Christmas postcards - cheaper card option

[Tradd]

Just a hint for cards mailed in the US. You can get Christmas postcards on Amazon. About $7-$10 for 50. Postcard postage is $0.35. Regular postage is $0.55. The postcard stamps aren’t the pretty Christmas ones, but thought some of you might appreciate the info if you still want to send out cards.

[Rosemary]

For about 10 years, I've been making a PDF that has a few photo highlights of the year and a greeting. I don't do a big letter to everyone. I email the PDF to everyone and then I send handwritten cards (less than 10) or long emails to the people that I really keep up with.

[Teacher Terry]

I quit doing cards about 10 years ago.

[happystuff]

I used to recycle received cards into postcards. For several years I stopped sending, but the last two years or so, I've started again. Not sure what I'll do this year. I do enjoy sending out the cards, but postage is sooooo expensive!

[Tradd]

Even the postcards are cheaper than regular cards. For people who DO want to still send cards, this does save some $$.

[iris lilies]

I am gearing up to send the 450 cards that I do every year for Bulldog Rescue, I write a note inside my name in each one. It is a process, one of my winter time jobs.

[Simplemind]

I love hand painting cards for the holidays (New Years, Valentines, St Patrick's, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) which I give to my clients from my volunteer jobs as well as friends and family. It is a gift so I often do small paintings on the envelopes as well. 2995

[Teacher Terry]

IL and SM you guys are very ambitious!

[iris lilies]

I love hand painting cards for the holidays (New Years, Valentines, St Patrick's, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) which I give to my clients from my volunteer jobs as well as friends and family. It is a gift so I often do small paintings on the envelopes as well. 2995

these are wonderful! I especially like the gnomes.

[JaneV2.0]

these are wonderful! I especially like the gnomes.

I was just going to post the same thing. I've thought about painting cards. I've thought about a lot of things. :idea:

[razz]

IL and SM you guys are very ambitious!

I agree. The cards are lovely and unique!

[happystuff]

Beautiful cards!!!! I especially love the ones with snowy trees. So talented!!

[KayLR]

I love hand painting cards for the holidays (New Years, Valentines, St Patrick's, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) which I give to my clients from my volunteer jobs as well as friends and family. It is a gift so I often do small paintings on the envelopes as well. 2995

Those are wonderful, Simplemind! You are so talented!

[Tradd]

Those cards are FAB!

[beckyliz]

I usually make my cards (stamping, paper crafts), but have some premade ones that i will use up this year. It's time-consuming and they've never been as nice as Simplemind's!

[NewGig]

i make gift tags and cards for some friends and family as a way to reduce my craft stash. (Gift wrapping too.) For others, I'm still using up what we'd bought before. We're also using up postage we've already got, so the out of pocket is $0.

[mschrisgo2]

I think I have just been inspired to mail Christmas cards this year. I have a stash of pretty cards, and a stash of postage stamps. I should surprise everyone and use them!

[I have used exactly 1 postage stamp thus far this year. It will annoy me to no end if they become totally obsolete while I still have a mess of them!]

[catherine]

Yes, I agree that Simplemind's cards are beautiful!

Every year I say I'm going to write cards, and every year I don't. This year, I have a shot at it, because my excuse for prior years was all the falderal we go through with other Christmas stuff--decorations, cleaning for the kids coming, crazy last-minute shopping, and not to mention, December is my busiest work month with people trying to spend their budgets on market research before the new fiscal year.

This year, it seems I won't have decorations, won't have cleaning for the kids, and will have far less shopping because as a family, we've managed to agree on downsizing our Christmas expectations. And we will be in a small, small rental and my kids will be scattered this year. I just found out that my NJ DIL wants to do something very non-traditional and travel somewhere with the kids for Christmas--and DH and I are not invited. So, here we assumed that we'd spend Thanksgiving in VT with our 3 kids/grandkids and Christmas in NJ with our 1 son and grandkids, and now it looks like we'll be stranded in a furnished rental with no kids for the first time in 41 years.

Frankly, I had to fight back tears when my son told me that. I know it's his life and he has his own family, and I have no right to assume anything, but I think it's the idea of one more death of a long-standing tradition, following the end of many things this year. Not only is this the first year I won't be decorating with ornaments I've collected over the years; not only will we not have our Christmas morning present-orgy, not only will we not wait expectantly for all the kids to come through the door on Christmas Eve, but now I won't even have my kids. Or my house.

Didn't mean to make this a vent or a downer... Point is, hey, maybe I'll have time to write 450 cards, like IL!

[Teacher Terry]

Catherine, our Xmas’s have varied in the last few years due to my kids moving out of town, working holidays, etc. I handled it one of 2 ways. We either invited a bunch of friends for dinner or made reservations for a dinner show. Then we had something to look forward to.

[catherine]

Catherine, our Xmas’s have varied in the last few years due to my kids moving out of town, working holidays, etc. I handled it one of 2 ways. We either invited a bunch of friends for dinner or made reservations for a dinner show. Then we had something to look forward to.

Great idea, Terry. DH and I haven't been to a Broadway show in a very long time. Maybe we'll do something like that.

[Alan]

Once our grandkids got older we decided not to do Christmas anymore. For the past 4 years we've spent the week of Christmas sitting on the beach on the Outer Banks. This year we're moving a little further south to a beach in South Carolina. It's amazing how little stress there is on a beach.