I love sending Christmas cards. I hate sending Christmas cards. My (non)system for Christmas cards is so ridiculously chaotic, I keep telling myself I need to amend it, and yet I do not.
I assume the normal way to do Christmas cards is to buy a box of Christmas cards for that year, or order a certain number of a pre-printed card with family photos? I am bad with tech and for some reason I don't want to send the same thing to everyone, so instead I buy any box of cards that catches my fancy near Christmas or after Christmas. Then I sit at my table with a giant varied pile of Christmas cards and look at my list of addresses and sort of go by vibes on which person gets which card.
And the photos. Do I narrow it all down to one great family pic, or put three or four varied ones on a card? Ha ha ha ha no of course not. I get a selection of wallet photos printed and then again, based on which members of my nuclear or extended family the card receiver is familiar with, I pick a few relevant photos.
It's DUMB. The past couple of years the photos have gotten here late, this year I can't even remember where I ordered them from so I can't even track the order. I also always have way too many, so if you get a Christmas card from me it will be full of small random pictures from last year or three years ago or ten years ago - feel free to throw them out, at least this way I don't have to.
I also like to keep one card from every kind of card I send.
Clearly I am a fan of the stylized triangular Christmas tree. I also like the Little House in a Dark Woods theme, or anything with snow.
Some of the quirkier choices.
I have mostly stopped buying cards with glitter. I am like a magpie, but it's annoying for other people and probably not great for the environment.
I am of the firm opinion that Christmas card envelopes should be red. Unfortunately I often forget about this when buying the actual cards, or the design of the card persuades me that it's worth the trade-off. But seriously. They should be red.
I started writing and addressing cards Friday night without organizing anything, in the midst of an insane allergy attack. I got ten done, but it was not a joyous experience. Today, for the first time in many years I actually took everything out of the Christmas card bag and the Christmas card box I haul all the stuff around and separated out the cards I am keeping, the cards I can send, address labels and, oh look, on the plus side sometimes I discover a forgotten treasure trove of stamps.
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| Score! |
Everything is sorted into old Christmas card boxes, and I feel quite a bit more serene sitting down to do the rest, except for the part that my system is still kind of bonkers. And with Canada Post still doing rotating strikes, a lot of them are probably going to be late, which is fine, I guess (it's NOT FINE, I don't WANT them to be late, *stamps foot*)
Oh well. For a change, the snow started hours after my husband got home rather than minutes after he left (he's been gone three weeks out of the past four, I should perhaps begin calling him my 'occasional lodger' instead).
The tree in the wreath ornament from my last post is from All Through the Night, a crafter that makes figures out of cotton muslin which are then sprayed with an adhesive. They are at a craft show I go to every year, and my mom has bought many of the angels for Eve which I will photograph when I get to that box. I had already made a purchase one year and then saw the wreath and had to make another purchase because I had to have it.
23 comments:
Wow! That’s a lot. A lot of cards, a lot of pictures, a lot of decisions. I have pared my process down a bit, which helped make it less painful this year. Two types of cards, no pictures, one list, out they go. I hope it got to be a bit more fun!
You are my people.
I buy cards chaotically: whatever I like, whenever I see them, however many I feel like buying. Then I choose for each recipient based on vibes + "wait did I vibe this one for this person LAST year?" And I like to save at least one of each card; this is an every-growing pile, stored in old Christmas card boxes same as you. Stamps from previous years show up everywhere.
I love glitter but feel sheepish about it. I love red envelopes, also green. I hate the envelopes where for some reason stickers won't stick to them. I often don't notice the envelopes until it is too late and I am trying to write visibly on BROWN KRAFT or SILVER envelopes.
Photos you outstrip me in chaos and I love it and wish I'd thought of it. WALLET ASSORTMENT. My god. Genius.
I am having fun now, thank-you.
Ha ha ha omg I'm so happy - and YES the stupid slippery envelopes and I have some GRAY ones this year WHYYYY. About to shove an almighty little picture assortment into your envelope!
I love glittery cards and wrapping paper, but learned the hard way that it makes a mess. No more! I've thought about getting personalized photo cards, but have never followed through on it. So there you go, we're down to plain ol' cards sent with a lot of heart and that's got to be good enough.
I love all your cards and am personally sad you don't do glitter anymore.
The stamp thing is weird... it's like I forgot I paid for them and they're valuable... I act like they're just tiny stickers and misplace them all the time too.
Well, I've experienced a Christmas card tragedy this year. I bought cards last January and all year I was excited to sent them out, as they have a book theme. So cute!!! I even got started addressing the envelopes in November... and THEN... I got a card in the mail from Julie and IT WAS THE SAME CARD. NOOOOO! Now I don't want to send mine out- they're very distinctive cards and no one needs two of them. Well, I'll probably send them to people who don't exchange cards with JellyJules... but for most of my blogger friends I had to get a different card. Thanks a lot, Julie! Hurumph.
P.S. I love glitter
We print a family photo card now, but pre-kids I used to do it more like you do, with a happy assortment of designs (and handwritten, personalized notes in each one!). I sometimes think I will go back to doing it that way someday.
Sock monkeys and critter in marshmallow coat would have been my cards, too.
What kind of person DOESN'T want to send those?
I do not send Christmas cards anymore. I used to tell everyone it was for Environmental Reasons, but now I am far more honest and tell them it's because I DON'T WANT TO; IT'S WORKY.
That is A LOT of decisions to have to make. I did the thing where I ordered a photo card. It's easy for us because we just do a photo of the two of us, one photo of the dog, and one photo of the cat. Every year we do that. But then I have to decide how many cards to order. And then when they get here I have to decide if I write anything in them. I don't write on each one because I have nothing to say to my aunt and uncle who once referred to me as "a girl who thinks she's better than us," but I want them to know that even if THEY think I'm a snob, but dog and cat love me.
This year I have an additional decision. When I was cleaning out my mom's stuff, I found my high school senior photos. I have dozens of those wallet-sized photos of me from high school. So have to decide who wants one of those. My high school friends? FOR SURE. My college friends? Maybe? You? Do you want one, Allison? Let me know. I have some where I'm by a river staring in the middle distance AND ones where I'm leaning against a hay bale in typical white trash fashion.
Anyway. That's a lot of decisions and you have EVEN MORE.
JUST TINY STICKERS. LOLOLOL.
THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I USED TO DO CARDS. And then we started doing photo cards at some point and that's easier but also less fun, because I really did enjoy assigning cards to specific people on vibes.
I love sending cards because it's nice to have at least one point of connection with people from all the farflung corners of my life, but mainly I like getting cards in return. I have gotten five cards so far this year and they all arrived before Thanksgiving and since then: NOTHING. Not that I've even received my own cards yet, let alone mailed them, so I should probably stop feeling so alarmed / slighted.
You always have such pretty cards and I love that you include photos!
It really is more than enough.
I lose them CONSTANTLY.
Noooo lolol it's like wearing the same dress as another woman to the party. I have gotten the same card from multiple people and I do not care in the least. Because of my stupid system I do sometimes worry I will send someone the same card two years in a row but who's going to remember?
It is, it is worky, but the pile of cards addressed and stamped before I mail them gives me so much joy. If no joy, it is not worth the work.
Yes, yes, yes! Affirmation that I am not the only one that has a sorta kinda chaotic system for cards. It's a whole psychological and physical effort here, and requires use of the entire dining room table.
Confession: Today I saw a box of cards with glitter that I liked, but hesitated because I know glitter is awful for the environment and then I said, Wait, who is in charge of our country? and I bought the cards. And I will be sending them. Sorry not sorry.
For some people who receive our cards, I send a page with silly conversations of our household. And maybe a few photos, printed onto regular paper. But my husband is insisting that I have to include a long paragraph about what we did this year. Does anybody like to read that?
I love the card designs you showed us in this post.
As much as I'm embarrassed by how the picture thing never works out like I planned, I do love coming across the leftover little pictures.
Hell YES I want all your moody emo pics. Send 'em my way.
I've gotten fewer than usual too - probably partly the slow mail and partly people just not being able to even.
I love yours too! We are so different and yet the same.
I think people do absolutely enjoy the paragraph, but when I stopped being able to do them (really bad carpal tunnel) I didn't sweat it too much - literally anything that someone took the time to address to me and stamp and put in the mail is a joyful sparkly little missive into my day. And you're right - buy the damn glitter card, it's so far down the list of possible shit we could be doing in reaction to everything.
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