Design Crafters

Do you ever see an amazing family photo where every single person is looking at the camera, smiling a lovely smile, no bra straps showing or crazy cowlicks making an appearance? We bet such a family photo would be part of a lot of peoples’ dream Christmas cards.

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?

In yesterday’s photo Christmas cards blog I promised I would give you some ideas for activities the kids can do during Christmas break, so you can get things done.

Kids are very creative and come up with their own fun ideas, but once in a while they need a little help thinking of something to do. One of my friends actually made a list of “approved” activities for her kids to do. It served as a reminder for both her and the kids. It also saved her sanity.

In light of the season to be generous and giving, you can also encourage them to volunteer. Perhaps there’s a neighbor that needs help with some yard work or help shoveling snow from their driveway.  There were some kids I knew a few years back who decided to surprise their neighbors by waking up at the crack of dawn and shoveling their driveway before the neighbor woke up and went to work. Each snowy morning the kids chose a different neighbor to surprise. For a while, people referred to the kids as “the mystery elves”, until they were found out.

If the weather is awful and you’re absolutely stuck for something to do with the kids and you’re tempted to set them in front of the TV….
There are actually some really good, non-boring, educational shows for kids of all ages. It might not be a bad idea to review a TV schedule first and make a list of approved shows and their times.

Stay tuned for tomorrow for more suggestions.

Last week we discussed the fact that more and more people
are wanting to express their feeling and belief that this is the
"Christmas Season," not just a Holiday Season by the cards and verses
they are selecting this year. We here at Design Crafters have noticed another
shift in sentiments this year as well.

There are still a lot of business owners who are concerned about being
"politically correct" with their cards and "play it safe"
by selecting "generic Christmas cards to make sure that they don’t
"offend anyone" by sending  Christmas cards with a
"Christmas" message.

It’s interesting that gay rights activists and pro-life and pro-choice
activists, women’s and civil rights activists, etc., etc., etc. don’t seem to
mind standing up for their beliefs and are very vocal in speaking their message
loud and clear - not caring at all what others think or have the slightest
concern about offending someone - but when it comes to using the word Christmas,
we are afraid to speak out about it’s true meaning and why we celebrate it -
because we "might offend someone."

Something is wrong with this picture in my opinion. That is why I personally
have been encouraged this year to see that a lot of individuals, not only for
their own personal Christmas cards, but for their businesses, have created
their own Christmas verse with a spiritual, encouraging message to send out to
their colleagues and clients - throwing caution to the wind and sharing their
convictions and beliefs through their Christmas message.

After all, what is Christmas all about - why is it celebrated? With all the
commercialism that surrounds it, have we forgotten the true meaning of
Christmas? Sure, not everyone celebrates Christmas, but does that mean that we
who do should put a lid on it and not celebrate it because someone else might
not agree with us? Since when do we all agree about anything?! 

Well, I didn’t mean to get on my soapbox, but thanks for listening! I hope that you have already ordered your Christmas cards, because time is running out to get them in time for you to add any personal notes, address them and get them to their destination before folks take off for the holidays.

Sending Thanksgiving cards has always been a good idea but
has taken a long time to catch on as to why they are a great choice when it
comes to sending holiday cards. Thanksgiving is a time of reflection - a time
of showing appreciation and thankfulness for various blessings. It’s a great
time to let clients and customers know how much you appreciate their patronage,
friendship etc.

Two things stand out as to why Thanksgiving cards are such a great choice.
First of all, if you are concerned about such things, they cross all cultural
barriers. If you are concerned at all about offending someone because of
religious differences and consequently their beliefs and celebrations it just
won’t happen with Thanksgiving cards which are as generic as they come. On the
other hand, if you want to put a spiritual type message inside you can do that
just as easily as selecting a generic message, so they consequently can be used
either way.

Another important point in the selecting and sending Thanksgiving cards is that
they get to the recipient before all the other cards that will be coming closer
to Christmas. The receiver is more apt to take more time reading and digesting
the message and your name will stand out more because it isn’t lost in the
crowd. Think about sending a Thanksgiving card today while there’s stil plenty of time.

Well, it’s already September. Can you believe it?! The kids
are back in school and Christmas will be here before you know it. I just want
to emphasize that we offer an early order incentive at this time of year to
encourage early ordering of Christmas cards. It helps us out tremendously so we
aren’t pulling our hair out quite so much when November and December roll
around. It you order before the end of September, we offer free envelope
imprinting of all personalized cards.

So many folks don’t start thinking about Christmas cards until after they get
through Thanksgiving. The thought is that, "Well, we still have time but
we better hurry up and order soon." It takes a few days to get the list
together of how many cards are needed to send, then there’s the time looking
around to find the perfect Christmas card, then there’s the time it takes to
order samples or catalog or pass out some printed out copies around the office
to get a decision made. If there is custom work involved there is the time it
takes to get a proof prepared. Then before you know it, it is Dec. 5th or later
before the order gets placed.

You would still think that would be plenty of time to get the cards because we
say on our site that orders generally take 3-4 days to process unless there is
custom work like a logo or custom verse which takes more like 5-7 business
days. Even with the shipping time added in, it would seem that would still be a
workable time frame. Those who order simple cards with no custom work still
generally get out pretty quickly at that time, but it begins to be a real
struggle when there is custom work as so many businesses especially want custom
jobs. At this point it is difficult for our suppliers to process that kind of
volume as quickly.

We love doing custom jobs, but at this point, it becomes such a struggle
because there are too many thousands of people all over the country who have
the same mind set and our poor suppliers who print not only our Christmas cards but cards
from dealers like us from all over the country are "slam dunked" at
this time. There is more chance for errors because they have to work so fast to
push out all of the orders. Sometimes even the manufacturers of the cards have
to produce so fast that the stock they send our suppliers is defective. That of
courses causes even more delays.

UPS, Fed EX and USPS are all struggling at this point because with all the online
ordering not only of Christmas cards but also all the presents to be delivered,
that they are maxed out. They often cannot meet their deadlines and packages
are delayed. So….it really is in your best interests to order early to avoid
all of that.

My goodness, what a long mantra to try to encourage you to order early this
year to avoid any delays and save money at the same time! Did I convince you? I
hope so. Check out all of our huge Christmas card selection at
www.DesignCrafters.com.

There’s just something about having a white Christmas that makes it perfect and complete. It’s so exciting, especially for children to wake up and find snow on the ground - even better yet, coming down on Christmas morning. As cold and dreary as a day like that can be, it promotes warm fuzzies when it happens on Christmas. Many children get sleds for christmas and that can be a bit of a let down if they have to wait until Jan or Feb to use them!

No one in the tropics expects to have a white Chirstmas but they can still visualize the perfectness of it all. Personally, it would be hard for it to feel like Christmas to me if it wasn’t at least cold!

The song "I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas" started it all written by Irving Berlin for the movie "Holiday Inn" back in 1942 and sung by Bing Crosby. It is one of the best selling hits of all time and will be played many years after his death

Here are the lyrics:

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

Who is this Rudolf character who guides Santa’s sleigh with the red glowing nose that can penetrate a thick fog?

The whole story of Rudolf appeared, out of nowhere, in 1939. Santas at
Montgomery Ward stores gave away 2.4 million copies of a booklet
entitled "Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer." The story was written by a
person in the advertising department named Robert May, and the booklet
was illustrated by Denver Gillen.

The original name of the reindeer was
not Rudolf, according to the book "Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things,"
by Charles Panati. The original name was Rollo, but executives did not
like that name, nor Reginald. The name Rudolf came from the author’s
young daughter! In 1949, Gene Autry sang a musical version of the poem
and it was a run-away best-seller. The Rudolf song is second only to
"White Christmas" in popularity.

You can see Rudolf with his red nose and team of reindeer on many Christmas cards every Christmas season

While it’s true that Santa Claus started as a real person, Saint Nicholas, a minor saint from the fourth century, the popular view of  Santa thing that we celebrate today, along with all the crazy things surrounding Santa like the sleigh, the flying reindeer and the chimney, all cam largely from two publishing events that occurred in the 1800’s and one advertising campaign in this century.

Clement Moore wrote "The Night Before Christmas" in 1822 for his family. It was picked up by a newspaper, then reprinted in magazines and it spread like wildfire. He finally admitted authorship in 1838. If you read the poem, you will fine that he names the reindeer, invents the sleigh, comes up with the chimney and the bay of toys, etc. Nearly everyone in America has been able to recognize or recite this poem since the 1830s.

Between 1863 and 1886, Harper’s Weekly (a popular magazine of the time)
ran a series of engravings by Thomas Nast. From these images come the
concepts of Santa’s workshop, Santa reading letters, Santa checking his
list and so on. Coca-Cola also played a role in the Santa image by
running a set of paintings by Haddon Sundblom in its ads between 1931
to 1964.

The red and white suit came, actually, from the original Saint
Nicholas. Those colors were the colors of the traditional bishop’s
robes. Of course you can see Santa dressed in what became the traditional red and white furry Santa Claus suite in many Christmas cards offered today.

Christmas Eve is mostly celebrated by Christians who like to
attend a candlelight service or midnight
mass to celebrate the birth of Christ (The reason for the season). It is rare
for Churches to have a service on Christmas day as that is considered by most
as a family day to open presents and if they are so inclined to have there own
way of celebrating the occasion.

Christmas Eve is also a huge day for retailers. So many last minute shoppers
make Christmas Eve a very big shopping day. Macy’s started the tradition of
being open until midnight on Christmas
Eve in 1867. Other retailers soon started following suit. Now many stores are
open until midnight on Christmas Eve
for those who haven’t been able to get their act together before then.
Christmas Eve is a little late to be buying Christmas cards until maybe you
want to send a New Year’s Card instead.

During the Middle Ages in England
and France,
carols were actually dances that were accompanied by singing. For example, the
French Midi, the "Carol" was s kind of round dance. Over time, the
word "Carol" changed its meaning, referring only to certain kinds of
songs.

The Anglo-Saxon tradition favored gathering small choirs together on the village
green to sing carols and Christmas songs for the pleasure of those passing by.
A number of our currently popular American Christmas carols came directly from France
and England.

Over time someone came up with the idea and excuse for gathering a crowd of
friends in a neighborhood to go around and sing favorite carols at different
houses and end up an a host’s house for hot chocolate.

Some artists have taken the Christmas caroling theme and made some Christmas
cards featuring carolers all wrapped up in warm coats and knitted scarves.
While not real common, Christmas caroling is a tradition that is still alive
and well in the US.