Christmas Cards Oh My!

Do you do them?

Do you love them?

Do you hate them?

Are they a pain in the butt?

Yes, I do them. 

Yes, I love them. 

Yes they are a pain in the butt! 

There are so many sites that make cards. I spent the last week researching prices. VistaPrint, Shutterfly, TinyPrints, Sams Club, Costco, Walgreens, Target and the list goes on. Be careful they can be very tricky! For instance a site may show that a particular card is $.55 or $.79 each which sounds pretty good unless you want the rounded corners like displayed and that adds $.24 per card but even then in order to get that awesome price of $.55 you have to purchase 200+ photocards. Ok, maybe you have 200 friends, I don't. Well if you look at my facebook "friends" you make think I do but I assure you I do not. So the price goes up to $1.03 per card (depending on how many you want to order) plus the pretty shape and don't forget the shipping is $10. Seriously? Finally you come to terms with the fact that you need to cut down the number of cards you are purchasing which actually increases the price per card and you won't get the scalloped edges. How much are you willing to pay for Christmas cards that almost everyone will throw away? At checkout the site makes you go through a series of 5 pages declining all kinds of cool time saving options. They can print the return label for you, in fact they can address all the envelopes too. (Note to self, now they have the addresses to all my known affiliates. Wow, a conspiracy theorist would have a hayday with that.) What about those cool postage stamps with your families photo on it, just $.24 plus the cost of the stamp. YIKES! 

Here's a little mock up that I did from Tiny Prints. Not bashing them I just want to point out how ridiculous this gets and I know people spend this much and more because I get cards like this.

100 cards with rounded corners = $179

matte cards are no extra charge, glossy and pearl finish is more

white envelopes free, colored are more

liners in the envelope is $14.75 per 25 = $57

coordinating labels 48 for $16 = $32

shipping $9.95

tax $16.43

GRAND TOTAL $294.38 for 100 Christmas cards & envelopes

sorry bad picture

I did find a pretty good deal at Shutterfly  Take a look if you haven't already ordered photocards. This link will earn me $10 if you use it.  :) Today they have 20% off your total order or free shipping. There are promo codes all over the internet. I also had a gift certificate through my Discover rewards so I ended up paying just $9.05 for 50 cards. We send more cards than that so I also ordered some from VistaPrint.com also. Their designs aren't as nice as some other sites and I'm praying that they are good quality (which is why I upgraded the quality just a tiny bit) but the price is much better. Again, I declined the special shapes, well really almost all the extras until I got to check out and at 1:00 in the morning I got sucked into buying the return labels. By the way, if you receive a card from me and there is a typo remember I ordered them at 1am. With shipping, tax, labels, linen finish, envelopes and whatever else they could list to make it look like I was getting a great deal my cards came out to $.80 each instead of $2.94 a piece. 

There are other options. My fantastic husband would appreciate me much more if I would turn to email/text/facebook Christmas cards. Oh Mr. Love of My Life, I just can't do that. I love photocards! I respect you for keeping our family financially stable but please let me keep my cards. Don't forget the good old fashion paper Christmas cards that you have to open and then you could write a personal message in each one. Wow, that thought is pushing my sentimental button. I do miss the personal touch. Maybe next year.

Whatever you do or don't do with cards at least take the time to tell people near and far Merry Christmas. As Christians this is one of the times each year that others can expect to hear us talk about our Savior. Don't miss your opportunity. Remember few people will turn down an invitation to church at Christmas especially when you follow up with an invitation for dinner at your house or at a favorite local establishment. Love breaks down walls, show the world that Jesus loves each one of us!