5 Ways to Make Your Holiday Cards Extra Meaningful
The holidays are a time to cherish our connections to friends and family, and for many households that still means sending holiday cards to our nearest and dearest at this time of year. But simply signing your name to a box of store-bought holiday cards can feel impersonal, and hardly worth the price of a stamp.
Never fear – it’s not hard to make your holiday cards more meaningful, whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukah, the solstice, or simply the beginning of a new year. Here are some simple tips to personalize your holiday cards so that friends and family look forward to them all year. 
1) Include a Newsletter
The practice of writing a family holiday newsletter may no longer be as common as it once was, but it’s by no means dead. Traditionally, a holiday newsletter presents a saccharine run-down of everything that’s happened to your family during the year. But you can feel free to compose a letter that reflects yours and your family’s real personalities. You can include pictures of important events, children, pets, and milestones in your lives that occurred throughout the year. It’s a great way to keep far-flung friends and distant relatives apprised of the goings-on in your life.
2) Order Custom Greeting Cards
Buying customized holiday greeting cards remains one of the most popular ways to add a personal touch to your holiday greetings. Most people customize such cards with pictures of their children or family portraits; others choose a cute shot of the family pets or a photo taken at a milestone event during the year. Still others choose to get more creative with their holiday photo shoots.
3) Take the Time to Add a Personal Note
It only takes a minute to add a few words of personal well-wishes to your holiday cards, and it’ll really help your friends and family feel the love. Write a sentence or two referencing something important that has happened to your contact in the past year. For example, you can express the hope that they’re recovering well from a recent illness, or congratulate them on a recent birth, wedding, new job, or move to a new city. Browse Facebook while you’re writing your holiday cards, so you can keep track of who’s been doing what, or text that one relative who knows what everyone in the family is up to.
If you’re not sure what a contact has been up to over the year and you have no way of finding out, don’t despair. You can still write a sentimental personal note. Call up an old memory you have with the person, add a holiday-themed joke, or include a personal tidbit about yourself that didn’t make it into the family newsletter.
4) Add Some 3D Finishing Touches
Are you bored with 2D holiday greetings? Add some texture with embroidery, puff paint, or a small holiday bow. Stickers, glitter glue, sequins, and even scraps of fabric, holiday wrapping paper, foil, ribbon, and recycled magazine pages can all add dimension and depth to your holiday greeting cards.
5) Get the Whole Family Involved
Feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of personalizing and writing holiday greeting cards for everyone on your list? Looking for a fun family activity that helps teach the kids about holiday traditions? You can kill two birds with one stone and get your kids and spouse involved in the process of personalizing and sending holiday greeting cards. Even the smallest kids can personalize cards for friends and family with short personal notes or small, hand-drawn pictures. Kids will love decorating cards with sequins, ribbons, glitter glue, scraps of wrapping paper, or other holiday-themed decorative touches. Help the kids carve a potato stamp with a holiday-themed design, or make their own holiday cards with craft supplies.
Personalized holiday cards make your friends and family feel warm and fuzzy during the coldest weeks of the year, and getting them ready can be a fun activity for the whole family. Use your imagination and don’t be afraid to use your holiday cards as a forum to share personal news. With a little creativity, your holiday cards could be the talk of your circle.
