More than eight million people in the UK plan to use AI to write their Christmas cards this year, according to research from Royal Mail. I can’t decide whether that’s productive, tragic, or just a sign we’ve all had a very long year. Maybe all three?
To be clear, I’m an AI sceptic. And not in a vague and uninformed “tech is scary” way. I’ve written about how these tools are already affecting children and young people, about emotional reliance, and about the power that’s being concentrated in the hands of a few (largely unchecked) founders. There are real ethical questions here, and they matter more and more every day.
So when I first saw people talking about using AI to write Christmas cards, I felt like a Scrooge. And yet, I also get it. It seems to me that most people aren’t turning to AI because they think it’s more meaningful or more thoughtful. They’re doing it because they’re exhausted, running out of time, and running on fumes. Which is why I wanted to test this properly.
Yes, it feels slightly uncomfortable running an experiment like this when so much of my writing encourages people to think critically about their use of AI. But maybe Christmas cards are a good pressure test. They’re small, personal, and emotionally loaded in a way that emails and work messages aren’t. If AI struggles anywhere, I’d expect it to be here.
The AI Christmas card experiment
I asked five major chatbots to write a Christmas card for my mum.
I deliberately kept the prompt simple without any instructions or emotional hand-holding. Because I think that if people are really using AI for this, they’re not spending half an hour perfecting a prompt. They’re doing it late at night when they’re frazzled and just trying to get something written.
The prompt:
Please write a heartfelt message for inside a Christmas card for my mum, who has helped me move house recently.
Then I rated the results. Although there’s no real science here, just a scale from one (“I hate this”) to ten (“fine, I still hate this, but it’s acceptable”).
The results
ChatGPT
Dear Mum,
I just wanted to say thank you, properly and from the heart. Helping me move house wasn’t just about boxes and logistics — it was about your time, your energy, your calm when mine was running low, and the quiet reassurance that you’re always there when things feel big.
I don’t ever take that for granted. Your support means more to me than I probably say out loud, and this move would have felt far heavier without you beside me. Thank you for showing up in all the ways you always do — practical, generous, and full of love.
I hope this Christmas brings you a bit of the rest, warmth, and care you so freely give to everyone else. I’m so lucky to have you as my mum.
With all my love,
Becca
I rolled my eyes at this response but it’s not terrible.
There are some very obvious AI tells here (I’ll get to those soon), and while it sounds emotional, it’s also generic, like it’s listing things. It’s all a bit glossy and slightly fake. Which, well, it is. But, if you squint, it does the job.
You’d definitely want to tweak it, add specificity and ask it to refine the tone. At which point you could probably have written the card yourself. But if the bar is “not actively embarrassing,” this clears it.
So, begrudgingly, I’ll give this a 5/10.
Claude
Dear Mum,
This Christmas, I’m especially grateful for you. Moving house is never easy, but having you there made all the difference. Your help, your encouragement, and just knowing you were by my side turned what could have been overwhelming into something manageable—even enjoyable at times.
Thank you for the countless hours you gave, for lifting more than your fair share, and for always knowing exactly when I needed a cup of tea and a reassuring word. You’ve helped me not just move boxes, but truly settle into a new chapter.
I hope this Christmas brings you as much warmth and joy as you’ve given me. You deserve all the happiness in the world.
With all my love,
[Your name]
This one felt a little more human, which I appreciated. The tone feels a touch warmer and less polished than ChatGPT’s, and the sign-off works well.
That said, it starts to wobble once it adds detail. The tea, the boxes, the logistics. Some things could apply to almost any moving day. But funnily enough, I didn’t have a kettle when I first moved and packed things in suitcases and bags rather than boxes.
This is where AI risks overreaching and sounding specific without actually being personal. As well as just making mistakes. A good example of why you should never just ask AI to write a Christmas card (or anything for that matter) and then not properly check the results. But you’d never do that, right?
Still, if I had to pick, this would be my favourite overall. It comes closest to something you might plausibly write yourself on a slightly tired evening. So let’s give it 7/10.
Gemini
Dearest Mum,
As we celebrate Christmas this year, I wanted to send you the biggest, warmest thank you for everything you did to help me with the move.
Honestly, I don’t know how I would have managed without you. From the mountains of boxes to the endless trips, you were my rock, my chief organizer, and my superhero all in one. You didn’t just help me move my things; you helped me settle in and made the whole daunting process feel so much easier and brighter.
Knowing I have your support means the world to me, and I feel so lucky to have you.
Thank you for your incredible energy, your patience, and your love. I hope you have the most wonderful, relaxing Christmas—you truly deserve it!
Lots of love, always,
[Your Name]
There are a few too many AI tells here for my liking.
It’s overly formal and a little… grand? And it’s packed with specific details that feel lifted from a stock “moving house” template, like “chief organiser,” “superhero,” “mountains of boxes.” It’s all a bit much and made me pull a little face at it.
It also veers into that sickly territory where praise starts to feel inflated rather than heartfelt. You could rein this in with edits, but you’d be doing a fair amount of work to get there. This one gets a 3/10.
Perplexity
Dear Mum,
This Christmas, I just want to say how truly grateful I am for you.
Thank you for all your love, patience, and especially for helping me move — I couldn’t have done it without you! You’ve made my new place feel like home already, and that means the world to me.
Wishing you a Christmas as wonderful and full of warmth as you are. You deserve all the joy and peace this season brings.
With all my love,
[Your Name]
I didn’t actually realize Perplexity could write like this. I’ve only ever used it for research, but it gave it a decent go.
This is the least warm and least personal of the lot, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s breezy, safe, and inoffensive. If you were writing a Christmas card for someone you’re fond of but not especially close to, this could be fine.
Not one for emotional depth, but useful in a very narrow lane. 4/10.
Grok
Dear Mum,
As I sit here in my new home, surrounded by boxes that are finally starting to feel like they belong, I keep thinking about how none of this would have been possible without you.
Thank you for every trip you made backwards and forwards, for lifting more than your fair share, for the endless cups of tea, and for turning what could have been a stressful chaos into something filled with laughter and love. You didn’t just help me move house—you helped me settle into a new chapter with so much warmth and care.
This Christmas, I’m especially grateful for you: for your endless kindness, your quiet strength, and the way you always make everything feel like home, no matter where I am.
I love you more than words can say, and I feel so lucky to have you as my mum.
Wishing you the merriest Christmas filled with all the joy and peace you deserve.
With all my love, [Your Name]
Is it possible to get The Ick from a chatbot? Because I think I just did. This one was… a lot. Over the top, gushing and weirdly grovelling.
What makes it worse is that all of this came from the same simple prompt. The endless tea, the laughter, the “new chapter,” the declarations of love.
It would feel sickly sweet from a person, but the fact that a chatbot wrote this makes it even more cloying. 2/10, if I’m being generous.
Should you use AI to write a Christmas card?
Please don’t.
Okay, fine. I’ll be more forgiving. It is Christmas, after all. I’m wary about AI (if you couldn’t tell). But as I said earlier, I get why we use it. Not because it’s as magical or transformative or better than us that tech founders want you to believe.
Because we’re all tired, being told to be productive and have neglected the things most important to us. Maybe even the very people we’re writing these cards for. And if you don’t feel like that as we enter the end of the year, I applaud you.
So yes, short on time and not sure what to say to someone who you don’t have much to say to? Fine. And you could use Claude for that, or maybe even Perplexity.
If you do, take some time to either add more specific detail to your prompt. Or, better still, refine it afterwards. See AI as giving you the skeleton of what you’re going to write. And you, with all your lovely human-ness, will add the meat and, crucially, the soul.
None of the cards I tested were disasters. But in a way, they were sort of worse? They were competent, overly polite, and emotionally… smooth? Each one left me with that familiar AI feeling. That nothing is technically wrong here, but nothing really connects or feels “right” on a deeper level either.
How to spot an AI-written Christmas card
I don’t love the idea of trying to “spot” AI writing in general. A lot of its quirks come from us. It was trained on human language, after all, and plenty of these traits exist in perfectly normal writing.
That said, after reading these responses and scrutinizing a lot of AI outputs more generally this year, some patterns do stand out. I’m not saying analyze your Christmas cards for AI writing, but this is what I’d be looking to edit out if I did turn to AI for Christmas cards this year.
- The ‘it’s not X it’s Y” structure. E.g. “Helping me move house wasn’t just about boxes and logistics — it was about your time, your energy.”
- Overuse of certain words, like honestly and quiet. E.g., “Honestly, I don’t know how I would have managed without you.” Obviously, these are commonly used words, but chatbots seem to like stuffing certain ones into everything.
- Overuse of the en dash, em dash, and hyphen.
- Things that didn’t happen. E.g., “For the endless cups of tea, and for turning what could have been a stressful chaos into something filled with laughter and love.” This is an obvious tell, but worth spotting in your own work. AI loves to make stuff up rather than admit it doesn’t know or leave a gap.
- Out of character writing. This is a tricky one, as I don’t see a problem with shaking up how you write, and we all have our quirks. But if someone usually just writes their name in a Christmas card and suddenly it’s packed with a sickly sweet Sonnet-like verse, it would ring alarm bells for me, personally.
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