Many people wait until at least Halloween before they start thinking about Christmas, but not yours truly. That’s because I love Christmas. Although I have to admit that I’m happy to take a break right after the holiday is over; by Mother’s Day I’m ready to give it another go. It’s about then that I begin scouring the Web for new Christmas clip art to add to my already huge collection. That puts me ahead of the game when I begin designing handmade holiday cards in the autumn. That way I don’t have to search for images when I’m ready to begin; I can just move right onto being creative and building the cards. Since that’s a complicated process, I’m glad to have the images already on my hard drive.
One thing I do leave for December, though, is the creation of free personalized letters from Santa for all the kids I know. These can’t be mailed until the beginning of December because they actually have to be sent to a post office located at the North Pole for a postmark. After that, they’re mailed to the kids in stamped, addressed envelopes I provide. The process takes less than 2 weeks, so I don’t want to mail them too early. Children get excited enough about Christmas without any help; they don’t need letters from St. Nick before Thanksgiving! But it does bring me joy to watch them tear open those letters from Santa. Because I create them, I can insert personal details to promote the illusion that the letters really come from him. If they have toys they’ve been wanting, “Santa” lets them think that they’ll only get them if they behave well. If there’s a lot of figthing between brothers and sisters at the time the letters are mailed, I also include that they have to get along with everyone in the family if they want their Christmas presents. Nothing like a little pressure from Santa to get kids to behave!
Once my handmade holiday cards and Santa letters are in the mail, I still can’t rest. I like to make handmade New Year cards for a select few friends and family, as well as an electronic greeting for everyone else. When I make those, I pick from my collection of vintage New Years cards. I make the handmade versions pretty elaborate, since I don’t do that many. They’re fun to make and I always enjoy the process of creating them.
If you’d like to make your own Christmas or New Year cards, here are some tips:
- Print the cards either on pre-cut, pre-folded cards you can get from the stationary store, or on the heaviest regular card stock your printer will allow.
- If your printer will take photo paper, you can print the images on different stock from the cards, and trim them down and then paste them to the front of the cards.
- Lovely specialty and metallic papers are available that can be cut slightly larger than the image size and used to frame the artwork. You can find these at discount stores such as Target, or at stores that specialize in craft supplies.
- Glitter glue pens are great for adding shine to images. Just don’t use too much! The cards may warp and also have a tendency to look overdone.
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