If you're thinking right now, it's too early to be talking about Christmas cards! Read on and find out why truly it's not. For the first time in my life I may actually be right on time. It's that "running-out-of-time" feeling of mass hysteria in the weeks before Christmas that brings out the monster in me ~ and I hate to be a grinch during the holidays. That's no fun. So, while sending stacks of Christmas cards may not be a simple joy, it doesn't have to be The Nightmare before Christmas.
Honestly, it's the family photo that causes the lion's share of my grief...
- but, it's also tracking down our friends and families' updated addresses
- trying to guess how many cards I'll need, and then running out to get more
- finding an acceptable printer for the family photo
- the sheer terror of addressing all those envelopes by hand
- and deciding if I should write a note inside the cards
- or rather print out one of those small cute inserts that highlights our family's year (never a longwinded letter)
- Or can I just sign my name along with my husband's + our four kids' names as one long inky blob and call it a day?
This, here, is a collection of little tips and lessons I've learned in the past 8 years (mostly of what not to do) ~ in hopes of bringing even the teensiest bit more joy and peace to our home this holiday season (and if at all possible, yours too.)
When your card
arrives all neat and pretty and on-time it makes you look like you've
got your act together... ha! See the date I've circled above? Ya. Sending your cards out on December 17
(while it is a nice effort, and honestly one year I sent out our cards after Christmas) is way too late! Plan to post your cards the first week of December. ("Plan" being the keyword, ladies.)
One easy thing to get out of the way is ordering stamps. Why make a special trip to the post office when you can see all the pretty designs from home on your computer and have them shipped to you for about $1. I ordered mine from USPS.com and this is what I chose this year:
One year I was crushed (semi over-dramaticized) when the post office sold out of Christmas stamps early, so I'm glad I've already got that covered. I always buy a variety of designs, too, so our Jewish friends don't get the religious Christmas stamps and I'll purposely put really cute stamps on cards going to our friends who have young kids. It's a little bit of extra thought, but details are my fave!
I keep my Christmas card address list handy all year. It's a simple Word document that I mark up as addresses change and I only update it on my computer about every three years when there's ink in my printer. I think a list, rather than flipping through your address book, is best because you can see everything at once, easily count how many cards you'll need, and check people off as the cards are addressed ~ making it harder to miss someone.
And hey, if you're one of those high-tech, fancypants people ~ keeping your address book in a database (like Excel or Filemaker Pro) and you print it all out into address labels ~ I mean, that's cool. Sniff sniff. I simply prefer the look of hand-addressed envelopes. Call me old-school ;)
However you keep your addresses organized, now is the time to make sure your list is updated.
However, since your husband will come home a week before Christmas and ask, "Oh, did we send a card to my new boss's boss's assistant?" Well...
Choosing your Christmas or holiday cards is the easy part. It's purely an aesthetic choice and luckily you've got lots of options to choose from. I used to buy my cards right after Christmas when the fancy ones noone could afford were now 50-75% off, and hold them for the following year. One year I didn't have pre-bought cards so I tried out the photocards at Shutterfly. They came out alright but I didn't care for the paper. This year I was approached by Minted and I got really excited once I saw their designs. These are some of the cards I'm looking at for my family:
{ above photos from Minted.com }
Maybe choosing isn't going to be so easy. But it's fun perusing the holiday photocards at Minted because you can change the colors, the shape of the card, choose folded or flat, and switch from "Christmas" to "Holiday" wording with simple clicks. Lots of options. I'm also excited about Minted because they rave about their paper quality and I'm eager to find out for myself.
One year I scrambled to get photo postcards printed through Target at the last minute, and when I got home they didn't fit in the envelopes of our Christmas and holiday cards. They were about 1/4" too long and I very nearly folded the photos in half as a solution. Instead I poured myself a cocktail and got out the paper cutter. Because of the way the photos were designed, I had to trim a bit from each side so they wouldn't look funny. And the lesson is: measure your cards before ordering 50 photo postcards that won't fit inside.
When ordering actual photocards, the shape, orientation and background of the photo(s) you'll use are immensely important. Landscape or portrait orientation? Square photo? Sometimes a photo with a lot of blank area is called for ~ things to keep in mind when taking your family photo.
{ photo from Minted.com }
If you take your kids to a portrait studio and pay a professional to do the work, I totally understand. If you take the pics yourself and suffer from any of the following, then you're with me and we are sisters:
- one-child-refuses-to-look-at-the-camera-per-photograph
- one-of-them-gets-up-and-walks-away
- your-son-says-smiling-hurts-his-face
- one-or-more-start-crying
Basically, you've got to keep your cool. Or pour yourself a vodka tonic ~ and if you can't do that, then green tea is calming too, but less effective. Also, I've found that making sure your kids are properly fed, properly napped, and not uncomfortable in their "holiday" clothes can be helpful.
That's what happened here:
... and in the end I didn't feel too bad about it either.
If you're not doing photocards, but photos inserted or taped onto your cards, here are some interesting links about where to get the best quality photo prints. I love the side by side comparisons of the same photograph printed by different labs:
Supplies may include:
- customized return address stamp or embosser, or labels
- seals or decorative stickers
- gold or silver gel pens
- calligraphy pens, if you know how (would you like to teach me, too?)
- a couple of these, unless you like licking envelopes, ew.
Got everything now? Supplies, cards, and an hour or two? So get writing! Put on your fave Christmas tunes, light a candle, drink a nice cup of tea. Enjoy a nice memory of each person as you write down their address (it only takes a few seconds.) If you don't have any nice memories of the person you're addressing the card to (because they're on your husband's side of the family and they live in Boston and you've never even met them) make one up! Now that's the holiday spirit!
And lastly, let's talk about the inside of the card. Do you write a note inside? Do you sign your name? Do you let the pre-printed "Love, the Sinibaldi Family" do all the talking?
Miss Manners, I am not. My husband would laugh. But a
Christmas card should have even the smallest amount of hand-writing on
the inside or it feels too corporate, too cold, too mechanical and
lacking personal touch. How much you write inside will be
dictated by time and affection but I beg of you to write something.
If you've included a printed note to everyone, sign that. Even just an "xo Amy"... if that's all you have time for.
Signed, sealed, and stamped. Whew! That was a lot of good work ~ and it wasn't so bad, was it? Pat yourself on the back and pour the eggnog! And if you were only able to accomplish half of what you'd hoped ~ I'm going to guess you probably deserve another glass! Cheers, my dears. I'd love to hear your tips about sending out your Christmas and holiday cards on time and in style.
And now for the Giveaway! from Minted...
If you haven't visited the Minted website by now, check 'em out! They carry beautiful cards, party supplies, stationery, even art prints... and they're offering to one of you a credit of $75 to use at their shop. Don't want photocards? They've got awesome holiday cards, postcards, and ornament cards. Look at these pretty customizable gift tags...
So pretty. Now, go see what you could get... then leave a comment here on this post and cross your fingers! Comments will close Friday, November 8th. Open to all!
xoxo amy
