I am not a scrooge.
I love to send holiday cards, the act of writing the greetings to friends and family is a joy, The ritual of sealing envelopes, writing addresses, I love it, this is not the part that causes the annual anguish.
You see, my family has a tradition of "special holiday cards". I blame my mom. She started it., with her personalized cards from the Miles Kimballcompany. A card shaped like a mailbox, that opened to reveal letters inside. And the handmade greetings! Before the days of digital cameras and fancy rubber stamps, my Mom's Christmas cards were often made of construction paper, glitter and photos. Sometime there was that fake, flocked "snow". Photo greetings when I was just baby, so many decades ago.
I carried on the tradition. When my children were young, the whole process was relatively easy, if I planned ahead. Usually around mid September, I would dress up the kids and plunk them down in front of the fireplace, cajole some fake smiles from them, and that was that. Kids grow every year, and they provided an acceptable photo almost every Christmas. One year we took a photo of all of us crossing the wooden bridge in our yard... Oh, and there was that wonderful year when we had a huge snowfall in October, and I got an almost magical candid shot of the three of them tunneling into a sparkling snowbank. A once in a lifetime chance........
Now that it's just adults in the house, photo cards do not hold the same appeal. I don't want to show off my spreading waistline and no one wants to look at the new wrinkles and graying hair annually. Knee replacement photos do not promote Yuletide JOY.
So here is where the Annual Anguish comes into play. Coming up with a creative, clever idea to spread holiday cheer without breaking the budget, and/or consuming every bit of spare time I have. That is anguish. It must be quick, easy and cheap!!
Remember, I do not do the "rubber stamping "thing. I knit. I sew. I blog. I do not stamp.
Most times, I think I have a good idea, and then immediately dismiss it because it is:
Too time consuming.
Too hokey.
Too expensive.
All of the above.
You are asking "Why doesn't she just buy a box of cards be done with it?" Dave asks that every year, too.
The year I had a major surgery in December, I did just that, boxed cards were sent out. In fact, I did that last year, too... But so many people told me that they were disappointed to open our card and find something NOT HANDMADE. And even though I sent out the ready made cards, I still went through the anguish of TRYING to come up with a great idea................. I might as well have made them.
I do have an idea for 2007 holiday greetings , but I am afraid it is:
Too time consuming.
Too hokey.
Too expensive.
Got ideas? Simple, cheap and creative are my criteria. I need to get cracking on this. Where are my elves when I need them?
4 comments:
Miniature Christmas stockings (like baby size) with a nifty little greeting printed on a piece of business card size vellum, punched with 2 holes and tied with a ribbon to a patterned cardstock tucked inside? Too hokey? :) You could write Herzliche Wintergruesse like one of the other cards. Oh great, now my mind's going and won't stop!
I hear you!
I do stamp...well not as much anymore...and even that was too costly and too time consuming to do fifty-ish Christmas cards.
So now we just buy a couple boxes and throw in a picture of the kids.
Ohhh...and I like to celebrate Christmas until Epiphany. So that means sometimes my cards don't arrive in the mail until after the 25th!
Yeah...that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! ;)
Mom you should go to the wal-mart website and have your cards made.... you could just take a picture of socks..... all hand knitted of course..... and say something like.... I hope your socks are full... or something corny like that. I am sure that will do. or take a picture of nick in boots... puss in boots from Shrek,(Dave,and you can be Ms. Shrek).... Ghen could be the donkey:) .... it would be funny
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