I said I was going to have my cards out by the first week of December, at least. And has that happened?

No.

I don’t even have the little half-letter written yet! The one I’m inserting in lieu of the photo for which Daniel will not cooperate.

That’s it: no TV for me until they’re squared away. Except maybe Everwood, because that show gets me all warm and fuzzy and in the mood.

This year, I think I might send my cards to be re-mailed. You’re probably familiar with the idea: I’ll ship them, in one package, to the postmaster of a town with a holiday-related name, and then they’ll all be resent from that post office, of course bearing the cool postmark. My personal favorite is Holly, MI (a little town I love), but, in the interest of time, I might send them from Holly, CO, instead.

USPS has a bit about it on their site, and offers a list of relevant post offices, as well.

Christmas cards for 2006.,
originally uploaded by Suze3000.

I’ve got my Christmas cards.

I followed Jennie’s tip and headed to Tar-ghey for cards. The ones on the left say “Peace” on the front which I like given the state of the world in the last year. Inside, they say, “Blessings to you at Christmas and always.”

Then, I usually get a box of cards that don’t have any religious overtones or refer to Christmas so I can send to friends who are less into the whole birth of Jesus thing or may not celebrate Christmas at all. I got these cards at Big Lots - yay, Big Lots! - and they have a snowy Vermont country church (oops, church, just realized that that isn’t so secular, hmmmm. . . ) on the front. Inside, they say, “May you find peace in the beauty of the season. May joy be yours now and throughout the new year.” I’m a sucker for a Vermont scene.

(an aside — some of you may already have realized this, but I’m always checking to see where things were made, out of curiosity. For the record, the Target cards were made in China and the other cards were made by a company in Scranton, Pennsylvania www.papermagic.com)

So, yay, cards! I have my return address labels, just got a new roll. Just need the stamps.

I usually spend a fair amount of time, inputting my list of addresses into some or other computer database program or shareware Christmas card tracking program, and then go down the list in alphabetical order. Finding that to be tedious and again time-consuming, I’m just going to use a list from last year, plus my address book, go in whatever strikes me and then keep a list as I send them out. Probably more detail than you really care to know, I know.

I’ve decided against a Christmas letter, per se, this year. What I am doing is going back through my pictures for the year and putting together a collage of shots that cover the year. It’ll be nice once I get it done, but going back through five gazillion pictures has been a little, um, shall we say, time-consuming.

I use a cute little program called PhotoMix www.photomix.com to put the collage together. It’s got templates already in it, depending on how many pictures you want in your layout, and has the usual editing tools. I used it last year to make an album for my parents for Christmas.

So, where are you with the whole card-sending fanfair?

but I’m happy to have just gotten started tonight! With Jim away for a week, all my Christmas preparations came to a screeching halt. But I’m getting back on track. Eight cards written tonight. Which reminds me . . .

Christmas letters: yes or no?

Personally, I don’t mind them, er. . . except for some older relatives who detail each ailment that they endure throughout the past year, each thing that children or grandchildren have accomplished, and each bird-watching expedition that they took.

Jim’s rule of thumb for Christmas letters is that they should be one page and only on one side. I think I agree, at least that’s what I shoot for when writing ours.

We are not doing one this year, and we didn’t do one last year. We’re just sending out cards with photos. I’m not sure why we’ve been skipping it the past couple of years.

I have to admit that I do get stressed about writing and sending Christmas letters, though, because I know that some people dislike them and think they are silly and presumptuous. Relatives of mine, for example.

Anyway, so what do you think? Do you prefer sending or not sending Christmas letters? Do you like getting them or not?

I don’t know if she needs anymore business, but if you haven’t ordered your photo cards yet, check out this site: http://www.creative-echoes.com/holiday-cards.php

I love her designs and if I hadn’t just paid the handyman-guy $190 to clean out our dryer vent ductwork today, I probably woulda gotten some for us.

You can order the cards themselves from her or pay a flat fee and get the image to print out yourself.

I have a longstanding love/hate relationship with cards.

In, oh, the beginning of November, I usually hatch up a scheme to design, sew, build, etc. my own custom greetings. And it rarely happens - or at least not on the grand scale that I’ve planned.

Last year I wised up and found a few boxes at an after-Christmas sale for seventy-five percent off. Much saner.

I figure I’ll be sending about forty cards this year. To family members (yes, immediate, too), friends, and online buddies. If last year is any indication… I’ll probably receive about fifteen. That doesn’t deter me. I’m all about the love at Christmas - so bite me!

I’ve done an update letter in the past, but infrequently, and I probably won’t this year. It’s excruciating for me to compose, thanks to that whole holiday perfectionist phenomenon we discussed. Besides, people know where to find me online for reports, big events and daily minutae alike.

I plan on including a family photo. We bought two more fuzzy Santa hats yesterday just for that very purpose. I was thinking about DIYing it this year, as opposed to hemoraging money at Picture People, but DH is convinced Daniel will freak out before we can get a shot. He’s probably right - but I think we still might try it.

I handwrite my envelopes - but only because I’m too lazy to build an address database, if you can believe that. Besides, how often do I actually get to use a pen? It’s downright quaint. Hee. Return addresses are usually home-designed and printed, though. Then they’re finished off with the latest holiday stamp (which I’ve even already purchased, go me). Though this year I’m using Santa ornaments from last year; I don’t really much care for the new cookie design.

Simple, non-religious designs are my staple, with a concise greeting inside. I don’t tend to go all-out when purchasing cards, but do take considerable pleasure in finding one that suits me best, even if it’s not the cheapest.

For displaying received cards, we have a stretchy gold ribbon-type thingie that clips over the top and bottom edges of a door. The cards are attached to the ribbon with wee gold-painted clothespins. After the holidays, I keep the fronts that I think might be useful for some craft or other, and recycle the others. Photos and photo cards are stored in a special little album.

I may just get my cards in the mail by December 1st this year. That’s always been my goal, anyhow…

How many Christmas cards do you send out each year? Do you usually include a family picture?

I’m eager to get mine out. I like sending out Christmas cards. I like the chance to update our friends and family on what’s going on with us. I enjoy taking time to think about each person or family on our list and wondering what they’ve been up to. I love checking the mail each day wondering whose card we might get.

I bought cards last week at the Dollar Tr*ee. Yep, I sure did. I got four different kinds, 16 per box. $1 per box. $4 for Christmas cards. Three of them depict religious themes of the Christmas season and the fourth is more of a generic Happy Holidays/Happy New Years kind of thing.

Our Christmas card list has about 60 families on it, I think. I tried to pare it down last year. We’ve gotten our share of bumps off of people’s lists. There was a family that we were friends with for a couple of years while in Boston. We didn’t grow that close, but Lynn and I got along pretty well. Her husband usually penned the Christmas letter and they were hilarious. I made sure to be a diligent correspondent with them so I could be assured of getting their Christmas letter. Alas, after they moved away, we lost touch and we’ve been booted. A sad day when we made this realization. You better be sure they aren’t getting a card from us this year. Heh.

Last year at this time, I was still using our EMac, so I made address labels for the cards out of the Mail program. I think I had to use a plug-in to do it because at that time, the Address Book wouldn’t creat label pages. So, I gotta figure out if anything in my PC will be able to recognize that list. Do you use printed labels or handwrite?

OK, The Daily Show is on, so I’ve lost focus on this post, so I will now summarize by posing questions for answering:

When do you usually send your cards out?

Do you send a X-mas letter?

Do you include a family picture?

Do you use address labels or do you insist on hand-writing everything as labels are tres tacky?

About how many cards do you send out?

Do you buy your cards or do you make them?

If you buy them, what kind do you usually buy? Religious, funny, pretty, funky, whatever the cheapest is?

Do you send Christmas cards to immediate family members (parents, brothers, sisters)?

What do you usually do with the Christmas cards that you receive? How do you display them?

After the holiday season is over, do you save or toss?

Tell us about your card habits!