Sending Out Holiday Cards

October 29, 2024

Are you someone who would love to send out holiday cards, but you never get around to doing it? Maybe you’re saving the return-address labels on envelopes from previous years, so you can add them to your non-existent holiday card list. For the past few years, I’ve handmade and sent over 200 holiday cards. It’s so much fun! I’ve also helped many of my clients streamline their holiday card system so they can get them mailed out on time. In this post, I’ll give you some tips to make your holiday card process a little easier.

Make Your List

The first thing to do is to make a list of all the names of people you want to send cards to. I recommend using a program on the computer like Excel or Pages, because they have an easy sorting feature so you can alphabetize the names, or sort them any way you’d like. This will help you eliminate duplicate entries and keep track of who you send cards to year after year. Label your document “2024 Holiday Cards” (or whatever year you’re working on). This will make it easy to duplicate the document next year. You can change the date and delete/add people as needed.

Collecting Addresses

If the only thing your document contains is the names of people you want to send cards to, that’s fine. Personally, that’s usually how I do it. I like to keep it simple and just store the addresses in my phone contacts. Storing the contacts in your phone will make it easy if you want to send something to someone mid-year, or if you need their address for another reason. Having the addresses in one place will also simplify the process if someone moves. You’ll only need to change the address in one place. But if you want to go an added step and save some time in the long run, input the addresses in your document. Having the addresses on your document will make it a little quicker if you’re hand-addressing, and it allows you the option to print out labels.

Have a Deadline In Mind

Before you get too deep into your card project, have an idea of when you’d like to be done and have them all sent out. This will help you decide how involved you want the next steps to be! Holiday cards often take longer than you think, so be sure to account for some buffer time.

Acquire Your Cards

Will you be making your cards? Using store-bought cards? Printing photo cards through an online vendor? Decide what you want to do, and figure out how many cards you’ll need. Make or buy extras, because you’ll probably have some last-minute people to send cards to. If you’ll be making your cards, make sure to plan out your supplies and how much time you’ll need to devote to card-making. If you’re going to do photo cards, decide if you’ll want to just use photos you already have, or if you want to get professional photos taken.

Get Return-Address Labels

While I do like hand-addressing my cards, I highly recommend finding a more efficient solution for your return-address labels. You can order a rubber stamp, have the return-addresses pre-printed on your envelopes, or you can order labels with your address. Places like Vista Print offer an option where you can design your own labels. Or you can easily find more generic options where you can simply input your address and choose from a variety of graphic icons. Whichever option you choose, order these early, so you’ll have them to use.

Get Stamps

Have plenty of stamps on hand, so you don’t run out. I recommend buying them from the Post-Office or Costco for the best value. Get these early so you can avoid the crowds and long holiday lines.

Get to Work!

Once I have all my cards finished, I tend to like to put stamps and return-address labels on all the envelopes. Then I like to address all the envelopes. I mark off my list as I go. Then once all the envelopes are done, I start writing messages in each card. I’ll put it inside the corresponding envelope, and seal it up. Since I’ve had so much experience with my own cards, and helping my clients get their systems sorted out, I’ve found that addressing the envelopes first makes it less-likely to mix up which card goes to which person. I recommend trying to stay as consistent as possible, especially if you have a lot of cards to send. Instead of trying to get all your cards written in a short period of time, break it up into batches as best you can to reduce stress. Your handwriting will also likely be neater if you take your time. You may even want to create an assembly line to maximize efficiency.

Send Them Off!

Mail your cards in batches, or all at once. Because I have so many cards to send out, I’ll usually take them to the post office in batches, so I can get them on their way when I go out to run errands.

What’s your favorite tip for bringing more joy to your holiday card process? I’d love to hear about it!