In Real Life

Many people wait until at least October to begin thinking about Christmas, but not yours truly. I love Christmas. Although I have to admit that I’m happy to move onto other things right after the holiday is over; by May I’m ready to give it another go. It’s about that time that I begin scouring the Web for new vintage Christmas clipart to add to my already huge collection. That always helps when I start creating handmade holiday cards in the fall. That way I don’t have to search for images when I’m ready to begin; I can just move right onto being creative and building the cards. Since that’s a lot of work in itself, I’m always happy to have image searching out of the way.

One aspect I do leave until right before Christmas, though, is the creation of letters from Santa Claus for all the kids I know. These can’t really go out until late November or early December because they’re sent to the post office at the North Pole for a postmark. After that, they’re mailed to the kids in stamped, addressed envelopes I provide. The process takes less than 2 weeks, so I don’t want to mail them too early. Children get excited enough about Christmas without any help; they don’t need to get letters from Santa before they’ve even had Thanksgiving turkey! But it does bring me joy to watch them tear open those letters from Santa. Because I create them, I can insert personal details that make them think Santa really knows them. If they have toys on their Christmas lists, “Santa Claus” names them and tells them that they can have them as long as they’re good. If there’s a lot of figthing between brothers and sisters around the time the letters are sent, I also say they must get along with everyone in the house if they want their Christmas presents. Nothing like a little pressure from Santa to get kids to behave!

Once my handmade Christmas cards and Santa letters are in the mail, I still can’t rest. I always make handmade New Year cards for a select few friends and family, along with a custom e-mail New Years greeting for the rest. When I make those, I pick from my collection of happy New Year greeting cards. I make the handmade versions pretty elaborate, since I don’t have to make that many. They’re a lot of fun to make and I love creating them.

If you’d like to make your own Christmas and New Year cards, try these tips:

• Use pre-cut, pre-folded cards from the stationary store, or on the thickest card stock that will go through your printer.
• If your printer will take photo paper, you can print the images separately from the cards, and trim them down and then paste them to the front of the cards.
• Lovely specialty and metallic papers are available that you can use to frame the images by cutting pieces slightly larger than the artwork. These can be found at discount stores like Walmart, or at stores that specialize in craft supplies.
• Glitter glue pens work wonders for adding a little shine. But don’t get carried away with it! The cards may warp and also have a tendency to look overdone.