Christmas Cards

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is Christmas cards! 

I love sending out our card and sharing our family news each year. I used to love writing little notes on every card and handwriting all the addresses but this year time is a precious commodity so I apologize for the preprinted labels and message-less cards! Please know that I think about each family as I ready their card and hope all is well with them this holiday season. 

Although I didn't handwrite my addresses I tried to add some fun things to my envelopes this year....

I love, love, love these holiday stamps that are special this year! They were sold out at a few post offices around here but my local one had a few books left before Thanksgiving that I quickly bought up. I have loved seeing them on the cards I've gotten so I know other love them, too! I also ordered some return address stickers from shutterfly.com and I don't usually splurge like that but I took advantage of some sales and some codes to get them for cheap. I really like how they brightened up my cards and will probably do them again. I underestimated my needs (it seems like I always have a pile of cards that get returned to me) so I will have to remember to order more next year. Finally, I added a little bit of  holiday washi tape to seal the back of the cards. I love how fun it was and it also eliminated my least favorite step-licking the cards! ew! 

So lovely! 

This is my little card assembly line set up. I love doing it every year! I had two piles going: one for regular cards and one for family members that I stuffed with a few extra photos of the kids. 

I had a few holiday specific photos I wanted to include for family members I don't see often. I wanted to jazz them up someway rather than just tucking in regular 4x6's so I ended up adding some text and clipart using the free version of picmonkey.com. It was super easy and I love how they turned out! I exported them to my computer and uploaded them right to my favorite printer (my fav one hour is Walgreens). I thought it was a festive little touch that didn't cost any extra than the print itself! 

I also addressed two *very* special cards to the doctor who delivered the girls and to the Perinatal Center who did the extra monitoring for me. I included a little note in these so they didn't think I was just some crazy person just sending them a holiday card. I am so appreciative of the good care I got during my pregnancy and wanted them to see the girls' sweet little faces! 

Getting the cards out the door seems like the easy part...the hard part is dealing with the cards that get returned or an unexpected card that wasn't on my original list. I keep my little tray out all season long so my supplies are right at hand with stamps, extra envelopes, address list, nice marking pen and return address labels. It helps to corral the returned cards (so I can hopefully send it along to right place if I get one from the family with an updated address) as well as gives me a place to save envelopes with new addresses to update my master list for next year. I actually did a big update to my spreadsheet with envelopes I had saved of new addresses from last year and printed labels well before the girls were born so that was a huge hassle-saver for me. 

I love getting holiday cards and seeing everyone's smiling faces in my home all season! I love displaying the cards as a garland by my tree...it makes me so happy. 

Do you have any tricks to staying organized during the card season? How do you display your cards? I hope this wasn't a weird post but I just love seeing how other people do it and wanted to share my process!