New Milestones Call for Special Holiday Cards

Thank you to Shutterfly for partnering with me on this post and helping me create my beautiful holiday cards.  All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Since 2008, the year Chase and I were married, we’ve sent out some sort of Christmas cards.  Even before we had kids, a Christmas card tradition was something I had been a part of since I was born. I remember being in college, putting myself in charge of creating the cards, stuffing envelopes and stamping.  I took the pressure off of my parents because I wanted to send them out so badly!  In the age of the email and the text, there is something so magical about opening my mailbox this time of year and seeing a few extra envelopes with holiday stamps addressed to our little family.  I’ve even made collections of our received holiday cards around the house because they are so beautiful! It’s like a Christmas decoration that designs itself over time.

This year was full of big milestones for Chase and I.  We moved in the spring to our wonderful new house and this summer we welcomed Scarlett to our little family, making everything a little more special for us.  What better time to celebrate our milestones than with holiday cards this season? 

There’s a little planning involved to get your cards started, but once you’ve created a plan, it’s easy to finish! Here are my best tips for getting your family’s holiday cards started:

Celebrate your Milestones

What are you celebrating this year? A new baby? A new house, job or project? Find a joyous occasion and relive it in your holiday cards! Share a vacation, a favorite memory or a simple snapshot in your life with your extended family and friends. 

Take (or find!) a Photo You’re Proud Of

This one I’ve waffled on from year to year.  I always like our Christmas cards MORE when we have a professional family photo, because I’ve taken some horrible ones when we’re rushed, in front of a tripod to snap a shot while we’re trying to get out the door.  Not to mention, try getting your toddler/baby/wild child to smile for an empty tripod while the camera timer goes off… not easy!  It’s worth it to ask a neighbor to snap a shot outside in natural light, or even schedule a family session with a photographer.  Try taking the photo before it gets chilly in your city, or pull a photo from earlier in the year (vacations! Birthdays! Holidays!) that you like and feature that one… no waiting to get the perfect shot!

Address Labels and Stamps Save you Sweat and Tears!

For the last seven years I’ve addressed all 50+ of our holiday cards by hand.  NO MORE, I say.  I’ve finally complied all of our addresses into a Word document and snagged some printable labels from the store.  Now it’s an easy peel and stick instead of hand-cramping on envelope 43…

Change of address? Get Them Out Early!

Since we’ve moved this year, I ordered a fancy new self-inking stamp with our return address and featured it prominently on the front.  With early scheduling and easy Shutterfly expedited shipping, I can get our holiday cards out first so that our holiday card recipients have time to change our address!  Starting to create your cards in early November also give you sanity when the holiday rush comes around… so you don’t end up sending your cards late in January (but I’ve TOTALLY fallen victim to that before…).  If you know you’re going to send them late, try creating New Year’s cards instead of Christmas or Hanukkah ones.  Then it looks timely!

Personalize Your Creation

Now on to the fun part.  When creating your holiday cards, think about how many photos you’d like to feature and what kind of mood you are looking for.  Shutterfly has so many cards to choose from! I picked and saved my favorites to my free account with a simple click (bottom left hand shows them at a glance).  

I chose a winter themed card that didn’t compete with our Christmas outfits and prominently featured our photos.  I wanted to share our entire family portrait as well as closeups of the kids, so this foil-stamped “Happy Holidays” card was perfect. I even added a custom-patterned reverse side with a photo of Red and a “Happy New Year” message.  

 It was so easy to create the cards, and surprisingly affordable, too!  We have an extensive holiday card list so I’m very happy to make and send personalized cards that are sophisticated yet affordable, instead of shopping myself into a frenzy for gifts for everyone!! Now off to the mailbox I go, proudly, with my giant stack of cards (Sorry, mail-person, for the heavy load today)!