Speaking for myself, I am in the Saving Them camp. Each January 6 (Epiphany, of course), when I take down Christmas decorations and put away my ever-increasing boxes of Christmas things in my attic, I also take down that year’s batch of Christmas cards that I’ve received from friends and family. I put them on display in my home from the very first card that appears in my mailbox right through to early January. I love all the variation of cards, from the peaceful winter scenes to the smiley family photos (isn’t it fun to watch the kids grow up in each year’s Christmas card?). So when the cards come down, I stack them together and tie a red Christmas ribbon around them, and store them right alongside other perennial Christmas favorites like a Nutcracker soldier that really cracks nuts and the jingle bells that go on the dog’s collar.

Considering the growing trend to be as Green as possible, though, I may change my habits at the end of this coming holiday season. You’ll hear many people talk about the wisdom of recycling Christmas cards, of giving new life to the cards that would otherwise end up boxed in the attic or in a trash bin somewhere. I like that idea very much, but only if I can still keep the cards with family photo on them. Those are too precious to recycle!

While I’ll never be one to knock hand-written lists on pads of legal paper, I do agree that after a certain point, it’s time to go as automatic as you can. By automatic I mean you could type out the list on a typewriter (if you can find one), in a Microsoft Word document, or an Excel spreadsheet. Yes, the romance of sending out holiday wishes and cheer to friends and family is taken away a tad when Excel spreadsheets get involved, but if you are estimating you’ll be sending out a significant number of Christmas cards this year, the convenience of going automated can’t be beat.

If you’re adamant that your family’s Christmas cards be as personal and heartfelt as possible – and are therefore steadfastly against using peel-and-stick address labels that you’ve printed card recipients’ addresses onto – then one nice alternative option would be to use pre-printed return address labels, or even a rubber stamp, at least. Addressing 150 Christmas card envelopes by hand is an admirable feat, but do your poor writing hand a favor and leave the return address to the professionals. Don’t forget, even after you’ve finished addressing the envelopes, there’s still the cards to sign, stamp, and seal!

Mostly large groups of people, although sometimes individuals do this as well, take on the mission of ensuring that members of the U.S. military get special Christmas cards. Church groups, elementary school classes or grades, Girl or Boy Scout troops, book clubs, even the occasional bridge group at a retirement home – these groups and more work together on the Christmas card project. Some teachers say they lead their classes in such Christmas card projects because it not only is fun, but also gives the kids a sense of community pride. In many cases, the Christmas cards that are sent to soldiers are hand-made, making them all the more heartfelt.

Of course, many of these groups don’t limit their military-bound mail to just sending out Christmas cards to faraway soldiers. Letters, care packages, and other correspondence are sent year-round to thousands of military “pen pals.”

If you are interested in sending Christmas cards, other holiday greetings, or care packages to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, there are many organizations, both local and national, that could help get you started. You can find a list of such organizations at the following Department of Defense webpage: http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/AmericaSupportsYou/letters_messages.html

A great many politicians in the United States stick with the safe choices for Christmas card designs: family photos or Scripture verses. You can’t really blame them for staying with these tried-and-true Christmas card styles, though. Potentially ordinary as they might be, ordinary is still far preferable than offensive, especially in politics!

Some recent holiday cards sent out by U.S. politicians include a great many family wedding photos (for example, politician, family, and daughter at daughter’s wedding), a posed family photo with coordinating outfits, or a pen-and-ink drawing of a politically relevant still-life scenery (such as the Rose Garden at the White House covered in snow).

Celebrities from other walks of life tend to be like “regular people” and stick with holiday themes, family photos, or even dressing up their pets like Santa Claus for their Christmas cards. While the non-politicians don’t have constituents to consider when selecting card designs, they still tend to opt for typical family photos or season-appropriate art. Artistic celebrities often use their own artwork for their Christmas cards.

After all, the message they’re wanting to send to friends and family is the same one that non-celebrities are sending with their Christmas cards: sending love and holiday wishes to people they care about during a very special time of year.

If you are one such person, then be glad you’re not Father Naus in Michigan. He’s a college professor who sends just under 3,000 Christmas cards each year to former students, colleagues, friends, and even acquaintances. He believes strongly in the importance of letting people know they’re in your thoughts, as well as a Christmas card’s significance in a friendship. It might take up a great deal of his time during the holidays, but the odds are good that each and every one of the recipients of Father Naus’ Christmas cards are honored and happy to receive them in the mail. As a result of that, he’s happy to invest the time and effort in sending out nearly 3,000 Christmas cards each year.

The next time you groan at the thought of all the work that goes into sending your Christmas cards, remember Father Naus. Not only that, but remember how happy receiving a Christmas card from a friend or family makes you and, in turn, how happy receiving your Christmas card will make your family and friends. Giving someone happiness, no matter how large or small, is well worth the time and effort.

Even if we’re just talking about keeping the post office busy with our holiday mail, Christmas still ranks number one (Valentine’s, again, holds that number two spot). The United States Post Office estimates that, between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, it processes 100 million first-class cards (we’re assuming Christmas cards are a huge part of that number) in the mail. Americans keep our mailmen (and mailwomen) working hard delivering our Christmas cards.

But mothers, never fear. We still rate tops in our childrens’ hearts, the best place to be. So enjoy your lunch out with the kids, wearing your beautiful corsage, and clutching hand-made Mothers’ Day cards made with macaroni and glitter.

If you’ve ever wanted to have a family photo like that for your Christmas cards, but never did manage to get that perfect photo, then let us tell you a little secret: PhotoShop or similar photo editing software on your computer. PhotoShop has saved the day countless times in my family alone. With the wonder of photo editing software, we have photos where none of the kids are throwing fits or refusing to look at the camera. We have photos where the baby’s drooly chin is amazingly drool-free. We even have photos where the dogs are sitting quietly at our feet and looking at the camera along with every member of the family. All thanks to photo editing software.

It takes some trial and error, and a lot of practice, but it’s possible to remove stray hairs, unsightly blemishes, and clean up the dreaded red-eye from the camera’s flash. Did someone in your family blink just as the photo was taken? Now you can save the photo (and the day) by making small, subtle, but very effective edits to the digital photo. Professional photographers and ad agencies have been using photo editing software tricks for years, why not take advantage of the technology and end up with your all-time best family photo for your Christmas card this year?

There is a bit of debate about which country first issued Christmas-themed postal stamps. Canada issued a stamp in 1898 that read “XMAS” superimposed over a world map, but Denmark contends that their “Christmas 1904” stamp was the first truly Christmas-themed stamp. Christmas-themed postal stamps have been used in the United States since 1962. The USPS began issuing the Madonna and Child stamps in 1966 for Americans to use to send their Christmas cards, but have occasionally replaced that design with other images (including one of George Washington praying), but ultimately the Post Office insists that the Madonna and Child stamps are replicas of great art, and not religious stamps.

One especially fun way to send out Christmas cards is to have them postmarked in cities and towns with names reflecting Christmas, including Santa Claus, Indiana; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Silver Bell, Arizona; Christmas, Michigan; Christmas, Florida; Christmas Valley, Oregon; Snow, Oklahoma; and Nazareth, Michigan. Did you know that you can even have your Christmas cards postmarked from the North Pole (via the Fairbanks, Alaska, post office)? With a little planning, your family’s cards could be the hit of the season.

As brand-new to the world as the concept of Christmas cards were in 1843, the cards managed to cause an uproar. Not just over the brilliant idea of the cards itself, but because the image on the front of Sir Henry’s card was of a family enjoying their holiday dinner while a child sipped wine. Many were outraged and Sir Henry’s cards were declared to be “fostering moral corruption in children.”

Nonetheless, the idea of Christmas cards took off in popularity almost immediately. At first, Christmas cards with religious themes were the only ones available, but it didn’t take long for other Christmas card themes to appear on the market. Nowadays, of course, you can find a Christmas card in just about any theme or motif you could dream up: nature, with family photos, corporate, patriotic, humorous, sports-themed, luxurious, classic, cartoon characters, and of course featuring Santa Claus in his many, jolly forms.

So this winter, don’t forget to raise a cup of eggnog to toast Sir Henry’s brilliant idea!

One such postal find was a little more out of the ordinary, though. Recently, a Dutch schoolteacher found a real one-of-a-kind Christmas card in his family’s antique store near Amsterdam. The Christmas card (very similar to a postcard, actually) was signed by Anne Frank, a 13-year-old German girl whose diary later became the most widely-read Holocaust-related book.

This long-forgotten Christmas card was sent in 1937 and addressed to Samme Ledermann, one of Frank’s best friends. It was postmarked from Aachen, a town just across the Dutch border in Germany. The front of the card was a picture of a Christmas-decorated bell in front of a snow-covered field. There was no message beyond the address and signature.

The schoolteacher found the Christmas card while gathering materials for on Anne Frank for his school to mark Liberation Day, which marks the anniversary of the end of German occupation in World War II. Liberation Day takes place on May 5.  Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis for just over two years in a secret apartment in an Amsterdam office building. The Frank family and others in the apartment were arrested in August 1944 and deported to Auschwitz. Anne died in a concentration camp just two weeks before the camp was liberated in March 1945.