We chose to send out Christmas cards for the first time this year, and this was our little insert. I meant to post this way before Christmas, but we had some technical difficulties on the back-end of our website. So even though Christmas has come and gone, we hope you can still appreciate our well-wishes to you for the holidays!

I’m not sure if a lot of you send out Christmas cards, but I want to share what we did for those of you thinking about doing it. Because to be honest, I’m not sure I will continue doing Christmas cards the way we did it this year! I made it harder than it needed to be by being more personal than a Christmas card typically is, and by putting more time and effort into it than it really needed. I handmade crafty folded cards ALONG WITH the photo card of us, and wrote personalized notes in every single one. I’m crazy, I know.

It would have been much easier to just have a photo card printed out like we did, that had a little timeline of events listed on it as well, and sent that out. But I just kept adding more layers, and it took me hoooooourrrrsss. I have to admit, that I did enjoy getting to be crafty while watching movies.

Lots to consider

As I was contemplating the decision to start sending Christmas cards from our family, I wondered why we do it in the first place. We have facebook. We already know more about what has happened in each other’s lives through the computer, than through a card. Why go through all the fuss? I like to think that writing a special note in each of the cards, or even just sending them a “happy holidays” photo, actually meant something to people. I hope people said, “Hey they thought about me this Christmas. That’s nice of them.” Even if they do throw it in the trash a few days later, I like giving that little sentiment. But then again, there are other, less time-consuming ways to still accomplish that! I mean, when you start to make a plan for this task, there’s a lot to consider:

How much will this end up costing altogether?

How much time will this take?

When do the cards have to be in the mail?

What should I put in the card?

Who should we send a card to? (Trust me, the list gets longer and longer!)

Do I have everyone’s addresses?

Will it matter to people?

Will I have to do this every year now?

Is it worth it?

I was halfway through the project when I re-asked myself these questions, but I couldn’t turn back at that point! I really only intended to send a photo card with a quick newsletter of our year to family and friends. But I got too excited and then got overwhelmed with the responsibility of it. It really shouldn’t have been a big deal. Few people our age even send out cards anyways. I’m going to sit on it for the next 11 months and see if I think it’s worth doing. Posting a one-time digital card on facebook is sounding better and better! That’s the married college student way of doing it, right? :)

Find out what changes I made to our 2015 Christmas Cards!

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