I am a holiday card traditionalist.
While I didn’t get into the “Let’s send 100 holiday cards!” game as early as most of the people I know, I’ve caught up quickly. I have an excel file and holiday labels ready to be printed out at the drop of a hat. I update the list throuout the year so all new contacts get a card and if it’s been more than three years since I’ve talked to you? Well…no card for you.
It’s a system I enjoy, and the reason I have to drop people is that I put a greeting and personal note with EVERY card. So people know I didn’t just stuff it, lick it, and stick it in a mailbox. I want people to know I took the time and thought about them.
Want to see the cards I’m going to get this year?
What’s that you say? Totally superfly? Why yes, yes it is.
I’m getting them from Shutterfly because this is NOT the first year I’ve ordered from them. Not shocking, really, I’ve been a fan of Shutterfly for a while – and have this adorable collage on my wall I created with their big-picture-collage maker online. (It’s not called that, really…I don’t think…) That collage was on my wall before my youngest was even being thought about, much less conceived. I love it.
The only reason I went with a different company last year is I had the pictures done professionally so I used that service to just have them do the holiday cards as well. Meh. It was okay – I had to steal one card back from a friend of mine because I forgot to keep one for myself and they looked really cute in the picture. Yep, I stole a holiday card BACK from someone. I’m that friend.
Back in the day, when I started this whole card sending thing, I sent New Year’s cards. It seemed very safe and that way I didn’t have to worry about denominations and religion and I could just be all, “Hope this year is better!” because even if you had a great year you still want the next one to be better, right? Total win-win. Here are my two favorite New Year’s cards from Shutterfly:
I still think that I should be getting different cards for the business contacts. If I do, I’m going to go with one of these two New Year’s cards…but with pictures of the business logo or location instead of my kids. They’re business contacts, I like to keep it a little professional…and as much as I’d like to send out business Christmas cards, I can’t take the risk because I don’t know everyone’s denomination. If I did? It would be game on!
I don’t know why, exactly, I switched back to holiday cards. I feel like this year it is because I want to reach out to people during a time where I won’t be in the best place emotionally. I’ll be lonely in my soul with no grammas to snarf the stuffing or make martinis for. Sending out photo cards at least lets me give others a warm fuzzy that I might not be able to provide in person this season.
So if you get a card from me, know that I was smiling when I signed it and I want you to snug your family the way I’ll be snugging mine. Tightly…very, very tightly…oh, wait, you can’t breathe? Ok, maybe not THAT tightly!
Do you want 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly? Click here to go to Shutterfly for information on how you can get 50 free cards this holiday season, and make sure to select Clever 1000 as the referral source.
This post is part of a series sponsored by Shutterfly. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
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