Christmas cards are a big part of the holidays for me. I love to find a package of cards, with enough to send to everyone on my list, something creative and cheerful on the card front and a sentiment inside which isn't too sappy. It takes awhile to find the right box of cards, at the right price. I also like cards that can be mailed. Anything too decorative with fancy beads and gizmos won't be the right card to send through Canada Post. (Or any post offices, depending on where you mail them from). Bumpy cards are really only good for hand delivering yourself.

A Few Ideas for Signing those Cards

• Merry Yule. Hope you find something wonderful at the bottom of your Christmas stocking
• Seasons Greetings. Treat yourself to a great hot beverage over the holidays.
• Happy Holidays. It's only as cold as you think it is!
• Joys of the Season to you and your family.
• Be Merry, Bright and inspired this holiday season.
• Merry greetings and all that goes along with the holiday season.
• Happy holiday baking and snacking.
• Good will towards all men, women, children and animals too.
• Celebrate the season.
• Happy Christmas shopping, you can't give everyone a lump of coal after all.
• Merry Christmas. I'll be happy to pick up Santa's milk and cookies for him.
• Merry wishes for a great Christmas.
• Keep your holiday cheer all through to the New Year.

What you Need for Sending Out Christmas Cards

• Make a list of everyone you want to send a card to. Count how many cards you will need based on your list.
• Get the update on any addresses you aren't sure of. Look up postal codes if you are missing any.
• Make note of the stamps you will need to buy (for each location: Canada, the US, overseas in my case).
• Pick up your stamps early so you can get the Christmas stamps at the Post Office. Also, you can stick them on and mail them without waiting in a line for people mailing packages overseas later.
• It's an extra, but I like to have holiday stickers to add inside the card and/or on the outside of the envelope. Sometimes I draw my own Christmas doodles too.
• Another extra is a fancy pen for writing all those cards. I like to use a red pen, a holiday colour.

Keeping Religion out of Your Season's Greetings

I like to use Merry Yule, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings - any variety of holiday salutations. But, lately the traditional greetings have come under fire, getting closer scrutiny. Christians don't want to keep the Christ out of Christmas. But, not everyone is Christian. Do you even know (for sure) which religion everyone on your Christmas card list believes in?

For instance, Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate Christmas. You might feel funny (or upset) if someone returns your Christmas card for religious reasons.

Unless you are sure about religious issues you should consider a neutral holiday greeting. Season's Greetings works well. Winter is a season after all. How can anyone, of any religion have an objection to a card wishing them a happy winter season?

Keep this in mind too when you buy (or make your own) Christmas cards. The illustration on the front could be something neutral, like snowmen, a Christmas village, etc. You can keep the issue in mind when you pick out the cards you want to send.

Of course, if you are sending cards just to family and friends you know very well, this whole thing won't be a problem.

We send out Christmas cards each year, sometimes we get them done with enough time for them to be mailed and even arrive by the big day (sometimes I don't). One thing I wish I had more time to do was actually write a note of some kind along with the card. So, I went looking for some ideas I could use. I wanted something more interesting than the typical newsletter style. Though that can be fun too if you design it like your own zine. A zine is a non-professional (amateur/ indie) magazine, kind of a retro thing.

Anyway, here are the ideas that appeal to me (along with some of my own ideas). I have written this for people with family but these could all work just as well if you are single and have only yourself to talk about (as I am myself).

• Change perspective. Write as if you were someone else. You can go so far as to make it a True Confessions type of thing, telling all the comings and goings as reported by your babysitter or the neighbour across the street with the really big binoculars.
• Pick different characteristics about yourself or each family member and write a list of the geekiest thing I did this year, or the most romantic thing that happened this year, or the most carefully planned and organized thing I did this year, or the most stubborn, the most optimistic, the most creative...
• Write it as if you are a year in the future, or ten years in the future, looking back on this year. I remember that year...
• Make it all up. Go all the way. Put in a note saying it is all fictional at the end or the beginning, if you desire. (Though you may want to not send anything too elaborate to relatives who tend to be gullible or need things explained, slowly).
• Use the alphabet or the letters of a word (Christmas for instance) and write a point about something starting with each letter.
• Write the family news as if it were an ad for something: a new car, laundry soap or a movie coming to a theatre near you! Make it exciting, give it a commercial spin, sell it!
• Write it all as a poem, rhyme it. Or use some style of verse, like haiku. (Haiku may take some thought and planning but it is short to write out if you are working with pen and paper rather than using a printer).
• Give them a test, try a quiz about your family or Christmas itself. See what they know about the old, traditional holiday. Stick in some family news here and there, where it has some relevance to your quiz question.
• Get inspired by Talk Like a Pirate day and write the Christmas card in Pirate speak, in the style of a Borg or some other character from history or fiction.
• Make a top ten list. Go through the family news from the past year and pick out ten things you really want people to know. Turn them into a list. Or be a bit silly and go with something like the top ten things the members of your family don't want for Christmas, etc.
• Create a timeline of things that have happened in Christmases past in your family and your extended family. Christmas is a nice time to remember things everyone felt happy about in the past.
• Send some heart warming quotes about family, holidays and the good times and things in life. You can even get each family member to think of a quote (their own words).
• Get each family member to pick something that happened in the year past and write about it themselves. Then add all the notes together to go out with the cards.
• Use this as a mass thank you note to family members who have helped you and your family. Give credit for small and big favours in a way that everyone can read about how you appreciate the help given. Let family know if you still need help or not. Or, ask if others need help, pass along the goodwill.
• Personalize each card with a short note. Kind of getting back to the newsletter idea but it does give you a sincere connection to each person you are writing to. Of course, you may only see some of then once a year and not really have much of a personal nature to write about.
• If you have children get them to draw Christmas artwork which can be mailed out with the cards. This is a nice way to get the kids busy and yourself off the hook for writing anything more than "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!" in each card.
• Send a postcard, or print a family photo and send that in the card instead of written contents. You can also do something with scrapbooking, graphic arts or drawing - as long as it will easily fit inside the envelope. Try some mail art on the envelope too.

If nothing on my list really works for you, at least it may give you inspiration for ideas of your own. Let me know what you think of in comments here. You may have just the right idea for someone else.

After the first couple of Christmas cards you write it gets harder to find something different to say in each one. You can write a bit of news, a bit of something happening but you still need that bit to transition from the news to the part when you sign your name. Here are some to keep you going:

• Enjoy the Holidays, the calories will count themselves.
• May your Holidays begin and end on a happy note
• Keep your family close the Holiday Season
• The presents are wrapped, shopping is done, now just have some Holiday fun
• Find your real meaning of Christmas'
• Health, wealth and happiness all year long
• Welcome the Season with the people you love most
• Put your worries aside and welcome the Christmas Spirit with your whole heart
• May Santa bring you everything you want and nothing you deserve.
• Keep the Holiday Spirit for the whole New Year
• Sing all the Christmas Carols, Loud and Proud
• Keep yourself warm and toasty all Season long
• God Bless us everyone
• Be merry and bright!
• Get your Christmas tree up if you haven't already
• Leave Santa extra chocolate for the reindeer
• Even Santa isn't perfect
• Keep your hot chocolate warm
• Celebrate the Season
• Enjoy every sparkle and twinkle this Season
• Enjoy The magic of the Season
• Holiday Greetings
• Keep the joy all year
• Merry Yule to you and yours
• May your heart be light
• Bright Blessings
• Wishing you peace, love and joy
• Wishing you happiness this Season
• Christmas blessings to you
• Celebrate the Spirit of Christmas
• Laughter, love and Holiday cheer
• Have a wonderful Holiday Season
• Sparkle through the Season
• Christmas cookies to you!

Write a few of your own. Try to have a variety of syrupy sweet, sentimental and a bit of humour too.

From Wikipdeia: Ephemera is transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day. Some collectible ephemera are advertising trade cards, airsickness bags, bookmarks, catalogues, greeting cards, letters, pamphlets, postcards, posters, prospectuses, stock certificates, tickets and zines.

If I try to think of specific things not meant to last more than a day the mind draws a blank. It's so far from my own experience and view of the world. But I think of insects, even though they are not printed matter, some only live a day or a week.

What others things only last a day (or really short time) and why is that idea kind of romanticized?

The Ephemera Society, UK.

Flickr: Printed Ephemera

Ning: The Ephemera Network

You've just been hired to write greeting cards. They expect you to come up with at least 10 good ideas and one great idea each day. Not easy. But, if you can come up with some unique or modern events and situations that might help.

What kind of greeting card could you come up with for a divorce? What about a third marriage? How about a greeting card for a couple who have just adopted a child, not a baby? There are a lot of situations not covered by the standard display of greeting cards. Write 10, and then one more. Pick your best, send it in to a greeting card company and get paid for your writing doodle.