The wonderful, the awesome, the one and only Christmas Card!

Wednesday, December 4

 Ekk! It’s the Christmas season!! And I am one giddy elf! Christmas brings so many wonderful and meaningful traditions that help us to fully embrace the holiday season! One of my absolute favorite activities is sending and receiving Christmas cards! So much so, that I’m dedicating a whole post to the awesomeness of these babies! Below are the incredible reasons YOU TOO should send a Christmas card!!

1.  MAIL!!! 
Come on…Who doesn’t love getting mail? Growing up, every day in December, my siblings and I would race to the mailbox in search of the Christmas cards. We’d rip them open and read them aloud to each other by the fireplace, ohhh and ahhing over the pictures! You might be thinking…”wow Katie, you were a cool kid” Haha. Well not much has changed…I still am all excitement checking my mail each day in December!

2.    Christmas cards are a great way to update friends and family on your life!
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram got nothing on the awesome Christmas card!!  For starters, you are allowed to write more than 140 characters about your life…what a concept, right? Snatch the opportunity to reflect on the blessings, heartaches and adventures you experienced this past year. Give the gift of yourselves to others through your letter! 
That in my opinion is the best kind of fireside reading:)   

A few tips to avoid when writing a Christmas letter…
A)   Do not write your card from the point of view of your dog or cat. That is just weird people! Even when I was young I was creeped out by “spotty” giving us the Smith family update from 1994. Just.dont.do.it.
B)   Don’t be the ridiculous overachiever. I mean, it’s no fun when you receive a letter that says “our three year old is fluent in Spanish, received his black belt, and is currently taking calculus” and you’re looking over at your poor child thinking “my toddler can’t even hold a pencil”. So don’t make the rest of us look bad! Okay?....okay.

Moving on….

3.    Christmas cards can be used to make a sweet Statement Wall in your home!
The first year Kevin and I were married, I taped up every Christmas card we received on our kitchen wall. I planned to take it down in January {with my husband eager to “help” me} but couldn’t resist leaving those cute smiling faces up “just a little longer”. Well, a little longer turned into the ENTIRE YEAR, and into my permanent décor. Kevin and I have at least one to two parties a month, and we realized how much guests in our home loved to look at the cards! 
So the tradition began…and I love it:)

4.    Christmas cards give you that perfect ice breaker to meet your neighbors!!
I mean, when else it is completely ok to walk over to a complete strangers house and give them a piece of paper with your picture on it? NEVER…except for now! So take advantage of this window of opportunity and meet your neighbors! They’ll love that you took the time to introduce yourself and you may even find your best friend forever.  Really, you never know!

5.    Christmas cards are perfect for remembering to pray for friends!
Both my husband and I grew up in homes where the Christmas cards were put into a basket or bowel and placed on the kitchen table. Each night, we would draw out a card or two and pray for the specific family. It’s a great way to bring the family together and intentionally love others through praying for them!!

Still haven't ordered your Christmas Cards
I just ordered mine from Tiny Prints, and am soooo happy with them! 
They had many, many beautiful cards, it was so hard to choose a template. 
Here are mine below…what do you think? 

Lastly, what do YOU do with your Christmas cards? Any fun ideas I missed? 

Happy Wednesday! 
Stay tuned Friday for some very fun gift options 
i'm selling on my blog all the way from SE Asia!! woo hoo! 

love Katie 

23 comments :

  1. Your card is beautiful and I love all the ways you came up with to use them for! I just got mine in the mail yesterday and I was SO excited to open them up! Yay mail!

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  2. We have a collection of family Christmas cards on our fridge that is several years in the making, now! We don't send photo cards, but I usually make handmade cards to send out, then I get the fun of crafting and giving cards at the same time!

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  3. Came across your blog yesterday and I have to say it's one of the most adorable things I have ever seen. Looking forward to reading your posts!

    Your Christmas cards also look beautiful!

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  4. love the Christmas card wall! so darling!!
    we just mailed our cards out this week! :)
    love sending mail!

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  5. um seriously - ya'll are so cute.
    AND that is the best idea ever (putting the cards in a bowl and praying for the senders)....i'm going to use that!

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  6. Aww! Love your Christmas card ideas Katie!

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  7. Oh my goodness Katie!! SO copying you on the idea of praying for families each night!! What a beautiful idea! :) We are ordering ours tonight!

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  8. I never thought about praying for one or two of the families who sent a card. Thanks for these ideas!

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  9. Love that card!! So cute! I also love the idea of praying for a family or two each night.

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  10. I love your Christmas card wall. I should really do that- I've literally kept every card I've ever received since the 6th grade. What can I say? I love receiving cards!!! :)

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  11. such a great idea! and LOVE yalls christmas card. yall are just about the cutest thing since sliced bread!

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  12. what a fun post! I too LOVE getting mail, especially Christmas cards!! I send snail mail throughout the year (I started 3 years ago when I moved away from family and friends for the first time and would get uber excited when I would receive letters from friends, so I started doing it routinely), but Christmastime is just so much fun to relax with a cup of tea and write to loved ones. I don't do the photo Christmas cards (I would look tad odd with only a photo of my single self, haha) but love looking around for the perfect cards that express what I want to convey to loved ones!

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  13. wow, i am so surprised at your and kevin's family traditions of putting them in a bowl. i have never heard of a family doing that before, so I am so surprised that both of your families did! Haha... see? you were meant to be together. :) :) :)
    Sounds like your families were really close... :)

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  14. love your card Katie. you guys look great! i love your idea of using the cards for a collage. and the neighbor thing, i think i'd be too shy to go over. i'm a hermit at best! haha. but my favorite one would be the praying for friends one. what a beautiful tradition!

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  15. agree 100% with all of this! christmas cards are the best. yours is darling and ours are crazily similar {the style at least}. cute blog, so happy to have discovered it!

    the well-traveled wife ♥

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  16. I LOVE IT! Oh Katie, you two are so gorgeous! What a very merry Christmas card! I just love it! And I absolutely think it's precious that you guys left the cards on the wall! I can't bear to throw away old ones so they sit in a basket on our hearth and the new ones go on our Christmas card tree. ;)

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  17. I love the idea of picking cards nightly and praying for the person or family on them. I think Nate and I will start that tradition this year. :-)

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  18. Adorable cards:) I love the idea of the bowl and praying over each family. We keep ours on a ring on the coffee table to look through (& it tends to stay for a good while haha) so that is a perfect reminder!

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  19. super cute!! so southern californian. :) where did you go to take those? i've wanted to do some christmas photos every year, but i end up putting them off and never getting them done. love that wall. :)

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  20. My mom takes hers and makes a collage with them and has a large frame. She redoes the collage every year to fit everyone's pictures! It's so fun! :) when people come over and see an "old pic" of their family they are reminded to maybe send an updated one. ;)

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  21. OMG! what a setting in your room, that was soo awesome! I love those cards hanging on your walls, so lovely.
    looking at those cards, they seem all so sweet.

    P.S. I love your point there. Yes, and of course, don't forget that merry Christmas messages must be personally written and not just including signature on those pre-written messages.

    Cheers!

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  22. I love the idea of leaving Christmas cards up all year! I have ours taped to the fridge and I'm thinking they will be there until new ones come in next year :) It's nice to have pictures of friends and family up in the house, especially if you live miles (and miles and miles) apart!

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