Many people have mixed feelings about Christmas cards.
Some folks view them as a waste of money, another sign of our rampant consumerist society, or just outdated and old fashioned. I have even heard some people take a cockamamie spin on it where they felt guilted into sending out cards themselves just because someone sent them a card. Ha!
Personally, I consider it a privilege of our modern world that I can put a piece of paper into my mail box and have a high degree of confidence that within a week, it will be in the hands of someone I care about. It is something of mine, sent inexpensively, that they can touch.
Plus, if you don’t know me, suffice it to say that I am ALL IN when it comes to Christmas. 😉
For whatever reason you might (or might not?!) feel compelled to send out cards, and however many you wish to send – I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you how I stay organized while sending out a large stack of personalized Christmas greetings.
The very first sign that the Holidays are kicking off around here is when Mama gets excited about sending Christmas cards!
Some years we are enthused about dressing up, and I hunted around for color coordinating outfits and stressed over hair and shoes. One year we even had a young photographer take our pictures. They were gorgeous!
Other years, it is just realism. We gather everyone together, walk outside on an afternoon in mid November, prop the iPhone, and start the timer. Honestly, those are some of my favorite pictures. Probably because usually nobody is stiff and contrived, and I feel no stress about whether we have achieved the aesthetic I was going for. We just present ourselves as we are. And to me, that is the whole point of those Christmas cards – to say “Here we are, and we thought of you!”
Here is a rough timeline of Christmas card advent:
3rd or 4th week of November at the latest:
#1. Take family picture.
#2. Pop online and upload the photo, frame with a festive greeting, order the number agreed upon.
During the time between the picture and the arrival of the photo cards, I like to type a letter to our family and friends. Some people do a month by month breakdown of the year, which can be interesting, but I prefer to give a brief character sketch of each of my children in their current phase. It puts me in such a thankful frame of mind over Thanksgiving season as I contemplate who each child is and how they have changed or what about them I could tell a new friend to sort of sum them up.
I feel like this brings the picture we send to life (especially with my subpar photography skills). I hope it makes the children seem living and breathing and they can hear us laughing…
I also update any addresses that I am not confident are current. I like to do this via messenger. I message and inform the person that we are sending out cards and if they would like one, to please send me their current address.
List of Recipients
I keep a document in my computer on which I have brainstormed an exhaustive list of people.
To curate this long list of people who I believe would appreciate our quirky offering, I have grouped the people we know or have met recently in my mind:
The top group would be close relations – parents, grandparents, siblings. I usually brainstorm my husband’s side and mine separately, as we both of significantly large families, and I know that our relations are the ones who usually enjoy these letters best of all.
Second group is the extended family – cousins, aunts & uncles.
Third group for us is our church family – and I like to order at least a couple of extra cards to send out to new friends we met during the year that may spring to mind during the next step of this process.
Old Friends from different periods of our life have their own grouping. Again, grouping the names helps me to think of people who would be blessed to hear from us.
Our Homeschool Co-op friends have their own grouping and I find that this one is always shifting a bit from year to year with people moving in and out of our circle. I love to send an unexpected card to a family who has moved away from us, but I don’t always continue to send to that person unless they reach back at some point during the proceeding year. -Sometimes we need to release them into their new life!
Neighbors – just a handful of these, as we live out in the country!
Business – again, just a handful. We like to give a card about our family to someone we deal with regularly. Maybe an area rep or a wholesaler who often picks up from our shop.
Organization of Materials
I print off the Christmas Card list with all of the names on it and I keep it with my address book.
When the box of cards arrive, I keep those and maybe a few sheets of Christmas stickers with the list.
I print a bunch of copies of our family letter and usually enlist the help of a few merry young individuals in my house to fold them in quarters and stuff blank envelopes with a picture and letter.
These enthusiastic youths look forward to the perk of this job – sticker mania!!
Usually I give them specific direction as to how many stickers and where they may be applied, so that the Post Office won’t be too discombobulated.
From this point in time forward, it is easiest to work alone. I like to put my stacks of stuffed envelopes on a desk out of the main thoroughfare so that I can work on addresses when I have a quiet moment. When I find those pockets of time, I will go down my printed list with pen in hand and address an envelope, check a name off the list.
If I encounter an address I think is suspect, I draw a box before their name, demonstrating that I need to message them. When they reply, I fill in that box. When I create their card, their name gets checked off my list altogether.
Sometimes, I enlist help again to lick and seal envelopes, and then I place the completed envelopes in the original box that the photo cards came in to be carried to the post office next time I am out and about.
You may by now think I am THE crazy Christmas woman. And I won’t deny that I spend a lot of my free time on the front end of December doing this, but I work at it as I wish to, starting with the most important (close family & friends). I am finished by the second week of the December.
Is it worth it? Yes. To me.
They cost me in time and energy and sometimes stretch me to the bounds of my patience… but I always know that I am going to do it again.
I cannot tell you how delightful it is to me to think of how many times some elderly person on the fringe of my life has taken me by the hand or messaged me and told me how much these card/letters mean to them. How they look forward to them. How they “collect them all”.
An unexpected joy I have found is as my children are growing up, I love to look at their faces when they preview the letter before I send it. They look pleased – because I see them, and I am proud of them.
Cost Breakdown:
Financial Costs: Cards or photocards + stamps = $1.20 per card
Optional costs: Matching outfits, photographer, stickers
Time Costs: Taking pictures, designing, addressing & decorating cards
Christmas is a time for sharing the best of what we have with those whose lives we touch. Perhaps you have found a different way to share your love and joy with others outside of your own home. I’d love to hear about it!
Do you love Christmas cards? What do you like to do at Christmas to connect with others outside of your immediate circle?
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