What a Card!— by Guest Mom Girl con Queso
I feel I should begin with an apology. Because I'm going to go ahead and talk about something a bit controversial. No, not politics. Or the CMA awards. I'm going to talk about the most wonderful time of the year before it officially begins. Please just know, I am usually in no way an advocate for celebrating the Holidays out of order. Meaning, around here, we have a pretty strict policy that we don't even mention things holly or jolly until after Thanksgiving.
But since I realized yesterday that Thanksgiving is only 15, now 14, days away, that means Christmas is only 45 days away. Which means Holiday cards can start going out in about 18 days or so. And I have no idea what we're sending.
I think I just sounded very frantic. And I really didn't mean to.
Because I love Holiday cards. And in my world, Holiday is Christmas, so I'm just going to call them Christmas cards for the rest of this post. Because I'll mean to say Holiday, but then I'll forget anyway and mess up, and really, I love Christmas cards.
I wish I could send out 12 different kinds. Each day. One for every day of Christmas. And this is my problem. It's hard to decide. On a card. With so many good ones out there.
Now I'm usually somewhat of a non-traditionalist in the Christmas card arena. But don't get me wrong. I love all of them. All the traditional, red, green, holly and ivy Crane's engraved cards.
All the photo cards, pet cards, calendar cards, satire cards, cartoon cards, drug store cards, homemade cards. (Especially the homemade cards.) All of them. But for me and my house, I like a bit different.
So here are a few I've found this year that are in the running.
Now I'm the type of gal who would just send a card. Old school. But my husband really likes cards with photos.
So we've compromised. We send a regular card out but put a photo inside. Last year's photo was pretty funny. And sadly, I can't seem to locate it right this second. But come back tomorrow, and I'll post it as an extra bonus. You won't be disappointed.
-----
Okay, please pause with me for a minute here. I just showed the HcQ a few of these options. And, not sold on any of them, he's decided that he's going to design ours himself this year. Um. Yeah. We'll see how that goes. I think I may need to have some back ups just in case.
-----
So what do you do about Christmas and/or Holiday cards? Do you buy yours? Do you make your own? Are you a photo sender? A newsletter updater? Do you send five? Or five hundred? And do you know what you're sending out this year? Or do you refuse to think about it until after the turkey is carved? If so, again, my apologies to you and yours.
The cards featured here can be found at:
Fabulous Stationery
Crane
Handsome Devil Press
Rock Scissor Paper
Prentiss Douthit
Hello Lucky
11/16 Edit: the source on the photo card is Tiny Prints. Lots of beautiful stuff at Tiny Prints!
posted by Gabrielle of Design Mom at Thursday, November 09, 2006
18 Comments:
I love to say, "Christmas Cards" and I am sending around 150 this year. Christmas cards are a mini hobby for me and I sometime make them and I sometimes buy them, but I always want them to be a gift for the people that I didn't get an actual present for so: I include a favorite dessert recipe (sometimes one that I get from Jenni) and a family photo, a holiday picture by my artist daughter which is colorcopied in miniature, I love to include a very short Christmas Message and a classic Christmas poem. I am working on mine now and I hope to send them out Dec. 1. This is very important, because then you get lots of cards back. Have you seen Christmas with the Kranks? We are Christmas freaks who live among Christmas freaks!
I LOVE your cards!! We move a ton and our only contact with many old friends is through Christmas Cards. My problem is that my taste always runs very traditional and so my cards are, at times, a little boring.
I really wanted to do something special this year, because our dad is arriving home from Iraq just in time for the holidays and I want to shout to the world how happy and grateful I am feeling. You have given me some great ideas. I especially loved the green tree and the decorate and celebrate cards. Thanks so much for the ideas.
As for photos:
I love sending a photo because I want photos. It is the only time I get to see many of our friends families growing. I love them!
Thanks again for the ideas!
Maybe it's because I have no design skills whatsoever, but I am always way more into the accompanying letters than I am to the Christmas cards themselves. And I can just admit that I am mean beyond reason when it comes to Christmas letters. I mock, I ridicule, I laugh. With one exception . . . my cousin's card, featuring his rascally dog Binky. I can't wait to hear what that dog is up to now. In last year's card I learned Binky chewed up almost all the living room pillows! Binky, you are one crazy dog!
But as for the designs on those cards? Those I do not mock. I critique them, yes, but reverently and soberly. Like I just did with the cards on this blog. Very nice, all of them.
So many great card options!
I love receiving Christmas cards, but I'm sure crummy at sending them. Last year, we sent New Year's cards, because I just couldn't get my act together pre-Christmas.
I get so intimidated to gather addresses. I assume (oddly) that every address I have on hand is outdated — as if every single person I know has moved in the last year.
Love Boxes: I love the idea of the mini gift in the Christmas card. Could you share some of the Christmas poems that you have incorporated in your cards? I might borrow the idea for our cards this year. Unless I do the lamo postcard style family photo card like I did last year. Sadly, a nod towards "thinking of you" but too busy to actually put together really good together.
Looking forward to my MMI & GCQ card this year.
I found this lovely blog about three weeks ago and I just so enjoy it! I also think guest bloggers are a great idea, so thank you so much.
So, instead of admiring from afar I decided to add my little two cents worth...
One of my very creative and ambitious sisters changes the lyrics of Christmas carols for her newsletters. A few years ago The first line was "Joy to the World, Scott got a job!" The year they moved it was "Rockin' Around Albuquerque". She and her husband always do more than one verse and put it into sheet music. They are never boring!
I on the other hand always want to send the perfect cards but never seem to get them out before Christmas. So, about six years ago I gave up and now I send handmade (well...partially computer designed) Valentines instead. I have found this has saved me a lot of unwanted December stress!
However...after seeing these awesome cards, I may just have to send a few Christmas cards afterall!
I always want to make them, but usually end up buying them. I love photo cards, but my husband has issues w/ people who only send pictures of their kids....his theory is that no one wants to see the kids, they want to see the adults..... ahem.........
So, we always have to try to take a FAMILY picture (the only year that happened was the year that we attended a family wedding). I usually end up just taking pictures of the kids. Then they get addressed and half of them (every year) end up sitting on the computer desk b/c I can't find the address. I am looking at some right now. From last year, and the year before........
THis year I am determined to do better. Here is a tip that I got from my MIL when we first married that I have loved. I wanted to pass it on. Buy an album that is only for your christmas cards. Every year we put our card in it (10 this year) and it is so fun to have. My daughter loves looking at it and reading the "letter". I am so glad I started doing this b/c otherwise I would have no idea where those cards are now.... :-)
P.S. I take pictures for pocket money and every year I end up getting about one million card that I either made or did the photos for...yet I don't manage to get my own done............. duh.
What awesome cards! Maybe I'll actually get my act together this year and send some out. If I do indeed get them sent, we'll probably include a photo, or a montage--is that tacky to include a photo montage, would you recommend a single, classy family portrait?
I know I already commented, but while I was admiring all the Christmas cards, I came across some pretty fantastic wrapping paper (I especially love the houndstooth) at rockscissorpaper.stores.yahoo.net/giftwrap1.html
I LOVE Christmas cards!!
I'm usually late sending them, though; not near as organized as love, boxes.
In 2003 we were living in Galveston, so we did the whole family photo thing (with the cats!) of us dressed appropriately to give homage to Galveston's Dickens on the Strand Festival. The whole card inside and out was very "A Christmas Carol." The back had the yearly "obligatory update."
Before I sent them out we went on vacation to see family in California. While we were gone one of our neighbors' house caught on fire, and our house burned as a result. Wonder of wonders, the cards were okay -- although smelling faintly of smoke.
By the time we recovered from the fire and got moved into a new place (lotta damage from the fire!), it was February. And because I had worked so hard on those cards, I sent those suckers out, complete with a letter as an addendum to the obligatory holiday update!!
Like I said: I LOVE Christmas cards!
i'm a big holiday card person, but i say holiday card instead of christmas card. partially because i was raised jewish. partially because we celebrate hanukkah and christmas, and partially because i don't send out cards with a christmas theme -- just a "december holiday" theme or message.
as is probably the case for many of your readers, design mom, i take about eleventy-bazillion pictures of my kids each year, so we've done photo cards ever since we've had kids (4 yrs now). and i'm a graphic designer, so i tend to be pretty picky about what's out there for purchase (gcq -- you showcased some great ones here, i continue to be impressed with you!), so i tend to design my own. and even now that we do photo cards, i design my own and have them printed (with words, designed by me as well) at snapfish or some other online photo printer. simple, clean, big photo, handwritten message on the back.
and i LOVE receiving holiday cards, christmas cards, new years cards, hanukkah cards, all cards. every year i try to devise a new system for displaying the cards. this year we're in a new house, so i've already begun thinking about how and where we're going to display them. gcq -- i'd love to get one of your christmas cards!!
I LOVE Christmas cards. I design them myself & send out about 120. I don't send them to people I see on a regular basis (i.e. live near me), because I figure they know what we look like & all our news already.
I know exactly what I want to do this year. I've been waiting and waiting to use this idea - but needed 4 kids. Viola, baby #4 was born last May.
Now I just need to figure out how to make the image in my head a reality .... and get them all done by Dec 1st (I like to send them out then so others get them in time to send one back to me!)
OH, and Missy should somehow scan and include the AMAZING card her super-husband did last year. Hands down the best Christmas card I've ever received. It was each person in their family, in different poses as paper dolls! Little dotted scissor lines around them and everything. I cut them out and then Emy LOVED playing with her friends.
I am brushing up on my Paint Shop skills and I hope to create something on the computer this year. I just hate cutting and pasting for weeks and weeks.
I try to go for the most unique and unusual Christmas cards I can come up with. 2 years ago I sent out cards with glow in the dark, scratch and sniff pine tree air freshners printed on the front. The company that made them (Corndog Cards) got sued over them so they're not available anymore. Last year I went with the multiple choice correspondence cards and they were a hit, but WAY too much work. (I sent this one and this one.) In some creative fashion I like to include a brief update too, and maybe a plcture if I can find a fun one.
I love the pink one. But Victor would never go for it.
I always make our cards with Hailey x-mas pictures. If I can find them I'll email you a copy. They're utterly ridiculous.
Love Boxes, amazing ideas. I love thinking of a card as a mini gift.
Rachel, what a wonderful celebration. Happy Christmas!
Eric, it's okay that you don't have design skills. As long as you have skills. Numchuck skills. Bowhunting skills. Computer hacking skills. Whatever.
Design Mom, I agree about the addresses. I have the same fear.
Em, always love your cards.
Stepi, I love that idea about the Christmas carols. Very clever.
Bek, Love the idea about keeping the cards in an album. We completely need to do that.
Factotum, I don't think photo montages are tacky at all. I do like seeing all the photos. And yes, I completely love that wrapping paper. My philosophy on wrapping paper and gift wrapping, especially at Christmas time could be an entire post iteself.
Stephanie, First of all, oh my got, sorry about your house! Secondly, I completely LOVE that you sent them out late and anyway. That's fantastic.
Laurie, I bet your cards are amazing. And I'd love to get one of yours too!
Tania, A Christmas cards years in the making...wow! Please post it after it goes out so we can see your great idea.
Mark, I completely LOVE those fillin the blank cards. That's hilarious!
Jenny, send it.
Photo cards! Photo cards! I love them! But, I really like Christmas newsletters, too, so I may be the complete minute minority.
I buy my cards on December 26 and never mail them the following year. But I mean to. I hope Jesus gives me credit for intending to send his birthday cards (and Chanukah cards to my Boca peeps.)
Post a Comment
<< Home