I just rewatched the first holiday blitz video and decided to take a moment to share my story about our annual Christmas card and newsletter. Before Julien and I had kids, we started an annual Christmas newsletter. I love writing and back then I had lots of free time in the evenings to lick stamps and write addresses on envelopes. We had friends and family all over the world, and the letters were a nice way to make sure I was keeping my address book up to date. We also emailed it. (Aside: my parents always sent out annual newsletters and I loved the title they picked: “The Gowzette”. Still makes me smile.) Then we went into the fog of the early parenting years and I had to give it up. I LOVED sending a newsletter and missed it but didn’t have the bandwidth. But three or four years ago the fog cleared enough that I dared start again, this time with a family photo card in the mix. It has taken me some trial and error to find a process that gives me all the joy without the stress of a huge additional project during the already-busy holidays, but I think I have it down now! The process starts on July 1, which is Canada Day. By tradition we all wear red all day, and the grass and trees are nice and green, so any photo we can get of the four of us is bound to look decent on a Christmas card. I am under no obligation to use the photos taken that day if we end up with better options during the year, but it prevents me from arriving at card-designing time only to realize that we have absolutely nothing to work with and I have to wrangle grumpy family members to pose on a deadline. When October rolls around, I know I need to start looking for a window to go through all my photos of the year so far and gather all the best candidates in a single folder. It took me about an hour this year. I was able to take advantage of a quiet waiting room while one of my kids was having a loooong medical appointment. (See photo.) Then I look for another window to design the card. I have used a fancy photo/card/photobook printing service in the past called Printique. Their product is great quality and I still use them to print my digital scrapbook albums, but I have learned that I am content with the simpler and less expensive card printing services offered by our local pharmacies. I can always find at least one template that meets my needs. Last week I spent an evening playing with the options on the website, picking my final design and placing my order. The box showed up a few days later! I order two sets of 48 so that I can send almost 100 cards and newsletters. That’s it for October. November is my month for writing. Early in November I pick an evening to get the ball rolling on the writing. We are a bilingual family, and my husband and I co-write the letter, alternating between English and French. At the top we date it “NOV 2024” so that the date works equally well in both languages. We aim to narrate our year in two single-spaced pages so that we can print on one double-sided piece of paper. We are very wordy so we make no attempt to illustrate the letter with integrated photos. They take too much story-telling room away! That also keeps our printouts black and white. Once I’ve written about the first bit of the year, I ask my husband to let me know when he can take a window of time to write the next bit. We go back and forth until it is done. This takes two or three sessions tops, but we can spread them out over the month so that it never feels rushed. Then he prints 96 copies for us. When December 1 rolls around, I take inventory of our stamps and pick up any extras we need (Canadian, US and international). I then start setting out small number of letters each evening for a week or two to get signatures at the bottom from every family member. Young hands (and even middle-aged hands) find it tough to sign 96 letters in one shot, so we need to spread it out. Once I have a handful with completed signatures, the assembly line begins! I get my address book and my old lists of who received letters in past years. I also decide if there should be new additions. I start a new list for the current year. I have a small handful of friends who also begin sending their letters and cards out around December 1. Each time I receive a card I immediately reply with one of our own. For anyone else, I just go through my past lists a bit randomly, getting a few done at a time when windows come up. They go into the mailbox every few days as the completed envelopes pile up. Note: I used to experiment with different card dimensions to be able to do things like make photo collages. However, when I ordered 4x8 inch cards one year, I found it very tricky to add the 8.5x11 inch newsletter to the envelope without making ugly and bulky folds. I got so frustrated that I sacrificed the elegant 4x8 envelopes I had paid for with my card order and bought a box of standard white envelopes that could hold both the card and the newsletter comfortably. I have since made a rule for myself that I may only use the 5x7 inch photo card templates. 5x7 envelopes easily accommodate a single-page newsletter folded once down the middle lengthwise and once down the middle widthwise. Second note: I loosely aim to send out all 96 envelopes by January, but I give myself heaps of grace here. HEAPS. I have never once heard a complaint from anyone who got my holiday card in February or March. Or even July one memorable year. 😏 It kind of makes them stand out from the crowd, right? 😜 That is my recipe for low-stress but high-impact holiday mailouts! Start early, finish late, have tasks associated with different months, pace myself. All the joy is back for me. I love summarizing our year of adventures and misadventures. I love the text exchanges that inevitably follow with friends right after they receive the letter. I love seeing how far-flung my network has grown over the decades as I address letters to Canada and the US and Australia and France and the Netherlands and Singapore and Dubai and Yukon and Luxembourg and Brazil. Final note: Some people who receive my cards and letters apologize about not sending one back. I always let them know that I have no expectation of symmetry when it comes to holiday cards. It is fine with me to send them out and not get a response. It still feels like a worthwhile investment in the relationship (and often helps me find out who has moved and whether I need to update my address book). I also appreciated every card and letter I received during the ten years when I couldn’t return the favour because other priorities had to come first. So no guilt if you read this and holiday cards are still not going to make it onto your blitz list. It’s all good! #holidaycards

Posted by Francie Gow at 2024-10-31 03:31:51 UTC