Category: Personalized Christmas Cards

The other day I was busily running around the house doing the “honey-do’s.” I’m not sure if that expression is sailor talk? I’ve no idea where it came from other than all of my friends who are sailors call them that. A Honey-do is the around the house chore, often completed on the weekend at the expense of some other activity with friends. Why’s it called a “Honey-do”? Because the person asking for the things done is normally “Honey” and when speaking to you they are saying “Honey do this, Honey do that, Honey are you done yet? When you are done, Honey, can you do this over here!?” I digress, this post was not supposed to be about Honey do’s, but rather what happened to me the other day while doing things for honey around the house. I had a surprisingly unexpected and reflective moment.

By late afternoon, I had achieved quite a few things. I’d thrown out innumerable children’s toys that were missing pieces. I’d picked up clothes strewn all over the house. I’d stuffed the summer things from the attic into the basement storage closet, and I found myself approaching seeming completion of the Honey-do list, which by the way is impossible. Think asymptote…look it up if you don’t know the definition. It’s almost as obscure as the word fungible.

Anyhow, seriously my last trip to the attic, avoiding successful completion of the honey-do’s, I wandered over to another area of the attic and started cleaning up random things. I had found an old file box. It was white cardboard with black ends and a little string that wraps around to keep the box shut. The top of the box was dusty and slightly discolored with age. I recognized the box as something I had cleaned out of my Mom’s home years ago. As I unwrapped the string and opened the box I remembered what it was…this box represented the very last “thing” that I possessed containing items from my deceased father. Sadly, he died a painful and slow death on September 21, 1985. I was barely a young man and it was a very difficult time.

So here I was, just more than 22 years later in my attic sitting on the floor in front of a file box with the last few things from my deceased dad. I opened the box to see what I had once only barely glanced at. The file box contained papers. It was only about one third full. I had never done anything before except just glanced inside. I really had never wanted the torture of revisiting his death and I think I feared that there might be something in the box that would only open more questions than provide answers. Whatever was in that box on those papers that my father had kept wouldn’t bring him back. I wasn’t even sure they were papers he had kept. For all I knew they were random papers lying about gathered and thrown into a box.

I reached in and rummaged around. There were mostly 8½” x 11″ business stationery-type documents…a lot of my Dad’s work stuff. Only really now as I write this do I fully realize that this box contains items cleaned from my father’s desk, from his “junk/memento” drawer. I have one of those too, something I guess in common with the man now dead for more than 1/2 of my life and really all of my adult life. There were letters, memos, faded pictures and press clippings. Things my father was proud of. As I thumbed the papers deciding what to read first, I found a small collection of envelopes. I chose one as the first item to read from this long avoided box of mystery. I pulled from the envelope a small piece of lined paper that was wrapped around a greeting card. I was surprised and smiled slightly, I think. A greeting card…I hadn’t expected it. The envelope wasn’t a shape that I expected to contain a card and it was hiding within the lined paper. The card was from my grandmother to my father. It was a Christmas card. “Merry Christmas my dear son” it read. I paused, staring into the attic rafters for some time just thinking. I turned the envelope over to look at the front. It was postmarked December 16, 1978. I thought, my Dad kept this, a simple Christmas card. It really meant something to him I dreamily pondered.

I went on to find a dozen or so greeting cards. They were all Birthday cards and Christmas cards, mostly from my grandmother to my Dad. I don’t know how long I was there just sitting in the attic thinking, skimming through papers, photographs and the cherished greeting cards. Soon though, it did occur me to get back to the chores. Company was coming for dinner and I needed to have my business taken care of before they arrived. I closed the box up and left it in the middle of the floor. Our company came and we had a nice time.

The next day, before heading to the office, I made my way up to the attic with a permanent black marker and I wrote on that box “Under no circumstances should this box ever be thrown out!” I will head back up there someday to peruse and read some more. But for now, those dusty old personal Christmas cards my Dad kept are just more of the things I keep for sentimental reasons, my last connection to someone I barely know but miss dearly.

Sadly I find myself here 22 years later, on a plane to Las Vegas, tearfully typing.

Around this time of year, I have to decide what to do about my Christmas Cards. My first decision is where do I get my cards? Even though I work here, I have to be honest and say that the most impressive Corporate Christmas Cards I came across were the ones we offer. They are classy and elegant, which is totally my style. But I did have to ask myself, are Holiday Cards for businesses also suitable to give to family members? I decided what matters most is the thought behind it. There are so many beautiful Holiday designs to choose from that I can select one that suits my style. You can choose to say Season’s Greetings, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. You can even say it in more than one language. An abundance of beautiful winter scenes, tree landscapes, ornaments and even fun Santa cards can be found for whatever suits your needs. I can even select one of the many photo cards available.

After choosing an intricate and shimmering ornament design, I gave some serious thought to which greeting and imprinted message I want to send to my friends and family to convey the sentiment of the holiday season. I have a very large family and feel sometimes it’s easier to get greeting cards imprinted rather than handwrite them myself. Some of my family members love to get cards that include a handwritten, personalized message, while others are happy to be remembered whether it be with a handwritten message or an imprinted one. This year, I decided to get my personal Christmas Cards imprinted, but for those family members who love to see that handwritten message, I will take the time to add that extra touch. So, with all that being settled, I’m on to the next item on my Christmas to-do list.

I have been thinking a lot lately about a Merry Christmas greeting card I received last year from a distant acquaintance. I will never forget the feeling I had opening it. It is the similar feeling to the one I get when I see a piece of mail addressed to me (provided it’s not a bill). I was with my friend Megan, who is also an acquaintance of Shane. The card was beautiful…a winter scene with a pair of cardinals in flight in the background. “Merry Christmas,” the card read in silver cursive. Before I even got a chance to open it and see what was written inside, Megan exclaimed, “Merry Christmas? Doesn’t he understand that sending out Merry Christmas greeting cards is not politically correct?! How does Shane know that you are Christian?” You have to understand something about Megan – she is dear to me, but likes to make a big deal out of everything.

Although her point was valid, especially in the world today where we try to be inclusive of all creeds and cultures, it didn’t even register to me that Shane’s card could be offensive. I was floored to receive any correspondence from him; I didn’t care what it said on the outside! The fact that he thought of me during the busy Holiday season and decided to reach out to me at all overwhelmed any other feeling I could have had about cards that say Merry Christmas. I think that is what all cards, including Holiday cards, are intended to do. The simple act of purchasing a beautiful card, writing warm wishes on the inside, and walking it to the mailbox filled me with some needed Holiday cheer. I wish I could say the same for Megan!

When she went home that night and looked in her mailbox, she saw that she, too, had a beautiful Merry Christmas card from Shane. Megan showed it to me the next day. This time there were no remarks about political correctness or Christianity. She was deeply touched by Shane’s card. I still have the card he sent me to this day. I also kept the envelope so that I can surprise him with a Christmas card this year, and hopefully make him feel the way I did last year.

Last year, I received a Personalized Christmas card from my town for volunteering at a community Holiday function. The card featured the lovely painting Near Honfleur, one of Claude Monet’s most famous snowscapes. Normally, I would keep Christmas cards hanging in my office for about a month or so after the Holidays and then throw them away but this one, I felt, was different. This beautiful masterpiece greeting card deserved to be hung in my office all year long, and the compliments I received were overwhelming.

While I could probably never purchase a true original painting by Claude Monet, having Monet cards make me feel like I have a mini art gallery in my office. I am hopeful that next year I will receive another Holiday card that is a stunning reprint of a new famous artist or even another Monet masterpiece.

As we try to do every night, my family sat down for dinner at around 6:30 yesterday evening. After making sure everyone had their drinks, straws, butter, salt, napkins, and steak sauce, we finally began eating. As we also try to do every night, we all talked about how our days went. In the course of conversation, someone mentioned Christmas cards and my daughter very innocently asked, “Who ever thought of sending Christmas cards anyway?”

Being as inquisitive as my daughter can be (and wanting to give the right answer), I thought this would be a great learning opportunity for both of us. So after dinner, conveniently leaving my husband to do the dishes, we hopped on our PC to find out the origin of Christmas Cards. Here’s some of what we found out:

– Artist John Calcott Horsley, a London native, designed the first Christmas card in 1843 for businessman Henry Cole. It depicted a picture of a family enjoying Christmas.

– Seeing Mickey Mouse on your Greeting cards was quite common in the 1930s when animated short films rose in popularity. (My daughter loves Mickey and found this one to be the most amusing.)

– Louis Prang, having perfected lithography, introduced the first line of Christmas cards to America.

– Prior to 1840, Christmas cards were hand delivered. That all changed with the introduction of the postage stamp, bringing greeting cards to the masses.

– Holiday greeting cards account for over 60 percent of all greeting card sales.

– Corporate Holiday cards really took off in the past few decades as a convenient way to remember those that have contributed to a company’s success.

By the time we got to the last few facts, my daughter had already moved on to the next activity but we certainly learned a lot that night.

It’s that time again…to start wondering how I will wish my friends and family a Merry Christmas this year. I already began brainstorming a list of people that I’d like to buy a gift for. It always seems that this list gets bigger and bigger each year. This year’s list is already up to 30 people, but I guess that’s what happens when you have a close knit family.

It can be difficult and stressful having to buy Christmas gifts for so many people. This is especially true for me as I have been known to give very unique gifts. In a way, I think this has put me at a disadvantage because my family and friends now have very high expectations for my Christmas gifts. Two years ago, I thought I sensed some disappointment from my brother after I gave him a gift card to his favorite store. It’s almost as if he expected more from me.

So instead of putting pressure on myself to constantly come up with unique Christmas gift ideas, I created a solution. I now distribute a Christmas photo card to every person I give a gift to. I usually include a comical photo of myself dressed up as Santa, or posing next to a snowman. In addition to this, I always include a little note on the inside remembering a special or funny moment that I shared with that person throughout the year.

I have found that people are so touched by these Personalized Holiday cards that they no longer expect such a unique gift from me. In turn, this has caused me less stress when buying throughout the holiday season. Given my new found secret, I think I am going to make it easy on myself this year…I’m going to get 30 gift cards!

When I was younger, my dad owned a pharmacy in a typical suburban town. It was the type of town where everyone knew everyone, and the same customers would come in to pick up their prescriptions and purchase their toiletries and other odds and ends. The pharmacy was like a village square…a place where you could shop while catching up on the town gossip. One resident would be purchasing shampoo and run into her neighbor, who was picking up her high blood pressure medication. Then another neighbor from down the street would pop her head in to say hello, and before long, the whole town was having a conversation in the shampoo aisle.

But in spite of all the blathering and nattering, the customers were incredibly loyal to my dad’s pharmacy and would come back to shop time and time again. Even if an item was temporarily out of stock, most customers would just wait until the item was restocked versus going to another pharmacy.

One year, my dad decided to send personalized Christmas cards to his VIP customers. He asked if I would help him stuff these imprinted Holiday Cards and address the envelopes, and I said yes. Little did I know he had over 300 VIP customers, so that was over 300 envelopes to handwrite, stuff, and lick shut.

After we were about halfway through, I stopped and asked my dad: “Why in the world are you going through all this trouble to mail out these business greeting cards? They’re probably going to end up in the garbage anyway.” He responded by saying: “Come to work with me the day after Christmas, and you’ll understand why.”

So the day after Christmas, I went to work with my dad. We arrived at the store bright and early in preparation for all the crazy post-Christmas shoppers. Before long, the doors were unlocked and the store flooded with customers. Except the customers weren’t congregating in the aisles and talking to their neighbors about their Christmas festivities but instead, they were standing around my dad to thank him for their personalized Christmas cards and to inquire about my family’s holiday.

At that moment, I realized why my dad decided to mail out personalized Christmas cards to his VIP customers. These customers kept the pharmacy in business for so many years, and it was his way of letting them know how much he appreciated them. So if you are looking to express gratitude to a few or several people (or 300 VIP customers), a great way to make your appreciation known is with an imprinted Christmas card.

There is something special about those great Mastercard commercials on television that just bring a smile to your face when they say the word “priceless”. Inspired by their series, this is the first in a series of installments. May they bring a smile to your face while also highlighting the small relative cost of making a client, friend, co-worker or family member feel good by sending a personalized Christmas card or business Christmas card.

As we all know from the classic story by Dr. Seuss, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, Mr. Grinch was a mean one. The beautiful end of the story has all of Whoville in smiles and Mr. Grinch “making up” with “Little Cindy Lou Who”, thus our inspiration for this blog entry.

Cup of hot chocolate to share with little Cindy Lou Who, $1.25
ATM fee for the Grinch to get money to buy food for his faithful dog Max, $1.50
Replacement Christmas tree bulb for the Whoville town tree, $0.89

Personalized Christmas Card from Mr. Grinch to all Whoville residents wishing them a Merry Christmas, priceless!

When signing a Christmas or holiday greeting card, when does one use the word “love” in the signature area? Naturally, during the holidays there is a lot of love going around, gifts being given, elbows being bent. But how does the card-giver make sure there are no feathers ruffled by the way they sign their cards?

When sending personal Christmas cards to family members, longtime friends or coworkers who you are close to, it is perfectly sensible to sign using the word “love”. Doing so is in keeping with the feeling of being close to others and the sentimentality that comes with that time of year. However, when writing the obligatory cards to, let’s say, a boss or coworker, using “love” would be inappropriate to say the least.

So what does one do? Well, let’s put it this way… as you write the word, if you feel great about what you are writing and you know there will be a smile on the face of the recipient, then, by all means, go for it. If, however, there are any stomach pangs, second thoughts or, perhaps, that nervous sensation deep down in the stomach, don’t do it! It is better to be politically correct and not have to worry about having done the wrong thing than it is to try to repair any sensitive egos or hurt feelings once the cold winds of January are blowing.