It’s October, and you know what that means – time to start planning for Christmas! While it might seem like it’s too early, it’s always good to get a head start. The fall season is busy – with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas – which all fall within 2 months of each other. Halloween being the most low-key of the fall holidays, October is a good month to start thinking about holiday cards. It’s never too early to get a jump start on planning you holiday cards because let’s face it, Christmas always sneaks up on us!
When planning your cards, you’ll need to start pulling together family pictures. Whether it’s professional pictures or a recent family photo taken on your latest family vacation, holiday cards are a great way to show people what you’ve been up to in 2019.
We get professional photos taken about every 18 months. This way we alternate between fall and spring backgrounds. This year landed on fall and I selected a moody fall color palette as inspiration for our outfits. If you’re unsure how to start this process, I recommend finding color palettes on Pinterest. Decide what color and piece of clothing that you want to wear and then work everyone else’s colors in to compliment yours. I personally don’t like my boys in matching outfits because they have different personalities. So I looked for outfits that were monochromatic and in the same color scheme for them.
Once you’ve selected your photos, it’s time to design your cards. I suggest using Basic Invite. They have so many different Christmas cards and customizable holiday cards. You’re bound to find the perfect card to fit your family’s vibe. I personally love their photo strip holiday cards. Why choose one picture, when you can choose nine? What makes them unique is that ALL of their cards are fully customizable, so if you don’t like the font or color scheme of the design you’ve selected, you can always edit it! I love this feature as it allows me to design the card to match my personal design aesthetic. There’s always something I want to tweak and this allows me that flexibility.
Remember to double check with friends and family to make sure their addresses haven’t changed. I keep all of my addresses in an excel spreadsheet so they’re easy to update. This also makes it a simple process to print address labels. I also highly recommend this stamper for your return address. It’s a great way to personalize the envelope of every piece of mail that you send out!
Remember, the beginning of November is not too early to send out your cards. That way, people will be able to keep your holiday greetings on their fridge for a couple of months. At the latest, send them out by the first or second week in December to ensure that they will arrive a week before Christmas!
If you decide to check out Basic Invite, you can use HOLI30 at checkout for 30% off of your order. Here’s a sneak peek of our family holiday card, designed by moi, using Basic Invite’s online design center. Help me decide which you like better by commenting on this post!
SHOP MY LOOK
SHOP THE BOYS
SHOP MEN
Happy Holidays!!
The Comments
Mary Ann
Hi Kim,
Great pix! I definitely like the card with the word Merry on it…. just make sure to correct the spelling of your last name:-)
sweetmotherly
> Mary AnnThanks Mary Ann! (I did it on purpose π — I don’t like to share all of my personal info on the web)