This sound familiar?
You take your family photos in October or November, finally, get around to putting together a Christmas card in early December, the cards arrive and they sit on your home office desk, the month gets busy, and then the next thing you know you’re asking yourself if February is too late to send out a Christmas card?
(Not that I’m speaking from experience here… that’s never been us, please!)
We let the Christmas cards hang over us the entire holiday season. And every card that comes in adds to the stress and guilt of not having ours sent out yet!
Imagine having your cards ready to send out in early December, before the holiday festivities are in full motion! You could enjoy letting the other cards come through the mail without thinking “ugh, I really need to do that!”
And you would feel like a major to-do is off your list… more time for the important stuff like making cookies for Santa and re-watching Elf for the umpteenth time!
But what if sending out your Christmas cards didn’t need to be a big task? In this blog, I’m sharing the simplest way to send out your Christmas cards and how to design them!
P.S. Keep reading for a printable checklist to keep you on top of your Christmas cards this year!
Use the Excitement of Receiving Your Full Gallery
There is so much excitement when your photographer sends back your full gallery! You worked so hard to make sure everything was just perfect for the photos and then getting them back is the best feeling!
And if you’re like us, then you’re going back and relooking through your gallery all the time!! Use this excitement to your advantage!!
Choose your top 5 favorite photos from your gallery, that you want to use on your Christmas card and start the process right away!
Actually, creating your card takes 20 (maybe 30 minutes at the longest). Sit down and do it while you still are so excited about the photos!
It will be way harder to come back in 2 weeks or a month and find the momentum to sit down and create a Christmas card.
How to Curate Your Christmas Card
Designing the card is the fun step! Here are a few tips on how to choose a card and make it look really classy and put together from a professional photographer: (I’ll use the Thiel’s family session as an example!)
Choose a simple card:
Choose a card with a nice solid, neutral background with lots of negative space. This makes sure that your card doesn’t get too busy and begin to look cluttered. It will keep the focus on the photos.
I also avoid colorful cards, reds and greens especially, because often they clash with the photos (unless you are using only black and white photos).
Less is more when it comes to photos:
Personally, I prefer to have one big wow photo on the front and then 3-4 photos on the back. The more photos you add the tricker it is to curate them and lay them out so they complement each other. Sometimes having fewer photos is actually more editorial than adding all of your favorites.
Choose photos all from the same session:
I know some people love to add photos from their session and then a few of their favorite snapshots from the year and that’s fine! But if your goal is to make it look more editorial and cleaner, then I think the easiest way is to choose all the photos from the same session. This way all the colors already match nicely and you don’t need to worry about coordinating.
Use black and white photos to show emotions:
I love using black and white photos because they get rid of all the distracting elements of color and the busyness of a photo and it allows you to focus on the emotion and story of the photo!
You could do all black and white photos on your card, which is beautiful. Or use a black and white photo to break up two photos with color that don’t perfectly match each other.
Pair busy photos with clean photos:
When it comes to laying out your photos, look at the edges of the photos. Pair busy edges with clean, non-distracting edges. This will allow your eye to pause and clearly see each photo. They don’t compete with each other. Like the photos below… The one on the left has solid, clean, non-disrtacting edges, whereas the edges in the photo on the right are a little bit busier.
Pair wide photos with really tight photos:
The same idea as before… but you can play with negative space in your photos. By pairing a really tight shot with a nice wide shot, your eye can see and focus on each photo easier.
Pair candid photos with camera-aware photos:
Two photos with each one looking and smiling at the camera is a bit redundant. Pair a candid photo where nobody is looking at the camera with one of everyone looking and smiling (aka camera-aware). This adds more visual interest and tells a better story as if we are peeking into your life!
The Secret to Simply Sending Out a Christmas Card
We’ve used Minted to send out our Christmas cards the last few years and this is a game-changer! Not only are their cards beautiful, but you can upload an excel spreadsheet with all of your addresses and have them directly printed on the envelopes!
Addressing the envelopes is where the process begins to bottleneck. This takes away that problem!
The first year you do this, you will need to take the time to sit down and add all your addresses to an excel spreadsheet. Make sure to keep this sheet updated. This does take quite a bit of time, but it is worth it!
And then you can just upload the document to Minted and you’re done!
You might as well sit and set up the spreadsheet once and not have to worry about it every year after! Once it is set up, it will save you SO MUCH time and stress for years to come!
Then as soon as your cards arrive, assemble them right away (again only 20-30 minutes, if that) and you’re done!
Think about it! You could have your Christmas cards back and ready to be sent out to the world within a week of receiving your full gallery!! That means they would be waiting on your home office desk until it became socially acceptable to start sending Christmas cards out… sounds too good to be true! (It makes my Type-A heart happy!)
Friend, set up this system and stick to it! Don’t let your Christmas cards hang over you all season and definitely don’t take this to-do into the new year with you!!
I went ahead and created a printable checklist for you to stay ahead of the game when it comes to your Christmas cards this holiday season! It walks you through every step of the process from receiving your full gallery to dropping your cards in the mailbox! You can grab it below!
I hope this helps you!
But I do want to say, if in this season of your life, sending out cards is just too much and is no longer enjoyable, take it off your list. Decide not to do it! This doesn’t need to be your family’s tradition. AND that’s okay!
If you have any questions or other ideas, I would love to chat! You can leave it in the comments below or email me at bethiegrondinphotography@gmail.com!
