They’re as much a part of the holiday season as fairy lights, roast turkey and crackers. But there are fears the exorbitant cost of postage could doom the traditional Christmas card after 180 years. In recent years, increases in the price of stamps, outpacing inflation, have caused the price of first class stamps to rise from £1.35 to £1.65 in October, making them a luxury item for many.

Commercially produced cards first appeared in 1843, and sending them to friends and family in late November and early December has been almost mandatory for generations. But it is unlikely to survive given that stamps have gone from being extremely affordable (first class stamps cost just 3p in 1971) to being terribly expensive. Frankly, it’s surprising there hasn’t been a bigger backlash.

For much of the postwar period, price increases were manageable for email users. Between 1991 and 2004, the price of a first class stamp increased by just 4 pence, from 24 pence to 28 pence, and that of a second class stamp by just 3 pence, from 18 pence to 21p. In percentage terms, this represents an increase of 16.67%, which is very reasonable over a 13 year period.

Now consider what has happened in the 13 years since 2011, the year some price controls were lifted before Royal Mail was privatized.

In 2011, first class stamps cost 46p and second class stamps cost 36p. Today they cost £1.65 and 85p respectively. This equates to an incredible price increase of 259% for first class and 136% for second class. Price increases have been particularly strong over the past three years, with the cost of a first class stamp almost doubling since 2021. At this rate, we’ll be looking at these stamps costing more than £3 by 2027.

Indeed, analysis this week suggested it would be cheaper to fly to some European countries and post your cards there than to buy 100 first-class stamps.

When announcing the latest price increases, the Royal Mail blamed falling letter volumes and rising trading costs. But as any sane person can see, huge price hikes in response to losses will only dissuade more people from using the Postal Service.

The postal service appears to be caught in a vicious cycle of decline. Stamp prices are raised significantly above inflation to try to reduce losses, but this only means more losses as fewer people use the post office. Unsurprisingly, the number of letters delivered has fallen from 20 billion per year in 2004/5 to just 6.7 billion in 2023/4.

The Royal Mail appears to be prioritizing more profitable parcel deliveries, but by making sending ordinary letters – and Christmas cards – so expensive it is doing a disservice to our society. Elderly people, who rely most on the postal service, are particularly affected. It is older people who are least likely to own a smartphone or computer and who already feel left behind in the race to digitization. They probably also have the greatest emotional attachment to traditional paper maps.

The rise in stamp prices in October therefore represents a further blow to British pensioners, shortly after Sir Keir Starmer’s government announced the scrapping of the universal winter fuel payment.

A reduction in the number of Christmas cards sent would also be a blow to charities, who traditionally earn a tidy sum each year from the sale of Christmas cards – around £50 million each year. Inevitably, the fewer cards sent, the less money these causes will receive.

Yet, given the high cost of stamps today, who can blame people for cutting back on sending cards (which in many cases also led to price increases that helped curb inflation), or don’t send them at all.

My elderly parents had a long Christmas card list that included not only family and friends, but also people they met at various parties dating back to the 1960s. But over the past decade it has been whittled down as stamp prices continued to rise. My own list is the same, and probably yours too, as the cost of living crisis and high inflation take a toll on our disposable income.

A survey last year showed that almost a third of us intended to send fewer cards due to cost. Which is kind of sad, because Christmas without sending and receiving cards wouldn’t really be Christmas, would it?

It is time that more pressure – both political and public – was put on the Royal Mail to change course and end these sharp rises in stamp prices. To maintain the Postal Service, we need more people using it, not fewer, but making stamps so expensive does just the opposite.