I love Christmas cards!
Like, almost to a fault.
OK, almost to a pathologic fault. I love everything about them. I fly to the mailbox like a six year old beginning the day after Thanksgiving until the first week of January.
The ex husband of a friend of mine once refered to me as a ‘Christmas card freak’.
I’m even crazier about the Christmas cards I send. Though nothing is written in stone, I have a list of things I look for when I’m picking out ours for the year. First, I want it to be a Santa card. Not just any Santa. He should look like the one you dreamed about as a child.
I want his face to be kind and wise, an Old World Santa.
And the printed message inside the card should to contain the word Christmas.
I used to have a hard and fast ‘No Glitter’ rule but I’ve caved on that in the past few years.
So far you’re probably thinking this doesn’t sound too crazy. Well, it’s about to. I start picking out my stamps in October, before the cards are even in the stores yet.
Next, the envelopes. I really like colored ones. My favorites are craft paper brown or red. This year I got lucky, a perfect Santa and a pretty red envelope.
Into that pretty red envelope go two things in addition to the card: a current picture of us and a letter. The letter is just a ‘Year In Review’ kinda thing. Nothing too over the top or obnoxious.
And I try to coordinate the letter paper with the card, somewhat. When Big Daddy’s Nanny was alive, she would call me as soon as she got her card in the mail and we would discuss my letter. She loved it! She always made me so happy when I’d come in from work and there would me a message from her on our machine. Nanny only ever had one complaint. She wanted my letter to be longer. It was several years before my Christmas letter took up both sides of the paper. She would have been so pleased!
I do all this with one thing in mind. Maybe somewhere , someone will open their mailbox and my pretty red envelope will make them smile. To me, they should be a tiny gift. Just like I feel when I open that box!
Paige
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awww, Paige, I'm with you. Cards are very important to me too! I also have to have a Santa card, and he must be the REAL Santa!! Special, like yours. I love a red envelope also. I've never been a letter girl, but for people I don't see often, I always write a little note. I take my time opening each one delivered to our home and then we hang them on garland in the dining room. We have a contest to see if we can guess the sender by the personality of the card, once they are all hung. I also have a small iron tree that I hang one of our cards we send out for each year. Almost 40 cards on that tree. Also joining them is the last card sent to me by my dear sweet Mamaw. A Treasure!! Thanks for such a great blog. Your's is only one of three that go directly to my 'good" mailbox…
None of this seems at all crazy to me! Merry Christmas!
You are so organized! I've not written cards in several years. I admire that you give all this detail to your Christmas cards. Kudos!