Top Five Holiday Greeting Card Ideas
 The holiday greeting card is a great way to keep in touch and reconnect with extended friends and family.
This “hallmark” of time-honoured festive traditions is evolving with the times.
More and more people are turning to unique and personalized cards, instead of heading to the store and buying something cheap and cheerful. Here are our top suggestions for sending the very best.
Digital Photo Cards
Uncle Charlie in Saskatoon hasn’t made the trip to see Baby Charlie the Third yet? No problem! Many online photo labs make holiday cards a snap. Simply upload the latest photo of your family, choose a card style, type in a greeting and have the finished product delivered to your door, ready to mail.
Charity Cards
With more of us caring about global and local causes, charity cards such as Unicef
(shopunicef.ca) offer a chance to use your gluttonous Western spending power for good. Visit CharityVillage.com (charityvillage.com/cv/marketplace/holidaygg.html#cards) for more options on cards that keep on giving.
Handmade Cards
“With our world being so automated and electronic, many people are getting back to the basics and hand-made creations are coming back in full force,” says custom card and craft designer Clara Cheung. “It's a wonderful creative outlet for the creator, and the recipient feels especially warmed by the personal touch!” Guidance from a professional like Cheung is recommended if you’re not creatively endowed, but would like to dabble in crafting. Visit your local art supply or scrapbooking store and inquire about card-making classes in your area.
Green Cards
There are multitudes of options these days for those who would like to lessen their ecological imprint without forsaking tradition. Cards printed on 100% recycled paper with vegetable inks and dyes are popping up in more gift and stationary stores. Buy vintage cards from holidays past. Or look for cards embedded with seeds that can be planted in the garden when you’re done enjoying them. When the season’s over, use pinking sheers to make old greeting cards into gift tags for next year’s gifts.
Electronic Cards
Perhaps the best way to make an impact, environmentally speaking, is to send something completely paperless. There are plenty of e-greeting sites online to choose from or, for the more tech-savvy, you can design your own card using imaging software to incorporate fun family photos and text. Just remember to keep your mailing list private using the blind copy function on your email program. A mistakenly pressed “Reply All” from Grandpa might annoy your other recipients.
- Nadine Silverthone
|
del.icio.us
DIGG
Reddit
Facebook
