Design Crafters

Growing up, I was always more than a little jealous of neighborhood children who had a large number of brothers and sisters, because it seemed to me (who only had one sibling) that they must have a great deal of fun along with the houseful of kids. Noise and fun, of course. It was only when I grew up and got my own family full of kids that I realized just how much work, in all manner of different forms, a houseful of kids can be. To begin with, think of how just being prepared for the birthday presents and Christmas cards alone would be a full-time job!

As an excellent illustration of this, we learned recently about an 88-year-old woman in the U.K. who really has her hands full when it comes to sending out her Christmas cards. Simply to send out a card to each one of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, Mrs. Graham needs to have a whopping 117 Christmas cards each year! She concedes that it is certainly hard to keep track of where everyone lives, but of course, each of her seven children, 30 grandchildren, and 74 great-grandchildren surely appreciate the effort she makes. We suspect that Mrs. Graham probably has taken to sending out holiday greetings just to her family, to save on time and effort, not to mention the cost of postage.

Of course, no matter the size of your family – immediate, extended, or just honorary – the folks on your Christmas card list enjoy receiving holiday greetings from you each year. As Mrs. Graham knows very well, people love being thought of during the holidays and a Christmas card is a lovely way to let them know they’re in your thoughts.

Tradition! Every year, families all across the nation are thinking about traditions when the holidays approach. Newlyweds think about the Christmas traditions they’d each like to bring to the marriage, new parents think about the holiday traditions they look forward to introducing their newborns to, and families with grown children think about the traditions they hope will continue even as time marches on.

One tradition that all of these families and a great many more will certainly continue this holiday season is that of sending Christmas cards. Sending out Christmas cards is much more than grabbing a box of cards from the drugstore, scribbling a hasty message, and slapping a stamp on the envelope. No, in fact, it’s a lot more. Some might think it’s a chore, but the truth is that many look forward each year to the process, even with the many steps to do along the way before you can say “I’ve sent out my Christmas cards!”

You likely know some folks who have made a tradition of sending out Christmas cards. For instance, the families whose cards feature a photo of the entire family wearing Santa hats, right down to the family dog. Or there’s the tradition other families have of using their annual Christmas cards as a newsletter, sharing events and news – both happy and sad – that the family experienced over the past year. These are all traditions for these families, and it’s quite possible that these same traditions will be continued by future generations of the same families. What traditions do you and your family enjoy each holiday, and would it make you happy to think that your great-grandchildren will be introducing their children to them someday?

If you sometimes find the process of selecting, ordering, signing, addressing, stamping, and mailing out Christmas cards to be more of a hassle than anything else, try to remember how meaningful it is for those friends and family who receive the cards. Realizing that more people than you might initially think are anticipating opening their mailbox one day to find your Christmas card waiting for them, well, that could be incentive enough to stick to the tradition of sending out cards over the holidays.

Remember, for a great many people out there, it’s not the card itself that they appreciate receiving, but rather it’s the sentiment that goes into and the thought behind the card that matters most to many people. Whether your Christmas cards are ultra fancy and extraordinary, very plain and simple, or somewhere in between, for many folks, it is a case where the thought really counts. Being remembered during the holidays is very meaningful to people.

The holidays are also a fantastic time to reconnect with those whom you may have fallen out of touch. We would be willing to guess that more broken friendships and family relationships have been mended by the simple act of sending a Christmas card or letter than some might think. This goes back to what we said before about how people love being remembered during the holidays. It’s such a simple and easy way to make people happy, sending out some holiday greetings, and, after all, making people happy is priceless.

Do you find sending out your Christmas cards to be a chore? You’re not alone if you do – 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 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.

One truly unique idea I ran into in the way of ideas for photo Christmas cards was an ultrasound photo Christmas card. This particular couple I heard about hadn’t announced to anyone they were expecting. Due to prior complications, they wanted to wait until they knew everything was looking good this time around. They actually held out for a full four months until they got their first good look of their baby via ultrasound. Everything looked great and there were no signs of complications. It suddenly dawned on them that putting the ultrasound picture on this years photo Christmas card would be a fun way to announce their excitement and surprise their friends and family. 

Most modern ultrasound machines will let you write caption on the photo. So this technician who had a great big heart, added his own special touch by writing “Happy Holidays from our family to yours”.

The proud parents then scanned the ultrasound print out and uploaded it onto their computer, thus turning it into a digital picture which then allowed them to put it on photo Christmas cards. They of course included a beautiful festive boarder with snowflakes.   

Two make a happy story even happier, this year they’re expecting twins.

I hope this gives you a fun idea for your family. Have a wonderful day.

Hopefully the last few postings have gotten your creative
juices flowing with some creative ways to come up with some real unique and
custom ideas for this Christmas. Here a few more then I will go on to a new
topic.

Why not compose and print out an inspirational piece or poetry in an antique
type of font. Then paint it with a solution of tea to "age" it a little
and frame it for an unusual gift. You can even burn the edges and shellac it to
a piece of wood for an even different effect.

For adult family members or friends, print out some gift vouchers offering your
time for babysitting, housework, gardening, decorating, car washing - whatever
you can manage and think would be well received. This may not seem like much to
you, but you may be surprised at how well received something this thoughtful
will be perceived and accepted with thankfulness. Remember no one would feel
good about you sacrificing financially just to give them a gift. It is easy to
lose sight of this as we get caught up in all the advertising hype surrounding
the holidays.

Just one last thing - when it comes to your children’s stockings, fill them
with some of the following: make a video tape of their favorite movies or
television programs, ice some cookies with their initials, put together a
little craft box with colored paper, glue, their own special scissors, glue,
stickers, etc. whatever your child likes. Put a Christmas card in an envelope
with some handmade coupons for some special outings with mom that they would
like, such as a picnic at the favorite park with a friend and a lunch date at
McDonalds with Dad, etc.

While I think it is a bit early to be thinking about Christmas cards, I know that a lot of folks are already looking and thinking about them, because we have aready gotten a number of requests for samples and catalogues, not to mention actual orders!

Because of this early interest, I thought maybe I ought to discuss different types of Christmas cards and how different types should be reserved for different selelct groups of people.

First of all if you are a business sending to a business, you should definitely look for high quality Christmas cards that reflect good taste and style. Cost really should not be an issue because this type of advertising is very inexpensive in the overall scope of advertising expense.

Of course it should not be seen as advertising. It is a subtile reminder of your business as you wish your clients and customers a happy holiday season. It is a powerful one none the less and you don’t want to let the holidays slip by without sending one as this is a great opportunity and excuse to contact all of your clients and customers.

A thoughtful sentiment followed by your company name and/or logo is sufficient, unless of course you want to add a personal note, which if you have the time to do, will go a long way in the "personal touch" department. This is not the medium in which you should put a plug in for your company. "Of course not!" you say, "Who would be so lame as to do that?" You would be surprised.

Actually, that is all I am going to talk about today because we just launched a Wedding Blog on our Wedding Invitation site and I need to get started posting to that with wedding tips and ideas. In a couple of days I will post again with more ideas of different types of Christmas card and how they fit into the Christmas season.

A common question this time of year is, how late can I order my Christmas cards and still get them out before Christmas? Well, a lot depends on when you want your cards to arrive. We are lucky this year in that Christmas lands on a Sunday so traveling folks will not be leaving until the end of the previous week.

For businesses, it is important for the cards to arrive before the recipient may leave for vacation. As we all know also, it is a bit hectic trying to tie up loose ends before going away, so it is a very busy time.

Ideally, your cards should arrive early, before there is a big rush to finish up lingering projects before closing up shop for the holidays and even the year. Also, it is nice if your card arrives ahead of most of the others and aren’t arriving along with dozens of others the say day. They are more likely to stand out.

As far as the timing needed to order your Christmas cards and to have them in your hands, here is our timeline: Any card order in which you are using one of our standard verses and you personalize them with your (company) name, we need approximately 3 days in house to do the printing and get them in the mail to you. If you are creating your own custom verse and/or inserting a company logo, we need 4-5 days in house to get them printed.

In either case you have your shipping time to consider on top of that. You are told on your order form, from where your Christmas cards are being shpped so you can decide the best shipping method for you. We offer everything from ground to overnight.

One of the main things to consider about waiting too long to order your cards, is that you may find that the card you want may be out of stock. It does occasionally happen. Then you will be disappointed at having to go with a second or third choice.

Our recommendation is that you order as early as possilbe in the fall to ensure that you get the card you want and have it in plenty of time. You can then process them at your leisure and not be scrambling at the last minute when you have a million other things to do as well. I hope this has been helpful.
Happy Holidays!