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Re-Thinking Our Christmas Cards

Christmas cards~sending them and receiving them~are one of my favorite things about the holidays. I started sending them to friends and family when I was just about six years old (I've always been an avid letter writer, so I always had pen-pals).

I love the whole process of Christmas cards: choosing the card(s), making my list, addressing the envelopes, putting on the holiday stamps, dropping those huge stacks of cards into the mailbox. It's all so much fun to me!

In the early years of our marriage I discovered how to stamp my own cards, using rubber stamps and ink. That started a whole new Christmas card process for me. The first year that I stamped our cards I did a 3-stamp-multiple-color-plus-ribbon process on over 100 cards. Yeah, a little too ambitious, but they turned out great!:)

(front cover)
(inside)

The next year I wasn't nearly as crazy. I still stamped over 100, but I kept it to a 2-stamp-1-color process.

(front cover)
(inside)

The following year I think I stamped about a dozen and bought the rest.


For The Princess' first Christmas I made about a dozen cards--bought the rest--but I slapped a picture on the front and only stamped on the inside. (Are you seeing the downward progression here? haha)

(front cover)
(inside)

I didn't do a handmade card at all for a couple of years, then The Princess drew the cutest family picture one day and we decided to make that the front of our card (we used an online printing company). It was adorable!

And that was the end of our handmade cards...so far.

This year I'm re-thinking our Christmas cards entirely. Lately it's been a store-bought card with a family pic, maybe a family letter every other year or so. But have you noticed how expensive stamps are getting? We are really making a concerted effort this year to scale way back on holiday spending. It makes me a little sad, because like I said before, I adore sending Christmas cards.


However, we are going mostly digital this time around. In this age of blogging and Facebook~and, yes, even the *ancient* email~we are in touch with nearly every one of our friends and family by internet. So this year we plan to utilize these means to share Christmas tidings with everyone. I'm looking forward to creating our digital card to post and send.

I am planning to stamp a few special cards, too. Those should be fun because there will just be a few and I can be as elaborate or as simple as I want to be.


How about you? Do you enjoy sending cards? What kind do you like to send?

Comments

Ellen said…
Hi Lora! I, too, have always enjoyed sending and receiving Christmas cards. It's fun to see all the kids' photos! I do a Christmas letter and try to tone down on the hokey-ness. :-)

But you are right -- it costs quite a bit nowadays. I may consider the digital route myself. thanks for the tip!
Kathy said…
I swear sometimes that you and I are twins who were separated at birth! I too hand stamped my own cards the first yrs of our marriage - and yes, I colored them and put a lot of time and work into them. But in the past few yrs I've done typed letters with printed pictures - keep it simple as much as I can! In the past few yrs our list has grown to over 100 ppl and it def is getting very expensive. I'm torn, I want to keep mailing them out but don't know about the cost factor. I'll have to think about it ... =)
Kathy~
That is so funny! We are definitely a lot alike:) I think you may be the only kindred spirit (besides my mom:) I know who sends out as many Christmas cards as I do!
Amber said…
WAY COOL! I love Christmas cards. I love personal ones, not just store bought and signatured. I'm a HUGE card sender too. I'm not sure if I am ready to go digital. I'll have to think on that one a while,but i cant wait to see what you come up with!
Natasha in Oz said…
You really make some good points. I have decided that even though it will cost more I am going to stick to writing out cards (store bought) and posting them and I am getting my kids to do the same. I hate the thought of them not knowing how to send mail in this digital age.

Thank you so much for commenting on my Christmas blog. It is so lovely to meet you! I look forward to following your blog-it's lovely!

Best wishes,
Natasha,
I do love to send cards. I used to buy premade cards and send them. But now that we have a daughter, we have been getting photo cards. Everyone in our family appreciates it, especially since most of our family lives in different states.
Anonymous said…
I love to send and receive Christmas cards. My 5th grade teacher is the one that started it all for me. She mailed all of the children in her class a Christmas card. It was my very first piece of mail address to all to me! And, it was a super cute, kid themed Christmas card. I was so thrilled and touched that she did this for me and ever since I've liked sending cards.

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