So many are so awfully handsome... they’re great temptations! Of course, they can be quite expensive - hence the after-Christmas-sale half-off purchases... which some of us tuck away in places we can’t quite put our hands on eleven months later.

The other problem with purchasing far in advance, I’ve found, is that related circumstances might change by the time you get around to needing the cards. ...Like if you bought some lovely cards because they looked just like your cabin in the woods - which you then decided very reluctantly in May that you had to sell, and which you didn’t even like to have to think about in December.

...Still! They’re such pleasant reminders of yourself to your loved ones, or of other people to you ("A man’s gift maketh room for him")... Especially when it’s the only time you exchange communications, they’re important!

Sometimes the picture chosen is especially evocative of the sender, which makes them all the more valuable. ...And if it’s representative of a shared value, all the better. (I have a selection of cards that I particularly adore that I keep with my Christmas ornaments, to sprinkle about the house during the holiday season. They happen to all be animal-related somehow, come to think of it; most are amusing. They lift my spirits each year, anyway!)
 

• Folded cards, made

Now there are a number of programs that allow people to produce their own cards via their computers. ...Great pictures, and whatever you want to say. Instead of card stock, an 8 1/2 x11" sheet of paper is folded in four... Voilà, a card! - valued especially because it was designed by the sender. (My father has done my parents’ cards in this manner for several years - affording extra pleasure to himself, in the creation, and to the recipients, in the customized sentiments.)

Other types of handmade cards are as varied as the imagination of people varies. My oldest friend sends a card each year with an exquisite Christmas theme-related photo she’s taken, usually of her daughter. Often she has the thought/feeling-provoking inner message printed by a printer. The cards are wonderfully expressive works of art.

I still am very fond of a cut-linoleum-block print card my parents sent out to their mainland friends when they lived in Hawaii, where I was born - "Mele Kalikimaka! ...And a haole makahiki hou" (...a happy New Year).

Simple and elegant folded cards can be made by gluing cutouts on the front. Try just snowflakes. (Consider using colored snowflakes; marbled paper, or wallpaper, or holographic design stuff.) Or patchwork quilt designs. Or a mosaic of small shapes in a folk art design. ...Or make the design the cutout - a complex composition, or a single, simple cutout shape that reveals a child’s photo underneath.

Other elegant cards can be made with homemade or store-bought stamps. You know about potato stamps... Sturdy leaves can be glued to a block and used as stamps. You can also try that with lace, or coiled patterns of cording, or felt pieces.

Or if you sew or embroider, consider a small, lively picture made of fabric, sandwiched in a frame of paper - one of a kind!

Children’s artwork, while they’re young, will probably be prized for years by their older relatives and special friends. Wonderful craft stamps and techniques are abundant these days and can result in some matchless and very appealing cards. Or stick a photo onto prepared cards.

...Though much can be made of it, it doesn’t take much to make a great original greeting that is gift in itself.
 

• Postcards

Certainly one of the virtues of a Christmas postcard is that they’re quite a bit cheaper to mail!

They’re also great motivators for some people - people who are intimidated by all the space there is to fill up on a traditional folded card. And for busy people, it’s easy to carry a few with you and whip them out while you wait for the bus or the dentist (for example).

All told, a postcard has everything that a traditional folded card has, except lots of room to write. ...If you don’t have time or inspiration for writing much (or much money to spend), they’re a great choice! (And could be made as well as purchased, come to that.)
 

• Photo cards

Then there are those photo greeting cards that you can purchase from photo processing houses. Some people use them as postcards - some enclose them with a traditional folded card - some simply slip them into an envelope by themselves (or slip them into a specially-designed card-like folder).

As a recipient, I think they’re wonderful. I collect photos of those I care about, so I often just cut the message part off (or fold it under, if I particularly value what it says) and stick the photo in with the others.

Even if it isn’t going to be saved, a photo can speak a thousand words - take advantage of that in choosing the photo you have reproduced... Try to make it one that says something meaningful about the subject (rather than just a dress-up photo that looks a little stilted).
 

• Holiday letters

Some people are bah-humbuggy about Christmas letters. I’m not... I’m bah-humbuggy about cards with nothing inside but a canned bit of text and a printed name or set of names - hmmph! That’s about as meaningful as the company card, and makes me feel about as appreciated.

I appreciate the news that letter authors take pains to set out in a coherent and often highly entertaining fashion - most of which I know I’d probably miss out on if the person simply jotted me a card. I find that even letters from my closest friends contain gems I knew nothing about... Such discovery is a pleasure.

Christmas letters don’t necessarily have to be just "what we did all year". And definitely not only "accomplishments" (I think those are the letters that people complain about - the ones that simply list all of the awards their children got, and the like). Include what you thought; quotations that inspired you; sadnesses you experienced; things you learned; funny things your kids or pets did. In other words, what would you tell a good friend about in a long, catching-up phone call? ...Share yourself.
 

• E-mail cards?

They exist - and they can be delightful!... for the right people. Some people who own computers and use them for e-mail and an on-site program or two aren’t really comfortable with anything else - and clicking over to the Web is something else. (Also, some people’s computers just can’t handle them - it’s best if you know in advance whether they’re bound to get through!)

I find e-mail cards to be great tools of surprise - I’ll send them to people who I don’t usually exchange greeting cards with, as an extra boost to our friendship, as it were. (Like my husband!)

Or perhaps it might be as well as a printed card. Because most e-mail cards are funny - and amusing Christmas cards may be only for certain people on your list. Also because I tend to bump up against the thought of sending such a greeting when I get one myself and am inspired to shoot off a few to others.

(I hope you do have many friendships that are alive with humor, though!)
 

• Business greetings

I added this as an afterthought, because I’ve never sent a business greeting myself... But certainly the holiday greeting card, or letter, is an important element in the promotional plan for many businesses every year.

I have to say that I find the type that’s extremely impersonal pretty ridiculous. Probably the silliest are those that are sent from one company to another! But holiday greetings can be meaningful even if they come from businesses - it just depends on the execution.

A friend of mine who has a little travel store sends a very personal-sounding (and sincere) letter to all of the customers she has addresses for. She thanks them for their patronage; she tells them what’s special for the holidays; she invites them for a holiday nosh in the store; she tells them what she’ll be adding in the coming year... and she signs them all herself. And people love it. (Her "nosh" is a continuous few-day-long celebration of conviviality... and holiday sales.)

I was surprised and delighted to receive Christmas cards from a carpenter we’d hired to do some emergency work for us when we were selling a house. We’d learned of him from a mutual friend; and I think that he became friendly with just about everyone who had him work for them. A holiday greeting from him, thanking us for our business, was a pleasant reminder of a pleasant (and hard-working) fellow. People enjoy the idea that such professionals are good people and not just carpenters or plumbers... Those are the folks who get lots of word-of-mouth, and repeat, business. Holiday cards can celebrate good working relationships too.

Holiday greetings can also be excellent vehicles for businesses to expand their customer bases via win-win joint ventures with other businesspeople. For instance... Many a small business owner has found that mailing a Christmas letter that contains an offer for a special deal arranged at another business owner’s store is a gratitude-promoting way of thanking people for their patronage. The other store thereby gains a great many valuable new customers for offering a special discount or gift. (If you’re interested in the joint venture marketing phenomenon, see my web site about it at www.ThinkJointVenture.com.)