Category: Holiday Cards and Tidbits

St. Patrick’s Day – Celebrating A Culture

“Top O’ the morning to you!” A traditional Irish greeting whose proper response is “ and the rest of the day to yourself.” Just the thought of it brings a smile and memories of years and years of wearing green and eating corned beef and cabbage. As I sent out photo invitations to my annual St. Patrick’s day celebration I wondered how we came to a food and drink celebration in honor of a man who by all accounts was a devoutly religious man who spent his life in prayer and spreading Christianity. Armed with my curiosity, I did some research and found some interesting facts about St. Patrick and his feast day.

St. Patrick was born around 385 in England to a wealthy and high standing roman family. He was captured at the age of 16 by Irish raiders and sold into slavery to high priest of Druidism, a pagan sect that was the ruling religious influence in Ireland. As he worked as a shepherd he spent much time in prayer for guidance and so became more devote in his Christianity. He had a vision that the children of Pagan Ireland were reaching out their hands to him. In time he became increasingly determined to convert the children he had a dream that impressed on him the need to escape his enslavement. Finding his way back to England he devoted his next few years to learning and eventually was sent to Ireland by the Pope as a missionary bishop to convert Ireland to Christianity. Nobody can imagine that this was an easy task, but apparently his mission was blessed for he survived many trials and converted Ireland to Christianity before his death on March 17, 461. Thus making him the most celebrated of saints in the world. Around the ninth or tenth century March 17 was celebrated as a holy day of obligation for the Catholics of Ireland, although the day is also celebrated by the Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox and the Lutheran church. The traditional celebration which comes during the Lenten period would be to attend mass in the morning and eat and drink in the afternoon since the Lenten prohibitions were suspended for this one day. The traditional meal was Irish bacon and cabbage.

Oddly enough the first parade on this day was not held in Ireland, but in the United States. In 1762 Irish soldiers serving in the English army marched through New York City which helped them connect with their Irish roots. As Irish societies sprang up they joined together and in 1848 united their parades and so was born what is considered the largest St. Patrick’s parade in the world and certainly the oldest and largest in the U.S. Parades are not limited to New York and Ireland now but to many places around the globe, such as Japan, Singapore, Russia, England and Canada. What started out as a celebration of one man’s dedication to his faith has turned into a celebration of all things Irish. Or maybe it is the celebration of how one small nation has sent from it’s shore it’s sons and daughters to spread a natural love of food, dance and a little religion mixed in to the four corners of the earth.

In celebration of St. Patrick and all that he has inspired I will be celebrating once again on March 17, eating corned beef and cabbage, wearing green and singing the words of the old Irish song:

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand

Creating Personalized Holiday Cards for Christmas

At first, when the idea of creating personalized holiday cards came up, I was somewhat skeptical about wanting to purchase them for a couple reasons. I thought they might be overly expensive and the people that you send them to would not really appreciate the fact that you went out of your way to personalize them. BUT after careful thought I finally just gave in and purchased some so that I can actually see the type of reaction I would get back from those who I sent them to. And to my surprise the reaction was great! I received nothing but all positive feed back; “I love them,” “this is great!” and “this was the best card I have gotten.” So I guess in the end you really will not know your peers responses until you take the risk and see.

Now, when it comes to Season’s Greetings cards, I have always been a little bit more reluctant to purchase these as appose to other greeting cards during this time of year. The reason for this is due to the fact that there are people from all walks of life, all nationalities and religions. Therefore to buy a mass quantity of cards for your friends and family, your best bet would be to buy holiday cards that are just merely season’s greetings cards. Some people do not celebrate Christmas but may celebrate Hanukah, or there might be some people that may not celebrate Hanukah but may celebrate Christmas, or there even might be some people who you talk to that do not celebrate either and may just look forward to the New Year, you never know. So personalizing season’s greetings cards would be the best bet to satisfy everyone. Keeping the card general shows you are sensitive to their religion or creed but that you still care. You cannot go wrong.

The Three Little Elves That Loved Personalized Holiday Cards!

Every year I usually just stress myself out with trying to get all three of my children to sit for the perfect holiday card to send to friends and family. This year I decided that they are all at an age were they can sign their own names and make it more personal. I wanted personalized holiday cards without the stress of getting the perfect portrait. So I searched the web looking for the “perfect card.” I came across The Gallery Collection late one night since that is the only time I get access to the laptop. The next day I called and had them send me a few samples. I wasn’t expecting much, because it’s only a greeting card, right? Boy was I wrong! One of the samples that I received was of Design 077CX – Cheerful Greetings Card. The excitement I felt of seeing the three elves on the card reminded me of my children. I knew instantly that was our card this season. The next day, I instantly called and placed my order for our cards. The woman I spoke to was so patient and helpful. When we got to the personalization she asked what I wanted. I explained that I was planning on having the whole family sign the cards. She pointed out something I did not even think of – children usually do not want to sit and sign all of those cards. So she told me that they can put all of our signatures on the cards for us. A couple of weeks later my cards arrived and they were breathtaking.

In my excitement to order my holiday cards, I happened to make my order a few short of my Christmas card list. Since I was so pleased with my first choice, I decided to mix it up and order a different design. I went back to the website to browse some more, and I have to say I’ve become quite addicted to this site! I soon found another card, Design 727CW – Purrfect Packages Christmas Card and called again and placed a second order. When my second order arrived I was just as amazed as I was with the first initial order. They were even able to reuse our signatures! The whole family fell in love with our Christmas cards. They even helped stash them in the envelopes and place the stamps on. Sending our cards was stress free this year and I owe it all to The Gallery Collection.

Christmas Cards Time or Mayan Calendar End of the World!

Fourteen days. That’s it. According to a countless number of people and their interpretation of a 5,000 plus year old calendar, the end of the world is coming in fourteen short days on December 21st, 2012. The date 12/21/12 has been floated in front of us for what seems to be years now. Over the past decade, the Earth has survived many other “End of the World” dates but this time it’s for real, right? The Mayans predicted this many millennia ago through their Mayan Calendar so it has to be true, right? Wrong. We will all wake up on December 22nd, laugh off another failed End of Days prediction, and continue the excitement of the holiday season.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways that the world is going to end on the 21st. A popular notion is that planet Nibiru is going to collide with Earth. This was first predicted to happen in May of 2003 but when (surprise, surprise) it didn’t, the date was moved to 12/21/12 to coincide with the end of the Mayan Calendar. Lucky for us, NASA itself has confirmed that we are in no danger of being as much as scratched by any rogue planets.

What else is out there that is going to destroy our world? The planets are going to align and supposedly create some sort of devastation but that means very little. This has happened multiple times in the past few decades and we are still here. Maybe the sun is going to put out a powerful solar storm which will destroy Earth. Sure, it is true that the sun is entering the peak of its solar cycle (which happens once every 11 years or so). This isn’t a threat to Earth as a whole, however. The only things that need to be afraid are some satellites floating far above Earth.

Is speculating about the end of the Earth an interesting conversation topic? Sure it is. It gives everyone something to talk about at their holiday parties over the next few weeks. Who doesn’t enjoy taking about some cataclysmic event? Is the end of the world something to be legitimately nervous about? Absolutely not. Spend your time enjoying the season and not worrying about the silly speculation. You will be happy you did when you wake up on December 22nd and realize you still have to send out all your Christmas cards!

What Your Christmas Cards Say About You

November is an exciting time of the year. There’s Thanksgiving, a time we gather with our families and stop for a moment to give thanks for the smallest blessings in our lives. That’s what I do anyway–it gives me perspective. But it’s also the time when I begin to think about what kind of Christmas cards I want to order.

You see, I have a thing about greeting cards. I know, many say it’s just a card and who really cares what it looks like or what it says; it’s the thought that counts. That is true. But how about the card that arrives year after year with an incorrect last name, or the one with the wrong apartment number and no zip code, which then causes it to arrive days after the holidays? That can certainly make you look like no effort was made at all. What about those beautiful personalized Christmas cards with names imprinted? That can save you tons of time and effort, but still show you care.

Christmas is a beautiful time of the year. Yes, it’s hectic with everything one has to do to prepare for it. But when I sit down to write my cards it’s really the only time in the year that I get to think back on all the special people in my life and how thankful I am to them. And although I cannot afford to get everyone a gift, it is through my Christmas cards that I am able to express my gratitude individually. So yes, before I send out each card, I make sure every “t” is crossed and every “i” dotted, because they mean that much to me.

The Perfect Corporate Holiday Cards

The corporate holiday cards I send every year are not only my way of wishing greetings for the holidays, but they are also my way of connecting with people I have not had contact with for a while. At least I know once a year we can catch up with each other’s lives and bring back some good memories.

The holiday cards I pick out have to be a reflection of my thoughts and feelings. This requires me to spend countless hours reading countless cards to make sure I find the right design that expresses exactly what I. This became an impossible task over the years!

However, I finally realized that in order to be able to address all the different holidays of the season and also be able to say the “right” words, I needed to order custom holiday cards.

The cards had to be beautiful and I needed them personalized with my name along with a special greeting. The array of greeting card designs offered by The Gallery Collection is incredible, and the designs are all distinctively beautiful. There is such a great selection of greetings that I didn’t even need to create my own. And the quality of the cards and envelopes is very impressive, to say the least.

So now I can send company holiday cards that are impressive and says exactly what I want.