Christmas and Santa are trending topics on twitter – it’s the fastest moving stream on the net, and the crowds are on top of everything. Downtown at Facebook, shopping plans and sick jokes are trending at our semi-private parties. It’s a mix of Hollywood and the neighborhood.

How we exchange insults and greetings varies by generation, and most of us will use a couple of methods this year. Many people will opt for Facebook messages and personal ecards this season, in part because it is green, but mainly for the convenience. With over 100 million electronic greetings to be sent in December, what are the new choices this year?

At the top three sites, 123Greetings, American Greetings and Jibjab there are professional studio cards, with more animation that ever before, and a trend to put your pictures into the card. These personal touches mean a lot for these “once a year” greetings.

2009 is a year when the sharing of personal videos and pictures really took off. Every day, hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded to YouTube and over 80 million pictures to facebook. With all this publishing and sharing, you can expect to see more amateur cards this year, as people decide to tell their own stories and remix funny content.

“This year you will see many more combinations of personal videos and pictures mixed with free Internet content, said Shaun MacDonald, CEO of Mashup Arts. “The trend is to embellish your own pictures and add music, and then share seasonal Webcam and YouTube clips – especially funny videos.”

In the new decade, everyone will be carrying around a powerful camera and camcorder embedded in their smart phone, and sharing much more personal content in their greetings and tweetings. It will not replace professional studios, as there will be even more professional content to go around, especially videos. The studios and our community content will live side by side as they do in the twitter, Facebook and YouTube neighborhood’s today.