Do You Send Holiday Cards?

I’m not sure why I’m so obsessed with sending our annual holiday card/greeting… but I just LOVE coming up with a creative way to share everything we’ve been doing for the last year with family and friends.

I know that most people just read them, hang them on the fridge for the Christmas season, and then toss them after January 1 {at least that’s what I do!} but I also know how much I enjoy reading other’s updates and seeing pictures of family and friends. So I guess I hope the recipients of our cards also get that enjoyment. At the very least, I enjoy every minute of designing and creating our holiday cards… so it’s still worth it 🙂

And just to prove how much of a holiday card “freak” I am, I’ll let you know that I have an entire file in our filing cabinet dedicated to Holiday Card Ideas — and now I have a Holiday Card pin-board on Pinterest full of ideas too!

I know… I’m weird!

Anyway, here is a quick look at the different types of holiday cards I’ve sent out for the past 5 years, and I can’t wait to share our 2011 card with you… in a couple months! 

Christmas 2006

This was our first Christmas as a married couple and we had just sent out our wedding Thank-You’s a few months early. The Thank-You’s had our wedding picture on them, so I didn’t really want to do a wedding photo card like everyone else.

I found and ordered super cute Christmas cards and simply signed our names {hey, I was still new at this!}

Christmas 2007

{this was the only card I had left over and I ran out of “supplies”. The others were much cuter!!}

I got a bit more crafty and actually made all the cards and then inserted a small postcard-size paper inside with our yearly update. We probably only sent out 30 cards though so it wasn’t a huge deal to make them.

Christmas 2008 / New Year’s 2009

I actually sent out New Year greeting this year instead of a traditional Christmas greeting — and it was such a nice change. I also heard from a lot of people that was so fun to get another card even after the holidays were over.

I spelled out the words “HAPPY NEW YEAR” and then wrote a small paragraph to go with each letter. I simply used normal computer paper and printed the text, graphics, and images right one one page {front and back}.

This was nice since I decided to send it to ALL our relatives, friends, etc. {about 150 total}

Christmas 2009

Even though these cards took me awhile to put together, I had a ton of fun making them. I simply cut a piece of craft paper into thirds and then pasted our printed message on the back. Then I did a little “Joy To the World” stamp on the front.

This card fit perfectly in a standard #10 envelope and it was just the right size for a short and sweet Christmas greeting {we didn’t have much interesting stuff going on that year!}

Christmas 2010

To date, this is my favorite Christmas card. I just think the picture is awesome, the printing was amazing {from this company}, the quality was superb, and we had so much fun information to share about our new house — I glued a paper with our yearly updates and new address on the back.

We really got two cards in one — a Christmas card and a “We Moved” card!

Christmas 2011

This year, our holiday card will also serve a double purpose — a baby announcement and a Christmas card.

I was actually hoping to send out a Thanksgiving card this year, just because we do have SO much to be thankful for. However, I don’t think I’ll be able to get a picture of our new baby, print the cards, and get them in the mail before Thanksgiving… and you really can’t send a Thanksgiving card AFTER Thanksgiving!!

So, I have two or three different ideas up my sleeve and am planning a super cute holiday card this year again.

 

Oh and I ordered this really fun return address stamp that I can’t wait to use… LOVE it! 

{obviously, it has our name and address on the stamp — this is just an example!}

 

So what type of holiday greetings are you planning to send this year?

• Hand-made cards
• Store bought cards
• Photo cards
• Some type of written letter
• E-card
• E-mail updates
• Thanksgiving, New Years, or other type of greeting
• Or nothing at all!

If you still don’t know what you want to do this year, head to Pinterest to see some really creative holiday card ideas!

Oh, and if you’re wondering how we store and display our Christmas cards — I’ll get to that in a few more weeks!!