Don't Send Your Holiday Greeting Cards By E-mail!

If the mere thought of the holiday season and all the work it entails sends you into a tail spin, then you're going to love this special report. Most people get overwhelmed with all of the shopping, the entertaining, mailing Holiday Greeting Cards, decorating their homes, and the round of holiday parties.

For me, one of the biggest headaches has always been sending out holiday greeting cards to my family, friends, business colleagues, and customers.

The first job is getting to the store to find greeting cards that have an appropriate holiday message inside for each set of people. Usually I'm late in getting around to this so the cards are pretty well "picked over" by the time I get there.

Second is the hassle of addressing all the envelopes, signing each card, and writing personalized messages on many of the cards. This also leads to writer's cramp and stiff shoulders.

Third, the greeting cards must then be stuffed into the envelopes, stamped, and driven to the post office. Some years my cards have even been delivered late.

To simplify the whole card-sending process, a couple of years ago I decided to send out my holiday greeting cards via e-mail. I found an e-card online that I liked, wrote an appropriate message, entered the e-mail addresses of my holiday card list, then hit the "SEND" button. That was it. Easy, easy, easy!!

But then I started to worry. I didn't know if anyone actually got the greeting cards I sent. Most people don't usually acknowledge getting e-mails unless there is something in the e-mail that requires a response.

• I started to worry that maybe my holiday greetings e-card ended up in their junk mail or their spam folder. (There are many times I've been expecting an e-mail and didn't get it, only much later to find it in my junk mail folder!)

• I started to worry that maybe they accidentally deleted it. (You know how easy that is to do?!?)

• I started to worry that maybe they got the e-card but haven't opened it yet and they may not open it for several weeks, after which the holidays will be past. (I'm guilty of doing this myself, so I know it happens!)

• Even though I typed a personal message which included their name, in reflection on this method of sending holiday greeting cards, it somehow seemed less than personal (after all just think of all the e-mail message you receive everyday seemingly addressed to you personally which come from complete strangers trying to sell you something!)

I may be old fashioned but I must confess, I'm partial to sending real physical cards that are delivered by the Post Office. In face, personalized greeting cards and custom greeting cards are my favorites.

One of the best personalized greetings cards I ever sent out was when I was living in Hawai'i a couple of years ago. The card contain a picture of my family with our new puppy. We were standing in front of a flowering hibiscus plant and we were wearing leis (all three of us!).

In the card was a letter we had written updating friends, family, and colleagues about our comings and goings during the past year.

It was a great card, but it what it took to produce it and get it off in time for the holidays was overwhelming, AND the final cost of the project shocked us. I vowed never to attempt this again.

That was until I found an amazing card-sending system which allows me send totally custom holiday cards all from the comfort of my home and my laptop computer.

This personalized greeting cards system includes:

• An online catalogue of over 15,000 high quality greeting cards for under $1.00/each,

• The ability to include up to four of my own photo in the card,

• The ability to write my own personal message in my own handwriting, and

• A team of people who stuff the cards into the envelopes, address them, stamp them and put them in the mail to be delivered in 2 days.

I've told myself that never again will sending Holiday Greeting Cards be a hassle for me; in fact it's now something I actually look forward to!

The Tradition Of Sending Holiday Greeting Cards

The tradition of sending Holiday Greeting Cards is embedded deeply within our culture. The idea of sending out Holiday Cards started in England around 1840. This is when the "Penny Post" was invented which made the sending of mail much simpler than before.

Not long after this came the development of lithography printing. This suddenly made it possible for people to send decorative, colorful Christmas Greeting Cards.

Even though it's easier to communicate with others via the telephone, e-mail, and text messaging, the tradition of sending Holiday Greeting Cards to people who we care about – family, friends, colleagues at work, business associates, and customers – continues to be a very big part of the holidays today.

Originally the content of Holiday Cards was wishing others a joyous Christmas. However, today the tradition of sending out cards during the holidays has expanded worldwide and the greetings range from "Happy Hanukkah" to "Happy Kwanza", to "Season's Greetings" to "Happy New Year". They are no longer just religious messages.

The following quote is from an article posted on a blog published by ooprint, an online printing service. It discusses some of the history of Holiday Greeting Cards:

"Official holiday cards were first sent by Queen Victoria of England in the 1840's. The first Christmas message from a President was written by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927 and was published in newspapers across America.

Then in 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the first official holiday card to a list of 1300 recipients including American ambassadors, members of the Cabinet and Congress, and foreign heads of state. Today, Presidential holiday cards typically depict White House scenes rendered by famous American artists."

Today many companies send Business Holiday Cards to their clients and customers not only to thank them for their patronage during the past year but also to offer them all the best for the coming year.

As you plan your Holiday Greeting Cards strategy for this year, use it as an occasion to reach out and touch those you care about and to reconnect with people you've lost track of during the past year.

There's a great resource I use that totally streamlines the whole Holiday Card sending process. This unique card-sending system let's me create Custom Holiday Cards using my own pictures and my own message. (The message can even be printed in my own handwriting!)

It's all done online and people receive a real, physical card in the mail.