Monthly Archives: October 2011

Family Christmas Card Ideas for Kids

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Family Christmas CardYour family isn’t like everyone else’s, and your Christmas card shouldn’t be either. The way we look at it, Christmas cards are a once-a-year opportunity to share a bit of your family’s personality—along with your holiday greetings and good wishes, of course. Creating a card that is unique to your family is all part of the magic.

Holiday insert from ConnorOne of our favorite family Christmas card ideas is to write the annual Christmas letter from an unexpected viewpoint. The youngest child in the family, for example, has a unique (and often overlooked) perspective of the year’s events. A Christmas letter sharing the family news in your child’s voice can be charming or hilarious, or both. If your child is old enough, you might even ask him or her to write it, or you can ask a few leading questions to get some ideas and write it yourself.  You know your child best. Put yourself in those little shoes and you can probably write something that sounds just like they wrote it. Click on the thumbnail for a super cute example from last year.

Our Christmas letter inserts are perfect for this purpose. As long as your card is big enough, you can tuck the insert inside and change the color and text font to match or complement your card. There are also plenty of Christmas cards that are designed to include space for a Christmas letter or lots of text, such as timeline cards.

There are other ways to give your Christmas cards personality–photos, favorite colors and a special greeting can all make a big difference. The important thing is to make it come from the heart. As the saying goes, it’s the thought that counts.

Using photo filters to enhance your photos

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Using photo filters to enhance your photosThese days you don’t have to be a professional photographer to follow the latest photo trends. We all now have the ability to create special effects and filter colors and light with a simple click in our photo editing software—no messing with lenses, filters or film.

These three very different looking photo Christmas cards were created using Pear Tree Greeting’s easy-to-use Edit & Play page. After choosing a card and uploading our color photo, we clicked on the photo filter tab and tried two different filters on it, saving each card to see which one we liked best. The first is the original photo; the second was made using the black & white filter; and the third using our vibrance filter.

The original photo is warm and sweet, for a homey, traditional feel. The black and white version brings out the children’s faces and makes the red holiday message pop. The vibrance version creates a modern look by intensifying the colors—which could look great on a holiday card with a bright non-traditional color palette. Which one do you like best?

Bonus tip

BONUS TIP: When using the black and white filter, try adding the contrast & sharpen filters or the vibrance filter. They can enhance the effect and give your photo more punch!

Easy-to-write kids’ birthday party thank you notes

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Kids thank you noteIt can be difficult getting your kids to write thank you notes for their birthday party gifts, especially when they are too young to write a note. The party is over, half the presents are broken already, and this feels like work to your little one. But you can make it a fun craft project, starting with birthday party thank you notes that match the theme of his or her party.

If your child is just learning to write, there’s nothing more fun to receive than a note that has a few words, or even just his or her name printed on it. Friends and family love to see kids’ first attempts at handwriting. Mom can write the body of the note, using your child’s voice for fun.

An option for even younger kids is to write the note and have your child “sign” it with a hand print. This makes for a fun rainy-day painting project. A less messy option is to trace the hand, or have your child draw a picture inside to personalize the note.

Writing thank you notes is good birthday party etiquette, and a good habit to get into when your kids are little. That way it won’t become such a battle when they’re older. Those graduations and weddings will come along sooner than you think!

In defense of the Christmas letter

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Modern Christmas card letterIt’s the one Christmas card everyone loves to hate. The one with the folded Christmas letter printed on tacky 8.5″ x 11″ Christmas theme paper, that goes on and on about the Rhode’s scholar kids and the exotic vacations. Well, to take the opposing view, I think Christmas letters can be very fun to get, if done right.

First of all, it doesn’t have to be printed on tacky paper. There are plenty of alternatives these days, from customized cards that let you type your letter right into them, to timeline Christmas cards that let you accompany each part of your story with a photo, to Christmas letter inserts that slip into coordinating creative Christmas cards.

Next, how to write a Christmas letter that’s entertaining, not annoying. It’s important to choose your words carefully, so as not to appear to be bragging (even if you are). Rather than listing the itinerary from your exotic vacation, for example, you can tell a funny story about something that happened on the trip, which will bring the story to life. Kids activities or college plans are fine to include, but awards and SAT scores? Not so much.

Photos can be added to illustrate your story—close-ups are best. You can feature members of your family one by one, show highlights of your vacation or events during the year, or simply pick one nice group photo. The key is to give friends and relatives a glimpse of the real family behind the letter. If they know you and love you, they will love to read everything you have to say.

Fun Christmas Party Ideas: Cookie Exchange

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Christmas cookie exchange partyA Christmas cookie exchange is one of those fun Christmas party ideas that puts everyone in the holiday spirit. Hmmm, could it be because you leave with dozens of cookies to eat and lots of new recipes to try?

I have to admit, I had an ulterior motive to hosting my first Cookie Exchange. I like baking cookies, but don’t have the patience to bake more than one or two varieties. Hosting a cookie exchange would guarantee me lots of different kinds of cookies, and enough to last through the holidays!

The idea is pretty simple. You invite friends and ask them to bring cookies. Lots of cookies. Enough cookies to give half a dozen or a dozen to everyone attending. As the hostess, you get to set the rules (number of guests, amount of cookies to bring, how to package them, etc.) and you should communicate this information in your Christmas party invitations.

There are different ways to do it, but I invited eight guests, and asked each guest to bring eight-dozen cookies, all the same kind. It sounds like a lot, but most of my guests agreed that it was a lot easier to double or triple a single recipe than to make dozens of different kinds. Adding to the fun, I also asked each guest to create a recipe card for the cookies they made, and to bring enough copies for each guest to take home.

My guests arrived with large boxes and trays of cookies, and we set them all around my table. I provided each guest with an empty holiday cookie tin and wax paper for layering. (Lined boxes or plastic containers would also work.) We shared wine, hors d’oeuvres, and funny cookie-baking stories, but the highlight of the evening was parading around the table, filling up our cookie tins.

I expected the Christmas spirit, but was surprised by the feeling of sisterhood that developed. It felt like an old-fashioned quilting bee, where the women of the village join forces to create something we could never have done on our own. Everyone went home happy, with eight different kinds of cookies, a tin to keep them fresh, and recipes to try next year—in short, a very successful, very satisfying party.