Cheap Christmas Cards
Make or Buy Photo Cards, Print-Your-Own Cards, Recycle Holiday Cards
Oct 10, 2007
To save postage and paper, you can send Christmas greetings by email or post holiday messages on your blog, but your friends and family will miss out on the joy of opening their mailbox to reveal colorful piles of envelopes containing Christmas wishes. A virtual card also presents a design challenge for Christmas traditionalists—how do you display an email on your mantel?
Following are some ways for frugal families to send Christmas cards by mail this season without bankrupting Santa’s savings account. When you have saved all you can on cards, find out how to make and buy inexpensive Christmas tree ornaments.
Print Christmas Cards from Home
The online American Greetings store features a “create and print” option for holiday well-wishers who want to personalize a ready-made design. An annual membership of $19.99 gets users one year of access to hundreds of printable designs, including Christmas cards that range from the beautiful and serene to religious to just plain silly. To personalize and print the cards from your computer, the create-and-print program requires you to download a plug-in to access the designs. Choose ¼-fold or ½-fold card sizes, 4-by-8-inch photo cards and “craft cards” that have a three-dimensional homemade feel.
Professionally Printed Photo Cards
These personalized Christmas cards are not only cherished by those on your holiday card list, they are easy to produce. Simply drop off a photograph at your nearest photo lab, choose a design and a few words of holiday cheer, then sit back and wait to receive your one-of-a-kind Christmas cards printed on high-quality photo paper. Most photo labs throw in the envelopes with your order. To get the cheapest rate, you need to buy these cards in bulk, which adds on to your postage cost if you intend to mail them. Balance the cost per card with your postage budget to get the best deal.
Retail giant Wal-Mart is one store that charges the same amount per 4-inch-by-8-inch photo card for any quantity. For 33 cents a card, Wal-Mart includes envelopes and will mail the entire order to your home for an additional charge or make them available for free in-store pick up. Wal-Mart also allows you to download photos and personalize your photo cards online.
Recycle Christmas Cards from Holidays Past
Charities and senior citizens centers in your area may ask for donations of old Christmas cards to craft into new ones and sell to help support their work. If you can’t find a charity that will accept your old cards, recycle them yourself by cutting out artwork from the front of the cards and gluing it to folded cardstock. Embellish with glitter pens or other drawings and write a personalized note inside. Create a three-dimensional look by using double-sided foam tape to affix the holiday art.
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