Behind Day #5: Christmas cards
A little questionnaire for you including my answers because I suppose I should play along:
Do you hand-make your cards?
I used to because I wanted to include photos of our family and the cool design online options weren’t around yet. (The following examples are not my creations, totally off Google. I’d have to find one of my own and photograph it! Mine always had at least one photograph, but dang these are adorable.)
Do you order online with those companies that let you design your own layout and use your own photos?
I have done this – and it makes the process so much easier.
Do you buy ready-made cards?
Yes. This year’s cards are store-bought – from last year that never made it out. **smirk**
Do you write sentiments in each one or do you have a standard signature for cards?
My husband and I have a process. We start by pouring wine. We pull out our list and split according by his friends and family and mine. Then we write personalized sentiments in each card. It’s time-consuming but that’s how we roll.
Do you address by hand, have address stickers or send through printer?
We pretty much address by hand. When return address labels are available we use them. I’ve never gotten around to entering the Christmas list into the computer but I’ve received cards from people who print and they look great. Since we hand-write within each card, we just press forward and hand-write on the envelopes too.
Would you say your cards get there “on time”?
Define “on time”.
Some people think they should arrive as soon as Thanksgiving is over for early December delivery. I did that the year I had some beautiful cards made along with family photos we had done professionally. There was no place to hand-write a sentiment. So I stuffed envelopes, got some help addressing, and sent them out. The gorgeous cards spoke for themselves, but it was a bit of an assembly line and wasn’t fulfilling.
Our whole family has winter birthdays. When our kids were young things got pretty nutty once Halloween hit. Since I was into making cards at that time of our life I decided they’d be “New Year cards” and I’d work on them during the week between Christmas and New Year. I loved it. Most people loved it and didn’t care. Some people never understood why the “Christmas card” showed up after Christmas even though it said Happy New Year. **sigh**
Do you think cards are still important even though we have so many ways to wish each other Happy Holidays?
I’ve had my moments of feeling they aren’t as essential. Christmas cards were often a special treat to get from those people you didn’t get to hear from any other time of year. Although there are a lot of online ways to communicate, there are still people who don’t engage electronically. There’s something to getting a special card in the mail and placing it somewhere to see. So this year, my answer is “Yes”.
