Design Crafters

Would it be a true American family holiday card if the family pet wasn’t featured in it, front and center?  Okay, sure, we know…not every single American family has a family pet, let alone one that is photo-worthy come Christmastime.  But judging by the number of Christmas cards that flood through our lives that do indeed feature Man’s Best Friend in festive holiday garb right next to the human members of the family, it’s not that unusual.

Looking at the statistics, it’s likely that you or someone you know might even take their children to see Santa each year, and to treasure the photographs they take there each year.  And many pet families are the same way, so there are pet dogs and cats who visit Santa each Christmas and have their photos taken there (often for use on the family’s Christmas card).  We say why not?  After all, even our four-legged friends should get to enjoy the joy and wonders of the Christmas season.  No one would argue with you if you said that the holidays are a time for enjoying the Christmas spirit with friends and family.  For many people (over 60% of American households, according to some sources), some very important members of their family are their pets.  As a result, it’s becoming more and more popular to include a family pet or pets in the family photo that often ends up on a Christmas card that’s mailed out far and wide.

More than ever before, in many cases, the family pets – be they cats, dogs, ferrets, birds, or whatever other furry or feathered friend – are treated as the family’s children, and indeed, many such households are childless but still consider themselves families.  As such, many households with beloved pets are going all out during the holiday season, much as proud parents of human children would do.  Special holiday taste treats, adorable cat-sized Santa hats or toy reindeer antlers for dogs to wear, and of course, their own special Christmas stocking to hang on the mantel that can be filled with pet toys and treats to be opened on Christmas morning.  They’ll be just as joyful as the children.

Some folks just love to send out Christmas cards, while other folks REALLY love to send out Christmas cards.  The next time you groan at the thought of all the work that goes into sending out your Christmas cards, thank your lucky stars you don’t have a Christmas card list of 3,000 people.  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.  Despite that, rest assured that you’re not alone if you find that sending out your Christmas cards is quite a chore – many folks find that the whole process of selecting the cards, writing the notes, addressing the envelopes, and stamping the cards to be a significant and somewhat overwhelming chore during the already jam-packed holidays.

If you’d call yourself overwhelmed by holiday errands, 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. 

He knows that it’ll 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.  Who could argue with those kinds of results for a few hours of writing out Christmas cards?

The numbers are staggering.  Each and every year during the holiday season, mailmen all over the country and world are kept very busy delivering holiday greetings to everyone on your block (and the next block, and the next block…).  Typically, most households receive Christmas cards from friends and family, but often other cards will appear in the mailbox.  You guessed it:  I’m talking about those Christmas cards that are sent by companies or businesses.

For example, just this past Christmas, we received holiday greetings from our vet, our lawn service company, the tax accountant we use from time to time, the realtor who sold us our house, the attorney who worked with us on buying our house and setting up wills, our child’s pediatrician, and our family dentist.   My husband would like to add our congressman to the list, but I am not sure that a card from the Distinguished Gentleman from District 8 truly counts as a business Christmas card.  The cards were just as handsome as those sent by friends and family, even if the message came from a business.

While no one will argue that the motivation behind a business sending out Christmas cards to their client or customer list might be viewed negatively by some, but others would argue that they rather like knowing that they mean enough to their dentist or realtor to receive holiday greetings.  And, in the end, who doesn’t like getting mail from a business that isn’t a bill or invoice?  Especially mail that wishes a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year – that’s happy mail no matter who the sender.

Many times each holiday season, we ponder the question: is Christmas too commercial? You may have noticed there are fewer religious messages (or any acknowledgement of the Savior’s birth at all) on Christmas greeting cards these days. I’ve even noticed the ones that do acknowledge the true reason for the season, are often hideous or are not quite the message I’m looking for. I have to look really hard to find nice ones. Am I just looking in the wrong places?

Despite the occasional trouble finding the card of my dreams, this brings up one of the many beauties of photo Christmas cards. You can add any picture and any phrase you’d like. Religious or not. It also means a lot more to have a personalized card like that. Think about it…When you receive Christmas cards in the mail, which ones do you notice? Which ones mean more? A certain family member of mine saw me writing this blog post and answered “the ones with the money in them.” That’s not quite what I meant, but had to laugh anyhow. Somebody’s getting a lump of coal in their stocking!

I’m sure I’m not alone in that when I receive Christmas cards with pictures and/or a personal note, those mean so much more to me than a pre-printed impersonal message.  I can also put the photo greeting cards in a photo album.  The recipients of your Christmas cards are likely to enjoy such cards from you, too.

It seems as if every few months, a Christmas card that was mailed long ago (fifty, sixty, or even 100 years in the past) resurfaces in the mail and is delivered. One can’t help but wonder where the cards were hiding all that time, but it sure is interesting to look at the stamps and cards from the past.

This one is a little different from those such things. Earlier this year, 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.

Amazing!  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.

Each year our suppliers are trying harder and harder to select their line of Christmas Cards to carry for the following year and get that information to us as soon as possible.

Many of our customers it seems, like to get this chore out of the way as soon as they can. We are trying our best to accommodate those "early birds" and we really appreciate those who take care of this task early because then we have fewer jumping on the wagon after Thanksgiving when things really get heated up.

The only problem is that when we get so many requests too early, we just don’t know if a particular card is coming back. We are actually in the process of updating our site with some new information and have labled it such so you will know if a particular card is available or not.

In the meantime, we have received our new paper Christmas card catalogs and would be more than happy to send you one if it would help in your selection process. We don’t have a lot of these images online yet, but hope to get them in time to have them up in a couple of weeks or so.

As soon as we know that a particular card is going to be available this season, it will say so in the description. If it doesn’t say, it just means that we don’t know yet. As soon as we know that a card is not returning this year, we will delete it from the site. It may be awhile however before we know this information.

To request a catalog, please go to our Christmas card site and scroll down to find the "Sample Cards" link around the bottom of the left column and just type in "Christmas Card Catalog" and give us your mailing info and we will send it right out to you.