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Holiday Cards
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Anonymous
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How many do you send out and how did you create your address labels? What is your criteria that someone gets a card?
Every year, it's a nightmare to send out cards. I've tried to do mail merge with my MS Outlook and it requires too much clean up to make nice address labels. Our list also keeps getting bigger and bigger and we would appreciate some tips on paring it down. TIA |
Anonymous
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Around 70. I got married 4 years ago, and the first year I started with our wedding invitation list and added/subtracted as needed. I save the list in Excel every year and then modify. It might be a big chore, but getting a standard list ready and then updating it once a year really will save you a lot of time over the years.
As for pairing the list down: If the person is local, have you physically seen them in the past year? If not, might be time to drop them from the card list. For out-of-towners (non family), if you were visiting that person's city, would you call them? If not, you can drop them. |
Anonymous
| You could do what a friend of mine does: she doesn't send out christmas cards, she does new year's cards. If she gets a holiday card from you, you get a New Year's card from her. She saves the envelopes from the cards she receives to make up her list. |
Anonymous
| I stopped sending Christmas cards years ago and, instead, give money that would have been spent on cards and postage to Salvation Army plus an additional $100.00. We used to send out over 200 cards and it was just too much. |
Anonymous
Do you have to send out so many? I don't send out cards. I admit it's 100% because I'm lazy about stuff like that (I do send out thank you notes I promise!), but we started a blog for family when we had our first child, and we are both on facebook so I feel like all of our friends and family know what's up with us. It's nice to get cards, but it's not like it's the greatest thing in the world for me, so I don't feel like we are disappointing anyone with not sending any out. I know some people really enjoy that stuff, but if you don't (see bold) why do it? Life is so short, and so is the holiday season! |
Anonymous
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Pared down wedding list on Excel, modified every November - usually hovers around 30.
What takes the bulk of my time is that I create fantasy backgrounds in Photoshop around our pics, so that the photo tells a story. I also add a small text about what we have done in the past year. |
Anonymous
We do this too but we send holiday cards so there's no due by date and can go out anytime during the season. |
Anonymous
I started doing this, too (only sending cards to those from whom we received cards). I'll probably send to the whole list this year (we have a new baby to announce :> ) but may revert in the future. And, I'm thinking of using Tiny Prints and paying to have them ship directly (via imported address list); it won't be signed by us but will be easier. I keep an Excel spreadsheet and do a mail merge to create a Word document. In the document, I format the addresses (put a box around the address, use a nice font, whatever) and print them on regular (but nice) paper. I then cut them out and use a glue stick to affix them; not as nice as handwritten, but cleaner (print-wise) than printing directly on envelopes and looks marginally better than a sticker label (I think). |
Anonymous
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100 cards.
I don't do address labels - I think they're tacky, sorry. I hand write each address. |
Anonymous
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We send about 20 cards, to very close friends and immediate family only.
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Anonymous
| I only started doing address labels when DD was born 3 years ago, along with a form letter. Before that, I hand wrote a note to each person as well as hand wrote the addresses. Can't do that anymore because I have a 3 yo and don't have time. I also used a modified wedding guest list since they are all already in an excel file, then a word document that is already formatted for address labels. |
Anonymous
| Hovers around 50... and I hand write all of the addresses (but use a return address stamp). I am intrigued by the idea of printing the addresses onto labels but it feels impersonal to me... I know, I know... it's fine to do address labels, but for some reason it's stuck in my head that I should write it. |
Anonymous
| 12:48 here... I can be persuaded to use address labels, though. I just realized how many times I've written addresses out this year. Baby shower thank you's for #2 (that's another whole can of works - baby shower for a second child! GASP!), birthday party invites for #1, birthday party thank you's for #1 and now holiday cards. Wowsa. |
Anonymous
Ditto. |
Anonymous
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"I keep an Excel spreadsheet and do a mail merge to create a Word document. In the document, I format the addresses (put a box around the address, use a nice font, whatever) and print them on regular (but nice) paper. I then cut them out and use a glue stick to affix them; not as nice as handwritten, but cleaner (print-wise) than printing directly on envelopes and looks marginally better than a sticker label (I think). "
LOL!!!!!!!! Some one has waaay too much free time on their hands. |