The UK leads the world in greeting cards, both in design and per capita send – The Henries awards celebrate this pre-eminence.

Named after Sir Henry Cole (who introduced the first commercially produced Christmas card in 1843), The Henries were introduced by Progressive Greetings Worldwide magazine in 1996 as annual awards to shine the spotlight on greeting card ranges.

The Henries Awards are the ultimate accolades in greeting card publishing, and each year some 14,000 cards are entered! The Henries award categories span the whole gamut of greeting card publishing, from humour to cute, art to children’s and everything in between.

The majority of the awards categories are for card ranges that have either been launched in the preceding year or for new designs to an existing range. The Henries awards are open to all publishers (or UK distributors), from the largest multi-national to the smallest one-man band. Entry is totally free of charge.

The judging panel, as ever, will comprise top retail buyers from right across the retail spectrum including specialist multiples, design-led independents, small groups, department store selectors, supermarket buyers etc. 

This year, for the first time, there will be a two-stage judging process. The initial judging stage will take place online. As a result of this, a shortlist of contenders will be arrived at. Following this, a live judging round of all shortlisted entries will take place, (again being judged entirely by retailers) for which publishers will be asked to supply actual physical card samples. These will be mounted on boards and presented to the judges and their votes will decide the finalists and winner in all the product categories.