Shutterfly Holiday Cards

It is hard to believe that it is already the end of October. I know I may be weird, but I've already started to think about and plan for Christmas. In fact, I purchased (actually my husband placed the order) my first official Christmas gift this past week (okay, it was my second) and we already received it.

We have been finishing off another small section of our basement (already partially finished) as a "kitchen" bar (I guess that is my husband's way of saying it's not a fancy wooden bar, but rather a small area that includes kitchen cabinets and a countertop). Before we had children, we used to have holiday parties and I was thinking that now that we have a larger space for entertaining. I can already see the invitation.

Of course, when I suggested it to my husband, he felt that we go to enough Christmas parties that maybe we just hold a Game Night. I think I can make that work - not as many people and I can still make up my favorite appetizers.

Of course, while I was checking out invitations, I started to look at Christmas cards. Never too early - even if I were able to choose and order today, we likely would still not get them sent out before we receive our first card. We have someone that we receive a Christmas card from every year on the day after Thanksgiving, like clockwork. My husband mocks, but I think it is great - it marks that start of the season.

My husband would like to abandon sending actual Christmas cards in the mail and move to sending electronic cards (attach a picture to the e-mail he says). I feel like that is so impersonal, plus I love to receive mail! Christmas time is probably the busiest time of the year for our mailbox! For now I'm holding my ground and I get to keep sending actual cards - I told him that he could trial his approach for his friends and family, but I wasn't ready to change for my friends and family.

Seriously, I love to receive Photo Christmas Cards from friends and family. We don't have the chance to get together regularly with some of our friends and it always so fun to see how their kids have grown and/or how they are changing over the years. I think that is in large part why I like to send them - if I enjoy receiving them so much, I hope others do to. I even started a scrapbook that is filled with the picture photo cards (I'm not real current), but it seems like a great way to preserve the cards and to be able to go back and see how the families have all changed with time - from pictures of just a couple by the tree, to a baby, to a toddler, to two children and so on.

The biggest debate is whether to include one large picture or to do a couple of smaller ones.

I love that Top 5 Moments card - it sort of puts the newsletter and picture in one. Just a quick recap of what we were up to. I noticed that if I go with the larger card size that I could actually do the top 10 moments. With a trip to Disney and so much more, maybe that is the way to go.

Of course, we have a few friends that we send holiday greetings to. They don't celebrate Christmas, but we still want to send them holiday wishes, but not offend them with a Merry Christmas greeting (I'm guessing that they wouldn't actually be offended, but why not show that you know by not sending a Christmas greeting?) So, typically we get two cards - one wishing Merry Christmas and one saying Happy Holidays - fortunately, Shutterfly has many styles that are available for both wishes making setting up two cards even easier.

Now, to find (or take) those perfect pictures to include on our card.

No compensation was received for this post. I am writing it as part of Shutterfly's 2011 Bloggers promotion and will receive 25 free cards in exchange for my post. All opinions expressed are mine or that of my family.