in house in Brunswick, Melbourne. All of her Christmas cards and Christmas tags are also printed on partially recycled papers and sent with 100% recycled envelopes, which you can read about in the Our Values section of the website.
Able and Game
Able and Game have a card for everyone. These Aussie Christmas cards are so specific you will sure they have been made for you, and you alone. How do they do it? Melbourne artist Anna Blandford is a prolific illustrator! Her creative brain and graphic illustration style allows her to come up with hundreds of amazing ideas and create them fairly quickly, what a talent! She also has the help of her partner Gareth, who runs all the technical business stuff behind the scenes.
Image by Able and Game
International Christmas card suppliers
Ordering Christmas cards from overseas can be a pricey option with shipping and international transaction fees, and overseas shipping times. While we do have so many great Aussie Christmas cards right here in Australia, if you have the means supporting artists across the globe is just as wonderful as supporting the local ones! Plus sometimes the perfect piece of art is worth every penny. Here are a couple of Christmas card suppliers from across the globe to get you started.
Gabi and Gaby
An interior designer by day, Gabi, of the illustration brand Gabi & Gaby, is an English illustrator of colourful greeting cards and quirky Christmas cards based in London. She also designs fun wrapping paper and art prints with bright fun themes. She has a collection of Christmas cards on her website that can be viewed in AUD, and shipped to Australia.
Rifle Paper Co.
Anna Bond is the American illustrator behind the now huge international illustration brand Rifle Paper Co. She has a pretty graphic floral style that is widely loved (and unfortunately often copied by other brands). She started out as a greeting cards and stationery illustrator, but her artwork can now be found on everything from shoes, to mugs, to wallpaper and office furniture!
How to search for Australian made Christmas cards
Finding Australian made Christmas cards online on your own may seem like a hard task at first - Googling ‘Christmas cards’ or ‘greeting cards’ will likely bring back results from Hallmark, Kmart, and other huge companies with massive marketing budgets for online search advertising. Try narrowing your search to include the name of your city (in our case Melbourne), or try searching some of these longer terms instead:
- Aussie Christmas Cards
- Australian made Christmas cards
- Christmas cards by Melbourne artist
- Christmas cards Melbourne
- Greeting cards Melbourne
- Australian Christmas cards online
Be sustainable when shopping for Aussie Christmas cards
Sustainability is something we think about a lot, especially when it comes to disposable products like Christmas cards. There are traditionally 3 pillars of sustainability; Environmental sustainability, social sustainability, and economic sustainability. Whenever we purchase products or services we should really be asking ourselves if the company we are buying from is being sustainable in all three of these pillars. Here are some examples of ways you can spot if your Christmas cards are coming from a sustainable source.
Image by Sustainability Scout
Environmentally sustainable Aussie Christmas cards
When looking for Aussie Christmas cards choose environmentally conscious brands. More often than not Christmas cards are a deposable item, usually sitting around for a month or two before being thrown away. Close the circle by choosing Christmas cards that are both recyclable, and made from recycled content.
Hint: Go one step further and repurpose your old Christmas cards in a fun and creative way! Take a look at our blog for ideas on how to display your handmade Christmas cards!
Socially sustainable Aussie Christmas cards
Choose socially sustainable Christmas cards that have been ethically made in Australia. Generally any Australian made Christmas cards will be socially sustainable because our labour laws mean workers have rights and minimum wage standards that greeting card manufacturers have to follow. If the Christmas cards are manufactured overseas they may still be ethically made in socially sustainable conditions, but you might have to do a little scoping around the brand’s website to find out.
Economically sustainable Aussie Christmas cards
Economic sustainability refers to the way a company uses its resources to maintain long term economic growth, without sacrificing environmental and social sustainability. This might mean recycling and reusing by-products to minimise waste, or finding smarter ways to use time. Small businesses can be naturally savvy in this area because they don’t have big budgets to spend or time to waste, and so use all their resources as efficiently as possible.
Hint: If you are unsure if your Aussie Christmas cards or Christmas gifts are sustainable take a look at the company website for a page listing their values. When in doubt, get in touch with the greeting card brand and ask directly!
Can Christmas cards be recycled?
Navigating the tricky world of sustainability and recycling can be tricky, and at the end of the day if Christmas cards can be recycled all depends on the card itself, and what it is made from. For example all of The Nonsense Maker’s quirky Christmas cards can be recycled, as our Christmas cards are made entirely from paper. Christmas cards that have non-paper features, such as gold foil or plastic coating can’t be recycled. Most Christmas cards can be recycled, but if you are unsure contact the brand directly!
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