Tag: Season’s Greetings cards

Tips For Sending Your Holiday Cards

Sending out holiday cards is like sending a, “Hello, we care about you!”  Your customers, employees, family and friends will appreciate your thoughtfulness.  Who doesn’t get excited when they see an envelope in their mailbox?

My first tip is to select a greeting that fits your personality.  Sending wishes for a Merry Christmas has been a longtime debate as you do not want to offend anyone.  I say still send the spirit of the holidays but keep it more generic in the formal imprint such as Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings.  Then you can make it personal but adding a handwritten Merry Christmas or other personal note depending on the recipient.

The next tip I will give you is to send your holiday cards on time.  Do not be that person that mails out their Christmas cards on December 26.  Then what started out as a warm gesture, turns into what will seem like a last minute token.  If for some reason you fell behind, skip the Christmas card and send a Happy New Year card.  These can be sent as late as January 15.

Lastly, be sure to put your return address on the envelope.  This is helpful in many ways.  What if the recipient wants to return the gesture but doesn’t have your address?  If someone is no longer at the address you mailed their holiday card to or you made an error in addressing the envelope and you added your return address, you will get the card back and resend it to the correct address. Have a Happy Holiday!

Greeting Card Highlight – Season’s Greetings Cards

Whenever I’m looking for holiday cards by the Gallery Collection, I look exclusively at the Season’s Greetings cards. The site is easy to navigate because the categories are organized in such a way that all I want to see is done is one click. As a business owner I want to send my clients a non-denominational sentiment and Season’s Greetings fits the bill, but narrowing down my choice is getting harder every year since the beautiful designs keeps growing. Here are some of my favorites.

Snowy Forest Greetings Christmas Card
Snowy Forest Greetings Christmas Card – Design H1ZCS

 

Snowy Forest Greetings – I really like this card because the illustration is so serene but I wonder if my clients have seen too much snow this year. (Design H1ZCS)

Currier and Ives Four Seasons Montage – Great idea! A card depicting the four seasons by talented artists from Currier and Ives. (Design 73NCW)

Season’s Greetings Red Berries – Love this design! It would fit in with my client demographic, really stylish and will stand out among any other greeting cards. (Design 864CX)

Golden Snowfall Die-Cut Holiday Card – This die cut card would be a good choice because my company name will show through the front of the card and the design is really stunning. (Design 878CX)

Season’s Greetings Collection – This design can be personalized with what ever I want to write on the front of the card. And the design is truly eye-catching. (Design 55FJW)

 

Thanksgiving Cards – A Plus in the Corporate World

The business world has embraced sending corporate holiday cards as a way of reaching out to customers, clients and associates. Many cards are sent and received during the month of December with the result that you are never sure if your card is more than glanced at. We decided last year to send out Thanksgiving cards as a change of pace.

Scattered Leaves Holiday Card

Knowing that most businesses send out Season’s Greetings cards to be both politically correct and socially conscious, we thought why not Thanksgiving cards. Everybody in the United States celebrates on the same day for the same reason so you can’t offend anyone. In addition why not be the first card of the season received. Talk about standing out. How many times during the busy holiday season do you receive 10, 12 or more cards that you open and barely read? Well it works the same as at home. The first cards of the season you remember more because they come one at a time when you have a moment to read them.

Let’s think about how under appreciated Thanksgiving is as a holiday. It gets very little publicity because it is overshadowed by the coming Christmas period. In reality more people take time to relax and reflect with family and friends at Thanksgiving than any other holiday. A great meal, close family and good friends put you in such a pleasant state of mind, why not use this holiday to send a message of thanks to everyone you send corporate holiday cards to? You will be the first card received, get more notice than the other corporate cards and you will be sending a great message of thanks to all your customers.

We intend to send Thanksgiving cards from our company for the foreseeable future, until everyone catches on and then we may have to rethink our strategy, maybe consider being really first with New Year’s Cards. We’ll keep you posted.

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.

Reunited by Personalized Holiday Cards

When I was just sixteen I dated the love of my life, Ed, for four years. We did everything together. We spent school days together walking to class. We spent summers at the pool. We celebrated our birthdays and holidays with each other and our families. No matter what we did, we were laughing. We really had an amazing time together.

Three years into the relationship he went away to college. I missed him like crazy. We talked on the phone. We visited when we could afford it. We sent personalized holiday cards, birthday cards, cards for everything. As time went by the cards became less personal, and they became less frequent. So did the phone calls. Season’s greetings were almost never exchanged anymore. After about 11 months it seemed as if the relationship that once was my world was now just a memory. I always wondered where Ed was, how he was doing, and was he the one who got away?

Nine years passed. I still thought about Ed once in a while, maybe a little more during the holiday season. I was working as a receptionist in a doctor’s office. It was the middle of December and I had “decked the halls” of the office with holiday décor, lights, and bells. Before I left one night I was hanging all the Season’s Greetings cards sent to the office and the doctor. As I hung the last card I noticed something oddly familiar. Inside the company president thanked the doctor for his business. At the bottom of the card, clear as day, I’d recognize that handwriting anywhere, “Best Wishes, Ed.” I couldn’t believe it, I hadn’t seen or heard from him in nine years and there was that familiar signature printed on the card. Could it be? Could it be my high school sweetheart, Ed?

I wasted no time calling the number on the card. It turns out it was my Ed and he had been thinking about me too! We were both single and lived fifteen miles from each other. That was 2 years ago that we finally found each other after nine years. We now live together and are getting married next month. We even have the holiday card that brought us back together framed in our family room!

Design 731CS – Snow-Covered Tree Holiday Card

Design 731CS – Snow-Covered Tree Holiday Card, is a photograph of an apricot tree on a Rocky Mountain ranch in Western Colorado.  On the surface of the photograph, which has been embossed to appear three dimensional, is a light sprinkling of silver foil which brings the snow to life. There is something soothing and peaceful in winter scenes holiday cards, like a hush. Winter scenes are also perfect for someone looking for Season’s Greetings cards. This scenic design is printed on kromekote which is an FSC certified paper.

When I found that the photograph on Design 731CS – Snow-Covered Tree Holiday Card, was of an apricot tree I wondered how it survived in what seems to be a blizzard. I think of fruit trees as growing in warm climates not Western Colorado of all places.  Turns out that apricot trees can tolerate the cold weather unless they are just starting to blossom and there is a late frost.  Maybe winter scenes holiday cards should come with a fact sheet so we can admire while we learn!

 

Design 731CS - Snow-Covered Tree Holiday Card
Design 731CS - Snow-Covered Tree
Holiday Card

 

Design 735CS – The Northern Cardinal Holiday Card

Design 735CS – The Northern Cardinal Holiday Card, depicts a male cardinal perched on a snowy pine branch. We know that this cardinal is a male by its bright red color; a shade of red you can’t take your eyes off and the red is so striking against the white snow. This photo works well for personalized Christmas cards because it seems to illustrate the holidays and give one a cozy, familiar feeling. According to National Geographic the male Northern Cardinal is perhaps responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird due to its vibrant color.

Design 735CS - The Northern Cardinal Holiday Card
Design 735CS - The Northern Cardinal
Holiday Card

The Northern Cardinal is a songbird; they sing about two dozen songs. You can almost hear the cardinal singing the card’s message of Season’s Greetings. The Northern Cardinal design would also make an appropriate  business holiday card because the image and message are non-denominational.

Design 735CS – The Northern Cardinal Holiday Card, is printed on a glossy paper called kromekote. Kromekote is now FSC certified so not only would you be choosing a beautiful Season’s Greeting card but you would also be helping to preserve our forests; the FSC logo is printed on the back of the card. The cardinal photograph is bordered in green to accent the green in the pine branches and the red drop shadow panel is embossed to give the card more character. The shimmering silver foil sprinkled on the tree giving the illusion of sparkling snow.

Design #850CS – Midnight Snowflake Sparkle

Design #850CS – Midnight Snowflake Sparkle Holiday Card, really catches your attention. I think it’s a perfect design to send to business associates. I don’t often know which holidays are celebrated by each of them, but I do know that not all of them celebrate Christmas in the religious sense. These holiday greeting cards even work for sending good wishes to my myriad of friends. After all, who could take offense at Mother Nature’s beautiful snowflakes? Both the lovely falling snowflakes and the gorgeous color scheme of shimmering foils and deep blue card stock make this a design that anyone can treasure, no matter what they celebrate.

Design #850CS - Midnight Snowflake Sparkle Holiday Card
Design #850CS - Midnight Snowflake Sparkle
Holiday Card

Like a 3-D movie, the brilliant starry snowflakes of this design seem to be floating in and out of a midnight blue background. The glow of solid silver and solid teal foils are magically balanced with reflective silver foils, in exquisitely embossed lacy detail. What a rich way to send my Season’s Greetings!

Design #092CW – Frosty Season’s Greetings

I usually get around to disposing the personalized Christmas cards I received during the holiday season sometime around the 4th of July. This year I seem to have gotten a jump on it…I started during the second week of June!

As I toss these cards into the trash I can’t help but notice that quite a few people use personalized Christmas cards. Evidently there are a number of companies that offer individual personalization on the Season’s Greetings cards they sell but I can detect the difference in quality from one to the next. Initially I noticed a difference in the feel of the paper used to make the cards. Some are very flimsy while others are sturdier. There are shiny and textured cards, smooth and embossed cards, small and large cards. Artwork on the cards can range from understated to festive. I also noticed that the color of the inks and foils used in printing differed in quality from card to card.

Design #092CW - Frosty Season’s Greetings
Design #092CW - Frosty Season’s Greetings

One of the Christmas cards that caught my attention was from The Gallery Collection. Design #092CW, Frosty Season’s Greetings Card, displays a simply drawn snowman surrounded by snowflakes. This image sits atop the words “Season’s Greetings.”  This was all deeply embossed on the cover of a plain white card in gold foil. Gold foil was also used inside the card for the greeting and the sender’s personalization printed beneath it. For a simple Season’s Greetings card, I was quite impressed! I flipped the card over to see if the company name was on the back, and sure enough “The Gallery Collection” was imprinted in gold foil and accompanied by the website. Watch out Hallmark…you’re not the only greeting cards company with loyal customers who look to see who produces the cards they receive.

Design #584CS – Winter Frolic from All of Us

Design #584CS, Winter Frolic from All of Us Holiday Card, is a festive way of saying Season’s Greetings to just about anyone. This design features four penguins dancing carelessly in the snow. They are wearing red reindeer antler hats and have rosy red cheeks. Santa Claus is featured center stage wearing his typical garb we have come to know and love – his red and white hat and coat along with his signature black boots. The green mittens that are occupying his hands help to bring your attention to the snowflakes that are gently falling all around them. The snow is highlighted with silver foil that reflects the full color spectrum. The words “Season’s Greetings from all of us,” which are written in bold red ink, seem to pop off the white stock paper.

Design #584CS - Winter Frolic From All of Us Holiday Card
Design #584CS - Winter Frolic From All of Us
Holiday Card

The card comes with a white envelope that is lined in silver foil and is available in the seal fast envelopes. Design #584CS is the perfect Season’s Greetings holiday cards to send to friends, family, and those special clients you could never do without.