The Times view on the soaring price of stamps: Going Cardless

At one time, the only way to be struck off a loyal friend’s Christmas card list was via a catastrophic event: death, say. Or committing murder, daylight robbery or a particularly ill-judged infidelity. Today, however, it simply requires the pal in question to take a regretful look at the strained family budget and decide who to start culling first.

With the price of a Royal Mail first-class stamp doubling since March 2022 to reach an eye-watering £1.65, even gregarious types are feeling compelled to cut down on scattering seasonal goodwill, at least in paper form. Stumbling through the blizzard of Christmas rites and obligations, some longstanding recipients may not even notice they have been dropped. But others, who still adhere to old protocols, will take it very badly indeed.

There is a solution, at least for those with 70 or more cards to send and an excuse for a short, pre-Christmas trip abroad. Keen-eyed budgeters have worked out that above that number of missives — even factoring in the price of a low-cost return air fare — it can be cheaper to fly to Lisbon, Milan or many other charming European cities and post the Christmas cards back to the UK from there.

For stay-at-home senders, however, the steep stamp cost could render other Christmas card traditions­ unviable. The “panic card”, remembered and dispatched long past the delivery window for second-class post — a more reasonable 85p — may be endangered. So too is the “guilt card”, triggered by the unexpected apparition of a friend’s festive greetings on the doormat. Worst of all, we will see fewer of those wonderfully precarious strings of Christmas cards, full of angels, wise men, snowscapes and robins, which once regul­arly collapsed across so many living-rooms. For the pricing-out of card-based cheer, the Royal Mail deserves a place on Santa’s naughty list: an email cannot deck the halls with the same magic.