Wouldn’t it be nice to skip the whole printing, folding and stuffing part? Well, you can.

Clever card manufacturers are now making holiday cards that have enough room for you to print your Christmas letter right in the card. You can create these Christmas letter cards right online. They look great, are easy to create, and mean less work for you.

You simply upload the photo(s), write your text, and then relax or bake Christmas cookies while you’re waiting for the printed cards to arrive in the mail. You’ll still have to address and mail them yourself, but you should have plenty of time for that, since you’ll no longer need to sit at the computer to design and print your Christmas letter.

Of course, you’ll still need to figure out what to say in the letter, so if you need some help drafting your message before you go online to place your order, check out our page with Christmas letter writing tips.

Then when you’re ready, visit Pear Tree Greetings to select a Christmas letter card. All of their cards are printed on 100 lb. card stock, and many of their Christmas card designs are available on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Use code SANTA15 to save $15 off holiday cards with an order of $100 or or code 16734 to save $10 with a purchase of $70 or more.

Christmas is the perfect time of year to reconnect with friends and family at home and abroad. The practise of sending messages of good will to each other has been made since Pagan times. German records show that people sent New Year cards in the fourteenth century, which later developed into a tradition of sending New Year gifts of a printed scene for the home complete with an inscription. In the United Kingdom eighteenth century children would design “Christmas Pieces” for their families, which were specially written messages on engraved paper, it is believed these messages eventually led on to the cards we know today. The origins of the first commercially available Christmas cards can be traced to Sir Henry Cole in December 1843; it simply bore the message `A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to You`.

Cards are usually sent in the weeks running up to Christmas and may carry a range of images. Some bear overtly religious scenes and messages relating to the nativity scene or even relevant Bible passages. Other cards may have a less religious feel but still convey thoughts of goodwill. Many have scenes of traditional Christmas festivities and customs such as feasting, giving gifts, carolling or enjoying winter weather. Father Christmas and his minions provide great fodder for more humorous cards and are frequently featured.

Cards for close family members and for friends can be easily customised using the Hallmark site. Imagine Grannies delight at receiving a card designed especially for her. Dads, Mums, Granddads, Sisters, Brothers, Aunts, Uncles, Nieces and Nephews can all receive the same joy when opening their cards. Friends need not miss out either, as using templates makes it possible to provide a unique design for every recipient. If the templates do not quite suit then it is possible to use your own photographs. Businesses too can use the template system to customise a range of cards to be sent. Charity cards are also available.

Involve everyone in the family when it comes to sending the cards. Addressing envelopes and sticking on stamps can seem more fun if you are all together. It is also a chance to talk to younger members of the family about who you are sending cards to and why it is important to keep touch! Don`t forget to add a little a personal touch when contacting friends, even a hand written signature will go a long way. If you are posting abroad, then check early to make sure you don`t miss posting dates.

And finally make sure you allow plenty of time to choose your perfect Christmas cards. Due to the increasingly busy lives people live, the tradition of exchanging cards is, perhaps, more important than ever as it allows you to connect with friends and family and let them know that you are thinking of them. Of course if you do leave it a little late or get caught out by a card you weren`t expecting, you could also send a New Year card instead.

Sir Henry Cole, a British inventor and civil servant, produced the first commercial holiday cards in 1843. He commissioned an artist named John Horsley to illustrate them, and Cole obliged by drawing a three-panel image that included a family raising their glasses for a toast in the middle above the words “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.” Cole sold over 2000 of the cards for a shilling a piece that year.

Other cards soon followed, although they didn’t look like the cards we’d think of today. Rather than having winter or religious themes, early Christmas cards depicted flowers and fairies and other images that looked forward to the coming of spring.

The first holiday cards in America weren’t offered until more than three decades later. In 1875 Louis Prang became the first printer to offer cards in America. The advent of the postcard brought an end to elaborate Victorian-style cards for awhile, but by the 1920s, cards with envelopes had returned.

Christmas cards have been continually evolving and changing since then. During the World Wars, patriotic themes were popular, while in the 1950s, cartoon illustrations and cards with risque humor caught on. Today you can get holiday cards with a wide range of images and greetings. Nostalgic, sentimental, and religious images continue to be popular, and, now you can also purchase many “unusual” Christmas cards that can do double-duty as Christmas letter, calendars or tree ornaments. Many companies choose to send out corporate holiday cards these days as a way to keep in touch with their customers during the holiday season. Today’s Christmas cards can be anything from humorous to religious, simple to ornate, small to large, and everything in between.

Unfortunately, sending out printed Christmas cards is a tradition that’s in danger of fading out as more high-tech options become available and more popular. In recent decades, the number of cards sent during the holidays has been declining. The estimated number of cards received by American households dropped from 29 in 1987 to 20 in 2004. Despite the decline, printed cards are still popular – 1.9 billion cards were sent in the U.S. in 2005 alone. And new services that send cards out for you are making it easier to combine the popularity of printed cards with the ease of online ordering.

So even though the tradition of holiday greeting cards may be changing, it should be with us for a long time to come.

1. Free Christmas Music at Amazon
Throughout the year, Amazon offers a selection of free mp3 music titles every day, and during the holiday season they offer a special selection of free Christmas music downloads.

2. Free Christmas Invitations
You can save some money this year by printing your Christmas party invitations at home. You can find a nice selection of printable invitations on HubPages.

3. Free Santa’s Nice List Guide
If you’ve got little kids at home who believe in St. Nick, download the free Santa’s Nice List Guide from Package from Santa. This guide lets kids know what they need to do to get on Santa’s Nice List. Five requirements are already on the list (being kind, respecting your family, smiling, helping others and believing in Santa Claus) and you can add five more.

4. Free Christmas Powerpoint templates
If you’re making a holiday presentation, check out the free holiday PowerPoint templates. They’ll add some great Christmas cheer to your presentation.

5. Free Christmas Postcards
It’s cheaper to send a postcard through the mail than to send a card in an envelope, so if you’re looking to save money this holiday season, try sending postcards rather than cards. You can find some free printable Christmas postcards with vintage Santa images at Printable Santa Letters.com.

From free Christmas downloads on Squidoo.

It’s true that a professional photographer can create a one-of-a-kind image that will certainly make your holiday photo cards look great. But with today’s user-friendly digital cameras, you can also create great-looking photos yourself.

Many people like to take a photo of the family in front of the Christmas tree. They simply put the camera on a tripod, stand in front of the tree and snap. But there are plenty of ways to make this type of photo more creative. One idea for getting a great Christmas photo card in front of the tree is to have family members dress in opposite colors – for instance, the men could wear red and the women could wear green. Or everyone can wear the same contrasting shirts and pants.

If you’d like to have a little fun, have everyone wear reindeer antlers or Santa hats. If your normal holiday photo just includes a standard photo of everyone looking at the camera and smiling, this will be a fun alternative. You can also turn a standard photo of everyone in front of the tree into a more whimsical image simply by selecting new poses and adding some variations in height and perspective.

For instance, you could have one person standing on a ladder placing an ornament on the tree, while others stand. If you’re a couple with a child, you could even have the two of you standing while holding the child in a horizontal position in front of you. Or you could all lie down on the floor with your heads together and have someone stand above and shoot down. Be creative!

Another idea is to take the photo in front of a Christmas-themed backdrop rather than at home in front of the tree. Check out the holiday displays at the local mall or other area businesses. Since businesses are looking to pull in the Christmas shoppers, they’ll often have colorful display featuring Christmas scenes. You can usually get pictures of your family in front of these displays. But if a particular business won’t let you do that, head for a smaller shop and just ask. Most business owners are happy to oblige.

For more ideas, just look at any website offering photo Christmas cards. The sample images you’ll find on these cards will give you some great ideas. Then go have fun! And remember – the perfect Christmas picture is the one where everyone in the photo is enjoying themselves and the camera has captured the moment so you can enjoy it for years to come.

By Dwight Jonly

Christmas is coming soon, but are you tired of sending Christmas cards in any old ordinary way? So, this year you would like to send a special Christmas greeting card-something a little different-maybe for a special person in your heart. If you have a personal computer with Microsoft Office software, the creative Christmas cards comes: why not create a Christmas multimedia greeting card with PowerPoint? It would not be that hard to create such a greeting, and while you could use simple clip art, you could instead add videos, a movie, even sound.

One advantage of creating a Christmas multimedia greeting card is that you can save your card as a template. After saving your creation as a template, you can reuse the card many times. You can create many cards based on the original.

Step 1: Create a New Slideshow

Open PowerPoint, from the File menu, click new. You will then be given the chance to use an existing template, a blank presentation, or to use the AutoContent Wizard. For our purposes, click blank presentation.

Step 2: Adjust the page size to whatever you desire.

Click page setup on the File menu. You can adjust the size to anything you want, but for our purposes, change the width to 7.5 inches, the same as the height.

Step 3: Set up the layout for the slide show.

On the Format menu, click slide layout. You have a variety of templates to choose from, but for our purposes, choose the blank one.

Step 4: Set up the slide show and the speed at which the slides will move from one to the other.

Click slide show, then slide transition. In the advance slide section, click automatically after box. Change the delay time to 00:03, and close the slide transition pane.

Step 5: What this step is would depend on whether or not you want to create your card from clip art, to add a movie, or a picture you already have.

Add a picture to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

Let us say you want to create a card from clip art. Click picture on the Insert menu, then clip art. Do a search for the type of picture you want to add. Double click on the image you want to add. It will be added to the slide, unless you get a message that says you have to use a CD that came with your computer to use the image, in which case you will have to use the CD. You also can add download clip art to your computer from the Internet-sometimes for free-after doing a search for clip art. You will also find a link to a clip organizer, if there are any clips there on your computer and a link to clips online.

You can also format the picture, including the size of the picture in your multimedia greeting card created with PowerPoint. Click picture from the Format menu. Click size and then you can make the size of the picture however many inches in height or width that you want-at least if it will fit in your browser. Drag the image of the picture you inserted to the center of the screen.

Add a new slide to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

If you want to insert a new slide, click new slide on the Insert menu. You can then follow the same procedures for formatting and adding clip art.

Add a movie to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

You can add a movie to your multimedia greeting card which you make with PowerPoint, instead of clip art. Point to movies and sounds on the Insert menu and click movie from clip organizer. Click the desired movie-that is if your computer hard drive came with any movies to add, or if you have downloaded any off the Internet. You can format the movie the same way you would a picture.

Add sound to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

You can add sound to your greeting card. Click movies and sounds on the Insert menu and then pick the sound you want to add from the Clip Organizer. You will also be given the choice to add sound from a file or any CD tracks you have saved to your computer. You may have sound elsewhere on your computer, but you should find sound files by clicking your C drive, then Windows, then Media. You should have a wide selection of sounds to add to your card.

Add text to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

It is simple to add text to your multimedia greeting card made with PowerPoint. On the Insert Menu, click text box. Click and drag the text box below the picture, movie, or clip art you added. Drag the text box by the resize handles to whatever size you want. In the text box type your desired greeting, such as, “Merry Christmas.” You can create a second text box below the first to add your name or the name of the recipient. You can size or format the text and the font color in whatever way you would like. Click on Format and then font. Choose your options.

Step 6: Save your Christmas greeting card as a template.

Click new on the File menu, and then save as. In the save as dialogue box, choose new template. Name your template.

If you think it is too troublesome to make a PowerPoint all form the beginning, you can also use some free Christmas PowerPoint Templates instead.

Many items such as photos, movies, sounds, background images, and border images are on the Microsoft Clip Art and Media Web Site and can be added to your multimedia card created in PowerPoint.

Step 7: Deliver your Christmas greeting cards.

Of course,you can send your elaborate Christmas greeting cards through e-mail as an attachment,but sometimes it is troublesome to send a PowerPoint file with sounds and movies. If you don’t deal with the sounds and movies well, they will not play in the recipient’s PowerPoint.Or the recipient has a different OS or he/she has not installed a PowerPoint app. in her/his computer,what will you do? Don’t worry, here are the solutions:

Convert the Christmas greeting cards to video with Leawo PowerPoint to Video.So you can easily send it with an e-mail,and make it playable on a different OS or even without PowerPoint installing computer. What’s more, you can upload the greeting cards to your blog, SNS or to video sites, and more crazily, you can send the Christmas greeting video card together with mobile device (for example iPod, iPhone, Blackberry etc.) you’ve chosen as a gift. That is a real surprise! Haha! But if the recipient has no computer or he/she knows nothing about computer, I’m afraid that you have to convert the Christmas greeting cards to DVD with Moyea PPT to DVD Burner,and send the DVD copy to he/she so that he/she will receive your warm Christmas greeting by watching TV. Really remarkable, isn’t it? Why not start your own now?

Dwight, a PowerPoint expert serving http://www.dvd-ppt-slideshow.com/ who is a provider for PowerPoint to DVD, PowerPoint to Video, PowerPoint for WEB solutions

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dwight_Jonly

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The Internet has made it easy to go digital, but if you’re still a fan of paper Christmas cards, you can also use the web to find great paper Christmas cards that give you options you won’t find at your local Wal-Mart. Here are a few places to shop online for great printed holiday greetings.

PhotoWorks
PhotoWorks has a wonderful selection of photo Christmas cards. In addition to traditional photo card designs, they also offer many unusual designs you won’t find elsewhere, such as tri-fold and oversize cards that can include your Christmas letter printed as part of the card and punch-out cards that can also double as Christmas ornaments.

Gallery Collection
Gallery Collection offers hundreds of traditional paper Christmas cards for both business and personal use. They have a great selection of holiday images on their cards, though you won’t find any of the popular photo Christmas cards here. They can customize your cards with your own printed message for a personal touch.

My Good Greetings
This site only sells cards made of 100% recycled Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-Certified card stock (50% post-consumer waste) and pairs them with 100% recycled envelopes manufactured with 100% post-consumer recovered fiber. They then send their eco-friendly cards with 100% recycled labels and recycled shipping materials, and they offset their carbon footprint through Greenshipper. If you want to celebrate a green Christmas, this is a good place to shop.

CardStore.com
The wonderful thing about CardStore.com is that they make your card mailing easy. For a very small fee, they will send cards out for you. Yes, they do the hard work! You simply need to sort through hundreds of great card designs, customize and place your order, and give them the mailing details. Sending out cards was never this easy!

Paper Christmas cards not only help you say hello to friends and family during Christmas, but they give recipients something to touch and enjoy for the entire season. There’s something about the texture and the smell of paper that cannot be replaced with an e-card or phone call. So go paper!

Mailing letters is fun with Christmas address labels. Thanks to the Internet and the advanced technology available, you can now create your own Christmas address label in a matter of minutes. Christmas address labels are great even when it is not Christmas time – have you ever heard the phrase “Christmas in July”?

There are scores of Web resources that allow you to customize your Christmas address label. You can insert images of your family members and choose to have your background and design format while ordering for Christmas address labels. Most of the online resources also have ready-made templates that you can choose from, for designing and ordering your own Christmas address labels. All you have to do is to go through a series of simple steps and your Christmas address label would be created in a matter of minutes. Once you order them, they would be delivered to you in 6-8 days at the most.

You can show off your whole family or announce your new home through Christmas address labels. It helps if you have a good sense of humor, because humor really helps in creating your own distinct identity. Christmas address labels are also great for use in workplaces. Your letter would create a favorable impression, even without the envelope being opened. Such is the impact of a good Christmas address label with a humorous and/or inspirational message.

Christmas address labels are enormously popular throughout the world. This has naturally led to increased competition within the label printing business. The good news for customers is this competition has resulted in increased discounts for customers. If you were to surf the Internet for Christmas address labels, you can find online merchants screaming for your attention with fabulous discount offers. You can also find reviews offering you insights into the overall quality of each merchant’s product.

Address Labels provides detailed information on Address Labels, Return Address Labels, Free Address Labels, Personalized Address Labels and more. Address Labels is affiliated with Personalized Rubber Stamps.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jimmy_Sturo

http://EzineArticles.com/?Christmas-Address-Labels&id=409980

The US Postal Service has been issuing special Christmas postage stamps since 1963, when it released its first holiday stamp with an image of a Christmas wreath and candles. Now the USPS issues Hanukkah and Kwanzaa stamps, too, as well as both religious and secular images for Christmas.

But digital technology means you no longer have to wait for the United States Postal Service to issue their official holiday stamps, nor do you have to settle for the images the print. Now you can make your own (see the post on how to create personalized USPS stamps) or you can buy great postage stamps created by thousands of artists around the country.

Just hop over to Zazzle and you’ll be dazzled by the variety of postage available for Christmas, other holidays and special occasions and everyday use. Here are just a few of the designs you’ll find there. You can buy any of these designs or even use the design as the basis for your own customized version of what you see here. (For instance, you could add “Merry Christmas from the Smiths” to any image here, and you can do the same with their selection of Christmas cards, letterhead, ornaments, shirts and more.)

]]> http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/10/28/fun-christmas-postage-stamps-add-color-to-your-holiday-letters/feed/ 3 http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/09/18/green-christmas-cards-recycled-cards-for-the-holidays/ http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/09/18/green-christmas-cards-recycled-cards-for-the-holidays/#comments Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:26:13 +0000 xmastips http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/?p=370 Americans send approximiately 2.1 billion cards every year during the holidays, and most of them are made from virgin paper.

If you’re looking for a way to lessen your impact on the environment during the holidays, consider green Christmas cards. There are now a number of stores that offer cards made from recycled paper, printed with soy inks and/or created with reusable energy. Here are a few places to find these green Christmas cards.

My Good Greetings
My Good Greeting’s Christmas photo cards are made of 100% recycled Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-Certified card stock (50% post-consumer waster) and paired with recycled envelopes manufactured with 100% post-consumer recovered fiber. In addition, they use 100% recycled labels and recycled shipping materials. You’ll find over 100 green Christmas cards here, such as the design shown above, as well as cards and invitations for all occasions. They even offset their carbon footprint through Greenshipper. This is a great place to shop for green Christmas cards.

Gallery Collection
You’ll find two types of green Christmas cards in their Environmentally Friendly holiday card category – recycled paper cards and wind power cards. Cards are marked with icons to let you easily see which ones are made at low-impact, emissions-free mills powered by wind-generated, renewable energy, which ones are made from recycled paper, and which ones are made from raw materials that have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Fine Stationery
Although they don’t have a category specifically for recycled greetings, Fine Stationery has over a dozen designs you’ll find if you search for recycled Christmas cards on their site. Some contain post-consumer fiber. You’ll just need to read the descriptions to discover which ones.

Pear Tree
In addition to offering a nice selection of regular recycled holiday greeting cards, Pear Tree also offers recycled photo cards that contain up to 100% post-consumer fibers.

Holiday Classics
Holiday Classics offers a variety of recycled holiday cards, some of which are also printed with soy ink. Detailed card descriptions help you determine which cards have 100% recycled content, post-consumer content or soy ink printing.

Sierra Club
The Sierra Club’s holiday cards offer beautiful images of nature on them and come on recycled paper with soy inks. Plus, you’ll be supporting their environmental efforts with each purchase.

Greenfield Paper
In addition to offering 16 recycled card designs, Greenfield Paper also offers recycled gift wrap.

RedStamp.com offers over 30 environmentally friendly Christmas photo cards, and they make it easy to find them with a link to their Eco-Friendly offerings. Descriptions for many of the cards give the post-consumer recycled paper content, and some are printed with soy inks and created with renewable energy.

]]> http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/09/18/green-christmas-cards-recycled-cards-for-the-holidays/feed/ 0 http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/09/13/create-free-animated-christmas-cards-online/ http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/09/13/create-free-animated-christmas-cards-online/#comments Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:29:55 +0000 xmastips http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/?p=336 Have some fun with your photos this holiday season! Smilebox is a service that lets you create free animated Christmas cards, slideshows and scrapbooks that you personalize with your own photos, text and choice of music. They have hundreds of designs for all occasions, including 95 different Christmas designs, and they’re all free – as long as you don’t mind a few ads on the side.

Don’t like ads? Then sign up for the 14-day free trial. You’ll get all the premium features – such as full-screen, ad-free versions of your creations – at no cost for two weeks. If you want to continue the premium service, you can upgrade any single card for just $2.99 or $5.99 for unlimited cards during the month. They also have an annual membership.

Smilebox greetings are so easy to creat, anyone can do it. You simply drag and drop your photos into their templates, add your text, and select the music. That’s it. You’ll have a great, personalized greeting in just minutes.

Here are three examples of the types of free animated Christmas cards you can create at Smilebox.

Let it Snow!
Personalize with 5 – 10 photos

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Animated Nativity Card
Personalize with 1 – 5 photos

Make a Smilebox greeting

Animated Dancing Snowmen Card
Personalize with one photo

Make a Smilebox greeting

See more free animated Christmas cards.

]]> http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/09/13/create-free-animated-christmas-cards-online/feed/ 1 http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/09/09/unusual-christmas-cards-are-christmas-letters-too/ http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/09/09/unusual-christmas-cards-are-christmas-letters-too/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:41:33 +0000 xmastips http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/?p=298

Traditionally, if you wanted to send a Christmas letter at the holidays, you had to print it on a separate piece of paper and stuff it inside the card you were sending out. No more! The cards shown here, and others like them, let you combine your Christmas card and letter into one easy-to-create mailing.

The great thing about these unusual Christmas cards is that they can be personalized online with your own digital photo and text. Simply choose your design, upload a photo, and write your text in the online editor. You’ll be able to see a preview before you order.

You can find all-in-one Christmas card/letters in several designs, from tri-fold cards that allow you to print photos on two of the panels and include your letter on the third, to oversized postcards with room for a large photo on the front and your letter on the back.

You can get more information about the design shown here at Pear Tree Greetings or see other designs at Tiny Prints.com, Shutterfly and Personalization Mall.

You can also read more about cool and unusual Christmas cards on the following pages:
Cool Christmas Cards at HubPages
Unusual Christmas Cards at Squidoo
Cool Christmas Cards at Squidoo

]]> http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/09/09/unusual-christmas-cards-are-christmas-letters-too/feed/ 2 http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/07/23/create-your-own-custom-holiday-photo-cards/ http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/07/23/create-your-own-custom-holiday-photo-cards/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:06:51 +0000 xmastips http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/?p=220 Back in the old days before the Internet, sending out photo Christmas cards meant a trip to a photography studio, weeks of waiting, and a lot more expense than traditional cards with images. No more! These days, you can hop online, pour through hundreds of designs, upload your own digital image, press a few buttons, and voila! your cards will be in the mail or ready for pickup at a local store almost faster than you can say, “Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen.”

But with so many options, where to start? Here’s a quick list of online sites that offer custom holiday photo cards, along with notes on some of the cool stuff – from tri-fold cards to a service that stamps and mails your cards for you – you’ll find at each.

HP Snapfish

Snapfish is a well-known Internet brand when it comes to photo sharing and gifts. Here you’ll find dozens of custom holiday photo card designs in 4″ x 8″ and 5″ x 7″ sizes. Depending on the design you select, you’ll be able to upload up to four photos on your cards. What’s nice about shopping here? If you’re in a hurry, you can opt for in-store pickup at a local Walgreens. If not, you can always choose snail mail delivery.

Astonishing Cards.com

The great thing about Astonishing Cards.com is that they’ll send cards out for you at no additional charge if you purchase 50 or more holiday photo cards or large folded cards. Each design comes in three size options – large (7 3/4 x 5 1/8), small (5 1/2 x 3 1/4) or postcard (flat 4 x 6). You simply select your card size and design (such as the design shown at the top of this post), upload your image, personalize the card, submit payment, provide addresses for your recipients, and you’re done. They’ll print and send the cards out the next day. It’s like having your own personal team of Santa’s elves to help you with your Christmas mailing list.

Pear Tree Greetings has a variety of traditional postcard-style and folding photo cards, but what I like about this site is that they also have some very unusual designs, including cards that give you room to print your Christmas letter, ornament-shaped cards that can hang on the tree, and plenty of other options. And most of their cards are printed on 100% recycled card stock, so you can feel good about being green at Christmas.

Smilebox

Smilebox is a fairly new kid on the block when it comes to holiday greetings, but don’t expect the traditional printed designs here. Their specialty is electronic greeting cards that you can customize with your own photos, message and choice of text, but they also offer the option of printing your creations from your own computer. So if you’re looking for some fun holiday photo cards you can print at home, be sure to check out this site, as it only costs $3.99 to upgrade to a premium ad-free creation that you can print out. (Free versions can online be viewed online and include ads.)

]]> http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/07/23/create-your-own-custom-holiday-photo-cards/feed/ 0 http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/07/09/christmas-card-greetings/ http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/07/09/christmas-card-greetings/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:23:17 +0000 xmastips http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/?p=213 Sometimes it’s hard to come up with the just the right phrase for your Christmas cards and letters. If you need some help getting started, here’s a list of Christmas card greetings you can use for your greeting cards or annual holiday letters. And if you need help selecting the perfect card for the perfect someone, be sure to visit our Christmas card store.

May your Christmas be as peaceful as new fallen snow.

May the joy and peace of the holiday season be with you now and throughout the new year.

The gift of love. The gift of peace. The gift of happiness. May all these be yours at Christmas.

May peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year.

May peace, love and prosperity follow you at Christmas and always.

May the holiday season bring much happiness and joy to you and your loved ones.

May the peace and joy of the holiday season be with you throughout the coming year.

Warm wishes for a Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy new year.

Peace On Earth and best wishes throughout the New Year.

Peace on earth will come to stay, When we live Christmas every day. – Helen Steiner Rice

Seasons greetings and best wishes for the New Year.

Season’s greetings with all good wishes for the new year.

Best wishes for the holidays and for health and happiness throughout the coming year.

Warmest wishes for a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year.

May the Christmas season fill your home with joy, your heart with love and your life with laughter.

Wishing you and your loved ones peace, health, happiness and prosperity this holiday season and in the coming New Year.

Wishing you Christmas happiness to warm your heart and to fill your home with special joy.

To a joyful present and a well remembered past. Best wishes for happy holidays and a magnificent New Year.

Wishing you the special gifts of this holiday season – peace, joy and lasting happiness.

Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a happy New Year.

]]> http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/07/09/christmas-card-greetings/feed/ 1 http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/07/09/save-time-let-someone-else-send-cards-out-for-you/ http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/2009/07/09/save-time-let-someone-else-send-cards-out-for-you/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:03:15 +0000 xmastips http://blog.christmaslettertips.com/?p=201 Let’s face it. The annual ritual of sending out Christmas cards is a lot of work. Even if you enjoy picking out just the right card, writing a holiday letter about the things that have happened to your family during the year, and adding a personal note to each card so your card recipient knows you care, the least fun part of sending out Christmas cards is, well, sending them out. So don’t. Let someone else do it.

Who would want to do such a thing? Astonishing Cards and CardStore.com will both perform this service.

Astonishing Cards doesn’t even charge extra. Yep. You can design your own customized Christmas card online, complete with your choice of text and a photo you can upload, and they’ll print and send the cards out the next day. The “Astonishing Cards Advantage” free next day mailing service only applies to any style of large folded Christmas cards and holiday photo cards or postcards (There is an extra fee if you’re buying another type of card.), so check their site to get the full details.

Astonishing Cards has four pages of photo card designs, as well as six pages of Christmas card designs, and you can choose from one of three card formats – large folded card, invitation size folded card, and postcard. Their designs are modern and colorful, and you’ll find the usual assortment of reindeer, Santa, messages of Peace on Earth, etc.

CardStore.com can also make your card mailing easy, and they charge only a small fee in addition to the cost of U.S. postage (as low as .79, depending on the type and quantity of cards you purchase). You’ll find an amazing selection of cards here. They’ve got 10 pages of holiday photo card designs, as well hundreds of other cards in their traditional, modern, vintage, and whimsical Christmas card categories. They’ve even got a category of holiday cards featuring pets.

Both sites also offer a wide selection of cards and invitations for other holidays and special occasions such as birthdays, baby showers, and weddings. So if you’re looking to save some time on your Christmas mailing this year, go take a look.

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