Design Crafters

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.

What’s your favorite way of keeping track of who is on your Christmas card list? Some people use old-fashioned address books, some sync up their PDAs and use mail merge or similar to create address labels for their home printers, and some write it out all long-hand.  The ways and means of keeping your Christmas card list are many and varied. 

For those who are determined that your 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.  The job isn’t done ‘til they’re in the mailbox, stamped, sealed, and addressed.