How to Save your Holiday Cards with these Simple Tricks
Are you starting to stress about sending holiday cards out? I’m so excited to partner with Basic Invite to share some tips that will help you eliminate that stress and come up with the perfect holiday card!
Every year I plan to send out my holiday cards early and nearly every year I find myself scrambling at the last minute to get cards sent out before Christmas. Holiday cards have a way of turning into a bigger project than you were planning on.
After many stressful holiday seasons, I have found a few ways to simplify things and make my life so much easier.
Do you want to send holiday cards out but want to find ways to limit the stress? These tips will help:
Make it Memorable.
I stay busy (and I suspect you do too) so I like to have a clear purpose for everything I do. I don’t like to send out holiday cards just for the sake of sending out holiday cards. When I send out cards, I want it to help me connect with friends and family and give my family something fun to look back on down the road.
My dad does a great job of this. Rather than writing letter filled with family achievements, he writes a very memorable letter filled with the ways our family has goofed up throughout the year, including who broke a bone or had an embarrassing moment in public. The self-deprecating style is not what you’d expect in a holiday card and always makes his cards stand out. As a bonus, we have fun laughing about previous years letters as a family.
Whatever you choose to do, be sure and include some personal touches, photos, and things that really share a window to your family. I love the Brilliant Timeline Mini Gate Fold holiday card from Basic Invite. It really gives you a chance to share some of your favorite photos and highlights from throughout the year while maintaining a clean design. This is a card your friends and family will hang on to.
Keep a running list of addresses for holiday cards.
The task that slows me down the most is tracking down everyone’s addresses. If you keep a running list of addresses that you use year after year, you can just make a few updates to account for anyone who has moved and you are ready to go. Use our free holiday card address printable to get you started.
Avoid mistakes, get a sample card first.
One year I ordered cards online, thinking I was saving myself time. I was short on time and send them directly to my address list without looking too closely. When mine came in the mail, I realized that, not only had I cropped my image weird so I lost part of someone’s head, but I had a typo! I was so bummed that I’d spend quite a bit of money and wasn’t happy with my cards.
Basic Invite is one of the few websites that lets you order a printed sample of your actual card so you can see exactly what it is going to look like. There’s something about having a physical card to inspect that makes it so much easier to make sure you are getting what you want. They’ll do this for other cards too, including personalized birth announcements, personalized baby shower invitations, and first birthday invitations.
Don’t stress about getting the perfect photo.
In previous years, I’ve sometimes missed sending out holiday cards completely because I couldn’t find time to fit a professional photo shoot in. I wanted to make sure we had the perfect photo for our cards and when that didn’t happen I just bagged the whole thing.
What I realized though, was family and friends just want an update on my family. They don’t care about seeing the perfect photo. Now I aim for using professional photos every other year and I don’t stress too much if we have a few years where we use snapshots. Last year I actually used a photo that I took on my cell phone because I just loved how it showed everyone’s personality. A photo doesn’t have to be perfect for it to be good.
Send your cards out early.
I’ve found if I wait until December to do anything holiday related, whether that is shopping or sending out cards, it just won’t happen. Start early so you can check your holiday cards off your to-do list. You don’t have to send them out immediately if you’d rather have them go out closer to the holidays, but have them all ready to go so they just need to be send out.
That being said, don’t stress about this too much. If you don’t get your cards out early there’s always the option of sending out New Year’s cards!
I hope these tips will help you get your holiday cards out with less stress so you can enjoy the holiday season.
Save 15% on Holiday Cards
Want to save 15% on your holiday cards? Of course you do!
Use the code 15FF51 to save 15% off anything at Basic Invite.
Basic invite has a fantastic selection of holiday cards and more. I love that they have almost unlimited color options. They let you create your cards exactly the way you want them, down to the littlest detail, and check them out with instant previews online! This is a great way to simplify your holiday cards and make sure you create your cards just the way you like them.
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