There is no longer to-do list than the one I have during December. It is big, long, and far more ambitious than I am committed. And at the very top of that list is one thing: actually send my Christmas cards.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Christmas cards. All through the years my children were growing up, I diligently sent Christmas cards. We had moved away, and I wanted to send a photo and a newsletter to friends and family back home. I also knew that if I stopped sending, I’d fall off others’ card lists, and I really didn’t want to stop receiving them. I loved getting photos and newsletters from friends and family — well, most of them. Some I just couldn’t bring myself to read because they all sounded so perfect. Their children were smarter than my children. They had better vacations, better husbands, and in general, better lives . . . or so it sounded. The Christmas newsletter was the precursor to social media, except that with the newsletter I only had to hear and see the highlight reel one time a year, not every single day.
But still, sending Christmas cards was always at the top of my list because they are valuable. However, last year I got less than half way through writing my cards, and I threw them all in the trash — even the ones I had addressed and finished. Time had gotten away from me, and I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t send only a few, I couldn’t bear to finish them, and I just couldn’t send them after December 25th.
I didn’t send Christmas cards, and I love Christmas cards.
I didn’t send Christmas cards, and I love all things Christmas.
I didn’t send Christmas cards, and I work for a company that makes greeting cards.
I let time slip away last year, and I was sad and when I think about it, I still get sad — sad I didn’t find or take the time to write Christmas cards because while words are powerful, handwritten words are priceless.
So this is the year. This is the year to be mindful and deliberate, to respond to Christmas with an attitude of worship, like that very first Christmas.
Mary sang her song, and her soul glorified the Lord. Her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior. The song she sang as she acknowledged the great things He had done and that His mercy extends as He lifts up the humble and fills the hungry (Luke 1:46-55).
Mary took the time to worship through song, and I will take the time to worship via meaningful words in each Christmas card I write. It might be five cards or fifty cards, but no matter how many, they will be meaningful.
Words of hope, joy, and encouragement from me will be found in the mailboxes of my loved ones, not in my trash.
This is the season to slow down, to rest and to worship, and to tell others of the great things He has done. This year I am giving encouragement — and a few gifts, of course!
Here are five tips for writing and actually sending Christmas cards:
- Make a Christmas card spreadsheet. Get a count, fill in addresses, and keep track if cards were sent and/or received.
- Buy stamps ahead of time. Go buy them today!
- Write and address a few cards each night. Pop them in your mailbox each morning, put up the flag, and feel satisfied about getting closer to the finish line.
- Let your kids help! If their handwriting is legible, let them sign the family name in the cards. Give them some stickers or crayons, and let them decorate the envelopes. If they’re older, put them in charge of that spreadsheet, have them pick up stamps at the store, or let them pick out the actual cards. Whatever their ages, they can help out!
- Select Christmas cards that reflect Christ! We love a glittery snowman, but when it comes to cards, we love making it about Jesus. In case you need to stock up, here are a few of our favorites:
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to You – 18 Premium Christmas Boxed Cards: We love the beautiful watercolor look of this card, and those glitter accents are gorgeous.
Joy KJV Boxed Cards: These can be personalized – either the signature and/or the return address on the envelope! That kind of personalization is priceless, especially if you’re in a time crunch.
God’s Peace to You – 18 Boxed Christmas Cards, KJV: Again with the gold glitter… we just love it! This card is a beautiful reminder of the peace this season is meant to bring.
O Come Let Us Adore Him – 18 Boxed Christmas Cards: The message on this card is striking, and it’s a lovely option for your whole list.
Right now DaySpring has a BOGO sale on boxed Christmas cards: buy two boxes, get one free! Find dozens of beautiful choices right here.
Friends, there is still time. Enlist your family to help lick envelopes, crank out those address labels, and send off some Christmas cheer.
This is the season to slow down, to rest and to worship, and to tell others of the great things He has done. - @kimmarquette: Click To Tweet
by Kim Marquette
Kim,
I don’t feel quite so bad if someone who works for a greeting card company doesn’t get her cards out. I like receiving card as well, but I have to be honest and admit that I’m not a fan of the picture cards that have absolutely no handwriting on them….no personal touch. Just a picture with a pre-formatted greeting. Nor am I a fan of the “brag-fest” cards that just make me feel like my life doesn’t stack up somehow. I wonder how can someone’s life be so perfect? I guess, like Goldilocks, my “just right” cards are ones that speak of the real reason for Christmas….ones you can open and the sender at least says, “Dear Bev,” and signs their name and maybe adds a “Thinking of you.” If they include a picture – added bonus. Do I sound like a Christmas card snob? Thanks for the good tips in making sending greeting more of a joy and less of a task on our “to-do” list.
Advent blessings,
Bev xx
Being a writer, I actually feel the exact same way about cards without any writing or messages in them!
Heidi,
There’s just something about a handwritten note, no matter how short it is, right?
Advent blessings,
Bev xx
I cherish the scraps of paper I have with my dad’s handwriting on them. When he died nearly 10 years ago, all I wanted was his handwriting, so I found a business card with some notes and a couple of invoices with notes.
Keep adding those handwritten notes.
Kim,
I have some of my dad’s handwritten notes on sermons. They are in his block style printing of an engineer, but I treasure them because they are of his hand….he passed away 7 years ago.
Blessings,
Bev xx
Finished the last card yesterday–today they go to the post office! Hooray! BUT . . . I had never thought of this annual tradition as a way of joining the Christmas angel in trumpeting the “good news of great joy” in quite the way you’ve shared it today, so thank you for opening your heart and for this encouraging post.
Hello…just a response from a Catholic friend…we are in the season of Advent, which means we are “in waiting”! So, Christmas for us actually starts on Christmas and extends through the celebration of the Baptism of Jesus, which we celebrate a couple weeks later…so for we who are very traditional…cards can still come and not be counted late. What a “JOY” we have in Jesus!
A Blessed Christmas to All!
happiness headed to mailboxes!
Some years have been so hard, I didn’t want to send a Christmas letter. It felt “less than.” But, you’re right, that greeting adds a personal touch to the holidays and lets others know they are valued. I’m in!
Kim,
I have been married 31years this year and have sent cards every year. However, this year due to some family issues, I put on my grinch hat and wasn’t going to send any cards. Even though I had bought the cards and stamps already. As I was getting out my Christmas decorations, I found cards I had saved from previous years. I found a card from my uncle who passed away this year, His was usually the very first card I received. I threw off my grinch hat and sent my cards. There are many people who cherish the cards they get each year, and I am one of those. Handwritten cards are soon going to be a thing of the past, we need to keep this tradition alive. As I am writing the people’s names inside, I say a prayer for them. My cards reflect the reason for it all, Christ. Thank you for helping us realize it isn’t just one more thing to do, but a way to reach out to those we love with the love of Christ.
I love that you are praying over each family as you write the cards. I am doing the same this year as well.
I personally feel a hand written card or a photo card both take time, energy and effort. To say that a card with beautiful photos is less heart filled or genuine than a hand written greeting isn’t fair. I have done both. They both take time and care. To judge someones heart in the sentiment of the greeting just doesn’t seem right. If you are giving or receiving of a card during the holidays, someone gave an effort to share the season with you. They took the time to select their greeting, address it, stamp it, and send it to you-no matter how that process was done. We need to stop judging each others efforts and enjoy the gifts we share whether store bought or homemade. If you don’t get to sending out the greeting one year, or it arrived after the holiday, it is just one year. Christ would love all efforts of love, no matter how they are wrapped or when they arrive. I believe He would want us to do the same.
I love each and every card I receive. You are correct, all sending takes effort and I am glad to be on the list!
When my kids were young, I had the mile long to do list….and invariablely they would get sick just after Xmas. That’s when I gave myself permission if the Christmas cards didn’t get sent until Epiphany (1/5), I was happy…because it took that long to get notes written. Some years a few didn’t get sent. And yes I was removed and replaced on some folks list. I think it’s therir lost not mine because I sent to share the love of Christmas not to be kept on someone’s list. This year, I’m filling stocking to hand-out randomly, just because it’s Christmas!
Spreading joy, hope, peace, and love can take on many forms. Joy hope, peace, and love have a name…Jesus!!
Kim, I could so relate to your message! I used to work for Hallmark (and loved it), but I struggle with Christmas cards, too. Last year I sent zero. This year I already ordered them and they should be arriving any day. One thing that’s helping me is giving myself permission to do a “bad job.” I want so badly to speak a word that God will use to encourage the recipients, but any words are better than none! Thank you for sharing and letting us know we’re not alone and for the inspiration to send those few precious handwritten words. Merry (early) Christmas, Kim!
perfection is never the point, people are. I think if we gave ourselves a little more permission to do a ‘bad job’, we might just do more good than expected.
I love sending Christmas Cards. I send them out every year, albeit sometimes late. I am of Scottish heritage and celebrate through January 6th…. to Epiphany or Celtic Christmas. The 12 days of Christmas go from Traditional Christmas until then. I also love getting cards, even the picture cards… but sometimes the letters can be a bit of a “downer” if I allow myself to fall into a comparison trap. I do send letters and I tell the truth. If it has been a bad year, I tell of how God got us through a year of illness, injury, and financial hardship. I also use the letters to talk about my faith a bit and to remind others that our hardships are nothing compared to Mary and Joseph’s as they traveled to Bethlehem when there was a long journey on rough terrain and walking or on the back of a donkey with no Hilton Inn at the end of the trip. And also, Jesus’ life was certainly not an easy road, especially on the way to the Cross… so it can be a time to share your faith and trust in God and His faithfulness to you and not just a litany of accomplishments. Accomplishments can be fun to read about if not overdone, but this life is not just about us. It is about Him. It is “His story”… not Our Story.
Kim,
Thanks for this , as I read this , my Christmas cards m almost finished sit beside me on my end table. I WILL work and get them mailed out now.
Myself, like Bev, loves that personal touch, and guess I can agree , I am “ Christmas card snob”, although I’ve never thought of it that way, lol
Many blessings to each of you this Advent Season…
Dear Kim!
You’re singing my Christmas song! Good for you! Good for you for realizing that sending greetings by post, whether greeting card, letter, thank-you note, or the annual Christmas card, is a remarkable way to share the Good News of Christ with those who need Him, with those who need His personal encouragement. What is it that John Donne so eloquently said? “Letters mingle souls.” And they do. I love receiving Christmas cards, especially with a handwritten note, but I’ll settle for anything. I take time to read even the Hallmark (or Dayspring, as the case may be!) sentiments. I love it especially when someone from whom you’ve not heard all year, sends a letter, especially a handwritten one. I’m afraid with the lightening-speed of the Internet, and the ever-escalating cost of postage, the Christmas card is becoming a relic of the past. But not quite. I still love sending and receiving. I must tell you, though, that I lamented year after year, hustling to complete nearly 300 cards, each with a short, handwritten message, some with longer ones. Inevitably, I sent them barely on the brink of Christmas, and beyond. I regretted that I was always late. Ugh. Plus, my hand was wearing out. I was repeating much of the same news to each person. One August, as I contemplated this conundrum, I knew I’d had enough. I sat down and composed a two-page, typewritten letter, took it to Kinko’s, and mailed it to everyone on my list the day after Thanksgiving. Like you, I prepared the envelopes in advance and even wrote short notes on many of the letters. The letter even had a poetic flair, and was not a typical brag-sheet, but an actual letter to a friend (but times 300!) 🙂 So many people loved it. The letter morphed into a newsletter, and I always sent it the day after Thanksgiving. People came to anticipate it. And by my sending it early, I had their attention and was relieved of my mammoth undertaking before all the Christmas celebrations. Each of us could focus and enjoy the season. Then our daughter was born, and the newsletter has continued, but on a more chaotic schedule. But this year, I wrote it again in August and was back on schedule. No sweat. The newsletter is a real newsletter, not a brag sheet. It contains an opening letter about Jesus and Christmas in some way, other essays, poetry, “in memoriams,” birth & weddings announcements, humor, and a bullet-pointed list of interests of my husband, daughter, and I. For a number of years now, my husband has composed a darling mini newsletter that appears at the end, called The Real News, where he humorously spins off some point/s I’ve already made. Some friends cheat and read his news first. It’s in tiny print inside about a two-inch rectangle. I’ve given up sending actual Christmas cards, because the newsletter would never fit inside them. But I am sending the message of Christmas, in my own words, complete with Scripture. I send this to unbelievers and people who practice “foreign” religions. They don’t seem to mind, and I can thank God that they have read truth. I too keep a spread sheet, where I can easily update addresses as I receive friends’ cards, and yes, I do track from whom I’m receiving them. I do drop some off the list eventually, but not often. I know some people are elderly, etc., and don’t have the ability to send their own cards; but I don’t want that to stop me from sharing the Good News and from letting them know they are not forgotten. I have taken up far too much of your space and in-courage’s, and I apologize. But as I said, you are singing my song, and I want to sing back one of real encouragement to you, never to stop this important tradition. It makes a difference. And as you say, it’s a great way to involve your children! Our daughter, now 26, also loves that I have captured some of her history and our family’s in these annual epistles. By purposely not turning ours into a brag sheet, but something that is varied and interesting, with real news and the Good News, it reaches people for Christ. This is a little presumptuous, but if you would send me your mailing address at words@brick.net, I’d be pleased to send you one, to give you a feel of something else you might consider doing. Thank you again for sharing from your heart!
Merry Christmas!
Lynn
PS I think I have just written *you* a newsletter! 🙂
I share your love for handwriting, family, writing and all things paper and of course…JESUS!
Kim,
My mom used to send out cards. She had a list & wrote something in it. I have followed suit. These days most of what you see are happy holidays or enjoy the season. I want ALL my cards to reflect the reason for the season. Christ’s birth from a virgin in a smelly stable. I haven’t done any cards yet & may not this year. Most friends live near me & I can talk readily with them. My family lives so far away that I just email them a nice letter about our lives here. My thoughts mimic yours. I believe if you take the time to send a card you should write something in it. A nice message about God blessing them in the new year. Getting cards with just signatures & nothing else disappoints me. Take the time to write me a message please. May everyone have a great Advent!!
Blessings:)
I’m with you a love/hate relationship. A couple of years ago I read about delegating tasks at Christmas . When I asked myself which task caused me the most stress I realized that it was doing the cards. So it got delegated to my husband. In the past he had done a great newsletter so didn’t mind taking this on. We start early and try to have them ready for Dec 1. To speed the process we’ve set up a program that will print all return labels and address labels. Yipee
Yes, including the hubs is on the list of how to make this happen. I am still working on the cards!
My daughter’s birthday falls just after Christmas so between those two celebrations, holiday card commitments just felt overwhelming. The year after she was born (over a decade ago!), we started greeting friends and family on Valentine’s Day. It’s a much less frantic time, I can focus on my message of love and peace and joy (because Christmas isn’t the only time for those sentiments) and it’s a splendid surprise for people at a most unexpected time. Further, our card doesn’t get buried in a massive pile and people actually reach back out to us to tell us how much they loved receiving it (who ever takes the time to do that at the end of December?)!
I have a friend who does this very thing too. Splendid. I will take personal mail any day!
I just wanted to say that I like to keep getting Christmas cards right up to New Year’s Day. It always makes me happy to get cards after Christmas. Even if I wonder – am I getting it late because I got mind mailed late. I think they took the time to send it. I hated when I read you threw them all away. You may send out more than I do. I don’t know how long your Christmas Card list is. I am sorry you got stressed about it and threw away the cards. I usually say I will start in November but it is always in December. I do mail the ones who travel the farthest first and give them time to get there. And do the people who in the same town as us last. Bless you. ✨
What a great idea, mail the furthest first! Merry Christmas!
I enjoy receiving Christmas cards and letters too. I’m way behind on them but have my stamps! I still need to print out my photos for 7 calendars too! I enjoy this season in spite of some stress. That’s what Christmas CD are for! Thanks for sharing your story! We’re now older but still share photos some years of us and our grandchildren too. I thought I’d not be sending photos out. Happy Christmas time of the year!