We’re back on the Christmas train………

Today’s topic – cards!

I wrote about presents a few days ago and so I thought it was time to talk about Christmas cards. We end up sending a ridiculous amount of cards and it drives Phil mad. He doesn’t understand the need to send pieces of card to people we either see very regularly or don’t see at all. Part of me understands but the social part of me has to send them!! On top of this, Jonah and Grace like to write cards to their friends so that’s just extra to sort. So here is my list of how I get them all sorted:

1. Write a list of all the people I want to send cards to (and those that I don’t necessarily want to send one to!!). I don’t hold back. Everyone gets put on.
2. As soon as the children go back to school, I find out their class list and start figuring out how many I might need to sort.
3. My initial list then gets vetted:
   • I remove all the church bods (see point 4)
   • I remove anyone that I haven’t spoken to since last Christmas. A birthday card or Christmas card does not count as talking to. If you’ve not had a conversation either face to face or digitally or seen each other in 12 months, they go!
   • I make sure I’ve got all the cards – the ones from all of us, the ones from just the children and the ones from just me and Phil.
   • Finally I see if I can put people together. For example my little bridesmaid still lives at home with her parents (2 of Jonah’s godparents) so I send 1 card instead of 2
4. Church people – I decided a while ago that we wouldn’t give cards to the majority of our church. We give a donation to a charity and a donation to the church instead. Some of them make the cut (those I see outside of church) but the rest of them get a notice in the newsletter and a nice card from the charity we donate to!
5. Mid-September: Once I have my finalised list, I decide how I’m making them. I have made my own Christmas cards for years now and I try and make them different each year. I make a few extra in case I mess up.
6. Start of October: The children also like to make some (normally with a hand or foot print) so I figure out the design for these too and get them made.
7. Mid to end of October: we write them! The children’s cards tend to take longer to write as they only have the concentration to do a few a day.
8. End of November: they get posted!!
9. Middle of December: the church get the newsletter information about the charity we’ve chosen and the rest of the cards get given out.

And then it starts all over again for the birthdays and then Christmas again!! I have to follow these steps otherwise I totally lose track of where I am with Christmas cards!!!

What do you do to help with the planning of Christmas?