Christmas Resources

Many people wait until at least October to begin thinking about Christmas, but not yours truly. I love Christmas. Although I have to admit that I’m happy to move onto other things right after the holiday is over; by Mother’s Day I’m ready to give it another go. It’s about then that I begin scouring the Internet for new Christmas wreath clipart to add to my already huge collection. That always helps when I begin designing handmade holiday cards in the fall. That way I don’t have to search for images when I’m ready to begin; I can just start creating the cards. Since that’s a complicated process, I’m always happy to have image searching out of the way.

One aspect I do leave until right before Christmas, though, is the creation of personalized letters from Santa for the kids in my family. These can’t be mailed until the beginning of December because they actually have to be sent to a post office located at the North Pole for a postmark. They’re then mailed to the kids in stamped, addressed envelopes I provide. The process takes less than 2 weeks, so I don’t want to mail them too early. Kids get hyped up enough about Christmas; they don’t need to get letters from Santa before they’ve even had Thanksgiving turkey! But it does make me happy to see how much they enjoy getting custom letters from Santa. Because I make them myself, I’m able to put in details that make them think Santa really knows them. If they have toys on their Christmas lists, “Santa” names them and tells them that they can have them as long as they’re good. If there’s a lot of figthing between brothers and sisters at the time the letters are mailed, I also say they must get along with everyone in the house if they want Santa to visit them. Nothing like some good, old fashioned pressure from St. Nick to get kids to mind!

Once my handmade holiday cards and Santa letters are in the mail, I still can’t rest. I like to make handmade New Year cards for a select few friends and family, along with a custom e-mail New Years greeting for the rest. When I make those, I pick from my collection of new years clipart. I get quite elaborate with the handmade versions, since I don’t have to make that many. They’re fun to make and I always enjoy the process of creating them.

If you’d like to experiment with making your own handmade Christmas or New Year cards, here are some tips:

• Print the cards either on pre-cut, pre-folded cards you can get from the stationary store, or on the thickest card stock that will go through your printer.
• If you have a printer that will accommodate photo paper, you can print the images separately from the cards, and cut them out and paste them onto the card fronts.
• There are lovely metallic and specialty papers that you can use to frame the images by cutting pieces slightly larger than the artwork. These can be found at discount stores like Walmart, or at craft stores.
• Glitter glue pens work wonders for adding a little sparkle. But don’t get carried away with it! The cards may warp and also have a tendency to look overdone.