Peace of Mind Organizing

Letting holiday cards be easy

5 December 2019

I don’t celebrate Christmas, so December is a very easy month for me. I give few gifts so I don’t have to worry about shopping. And I don’t decorate at all.

But I do enjoy sending holiday cards. I actually always send out New Year’s cards because I like that they’re secular and they take away a little of the time pressure. I send two sets: One for Peace of Mind Organizing clients and colleagues and one for personal friends. (The personal set always sports a picture of our beautiful standard poodle, Bix, on the front.) Over the years I’ve been simplifying and making the process of sending out cards easier and easier.

How do I keep it simple? My secret weapon is Minted.com. I’ve been ordering from them for years and don’t even consider taking my business elsewhere.

As I detailed last year, here’s why I love Minted:

• They offer beautiful cards (both photo and non-photo) designed by independent artists who win design competitions for the privilege of being included.
• They offer addressing of the envelopes at no additional cost, in a design that complements the card. This is a huge time saver and looks great.
• The quality of the card stock is excellent and they offer a number of options (like printed return addresses, “skinny wrap” return address labels, printed card backs and envelope liners) to snazz it up. You can customize both the front and back (or inside) of the cards.
• They offer flat, as well as folded, cards. And they also offer postcards.

This year, I picked out my design, then edited last year’s address list. I removed a few people and added some more. Then I ordered stamps from the postal service’s website. The whole thing took an hour or so, partly because I didn’t let myself agonize over the decision. There are many beautiful designed from which to choose, but I went with the first one that caught my fancy.

For our personal cards, we opted for a postcard. Minted allows you to upload the photo so you can see how it looks with various designs. Genius! It was an easy choice this year and my husband Barry was enthusiastic about it. I chose to leave the back of the postcard blank, so I’m jotting a brief message and hand addressing the cards. We saved money because postcards are less expensive to print and the postage is less. (That’s a picture of this year’s postcard at the top of this post.)

My business holiday cards come pre-addressed, but I do write a personal message on each. (I opted for the flat cards that go in envelopes.) I ordered 125 business cards and 65 personal postcards. I’ve been writing a dozen cards and six postcards each evening. That’s easy and pleasant and will be done in four days.

I love sending out holiday cards, but if you don’t I encourage you to take that particular task off your list. As a card enthusiast, I always enjoy receiving cards but I don’t notice if someone doesn’t send me one. I’d be willing to bet that no one will hold it against you if you choose not to send cards! (And as an aside, you have my permission to let go of the cards you receive either right when they come in or after the holidays are over.)

But if you do enjoy sending holiday cards, you might look into ways that you can make it easier, like ordering online and having the addresses printed on your cards. Minted makes that easy. (By the way, that’s an affiliate link; if you use it I get a small commission that doesn’t affect your price.)

Holiday cards don’t have to be a burden!

Tagged with: cards, ease, holidays

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