Greeting Cards

It’s that time… time to start asking yourself, “Do I REALLY want to send out holiday cards this year?” It’s a lot of work. First, you have to find a decent picture.  This could take weeks. I become obsessed with grabbing the camera at random moments and forcing innocent bystanders to snap a photo of my family on the outside chance that it’ll be a keeper - especially if I’m having a good hair day.  Thank goodness some guy named Steven Sasson invented the digital camera (it’s true, look it up on Wikipedia).  Otherwise I’d be wasting rolls and rolls of film, trying to get a shot that my husband and I can agree on.

Secondly, do you use a photo of the whole family or just the cute kids?  Here’s what I think – if all of your loved ones are people you see frequently, then just use the shot of the kids.  If your friends & family are all over the map, go with the family photo.  Then again, now that everyone is on Facebook, are we all just bored and tired of looking at each other yet?  Do we even need to send cards in the mail?

I say yes.  Yes we do.  I have a weird love affair with getting mail, but that’s another quirk of mine that can be addressed some other time.  As for holiday cards, I think its swell to get something in the mail other than bills in December.  Or January, if you’re like some people I know who send a New Year’s card under the guise of being “original” when it’s really all about the fact that they NEVER GOT AROUND to sending it before Christmas and this is their excuse.  Happy New Year!  Hang me on your mantel for the month of January! All alone! 

Anyone who knows me, knows that my card is probably going to be the first one you get.  I am an early bird. Perpetually punctual. Or as my friends and husband call it – Really Annoying.  In all matters relative to the clock, I will be right on time or 10 minutes early.  If I’m late, call the FBI because something sinister must have happened to me. Again, another topic for another day.  Back to the cards.

I truly love getting holiday cards every year.  The more the merrier.  I hang every single one up – including the boring ones with no photos from my accountant.  When I used to get home delivery of the newspaper, I’d even hang up the card from the guy with the loud muffler who idled in my driveway at 5:00 a.m. and threw my paper in the snow bank every day.  I realize that his card was really just a plea for a juicy tip, but I hung it up anyway. And yes, in the spirit of the holiday, I gave him a tip without ever complaining about the service.  Anyone who is doing their job at 5:00 a.m. every day is A-OK in my book.

When the holidays are over (also known as January 2^nd), I put all of the photo holiday cards in my photo album.  I think it’s nice to have a record of how your friends and their kids have changed year to year.  I do it and it makes me happy.  Because I’m an organizational freakazoid  (as my loving husband calls it), you could bet good cash money that those cards will be IN the album on January 2^nd. I don’t care who makes fun of me.

So charge up those digital cameras and get going.  Your friends at Snapfish.com, Shutterfly.com, KodakGallery.com and Minted.com (a great one) are waiting for your business.  And if you’re an early bird like me, you’ll get a sweet discount.  You’ll get called all kinds of names for being too organized, but you’ll get a discount….