How to Write the Perfect Holiday Card

Holiday greeting cards circulate through the mail system – a festive treat that reminds recipients that someone, somewhere, is thinking of them and wishing them well. They’re rare in the age of emails and text messages, experts say, and there’s something special about this expression of goodwill that can strengthen relationships and foster a feeling of warmth and appreciation.

“Receiving a card with real handwriting is more meaningful than other forms of communication,” says Sarah Tobabin, director of Hallmark’s writing studio and editorial services. “A map is a tangible memory that can be saved. It can be read again. It can be displayed: we see them on bulletin boards, and people frame them or keep them on their refrigerator.”

Tobabin — who, in case you’re wondering, says working at Hallmark is like “living Christmas 12 months a year” — loved sending holiday cards to friends and family long before he made it a career. She learned that there is an art to making them both thoughtful and memorable. With that in mind, we asked experts how exactly to create the perfect greeting card.

Decide what type of card you want to send

The first step to sending a good card is to decide what you hope it will accomplish: Do you want to convey holiday cheer? Express gratitude for the past year? Reconnect with old friends? Let your extended family know what has been happening in your life? Meeting someone who’s had a rough year?

Your goal will determine the tone, length and format you need, says Nick Leighton, co-host of the Etiquette Podcast. Were you raised by wolves? (He receives thousands of holiday cards each year, most from listeners, and responds to each one.) You can opt for photo postcards for more casual cards, he suggests, or a long family newsletter for all the aunts and uncles you haven’t kept up with throughout the year. You can also opt for an old-fashioned handwritten card. “There are no limits to what is possible,” he says. “I always send a classic folded card with a handwritten note inside, and it’s just my own note; there is nothing pre-printed. » While no format is necessarily better than another, Leighton stresses that whatever you choose should be sincere and thoughtful.

Personalize it

Even if you’re sending cards in bulk, you should personalize each one in a small way. You can keep it short by throwing in a quick line: “I’m writing this while the snow dances in the garden,” suggests Leighton, or “I can’t stop thinking about your barbecue last summer!” » You can also add a short and sweet message that shows you care about what’s going on in their lives: “We hope your new job goes well!” »

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If the right words elude you, draw on what has inspired you throughout the year. Gretchen Anthony, who loves greeting cards so much she wrote the novel Evergreen news from the Baumgartners about Christmas Letters from a Bossy Matriarch, recommends getting into the habit of keeping track of favorite quotes, funny things your kids say, and the most touching sayings you’ve heard all year. Share one or two on the card and your recipient will smile as much as you did when you first heard it.

Have fun

When Ellie Trebino Kelm, senior product art designer at Mixbook, which sells greeting cards and photo books, visited the company’s printer recently, she was able to admire some customer creations. Her favorite: “Someone was sending a holiday card from their parakeet,” she says.

Others wrote their cards from their dog’s perspective or attached a favorite recipe. The new parents opted for photos of their babies with a light note like: “Silent Night~ish.” “Your greeting cards never need to be very buttoned-up and neat,” says Kelm. “It’s always fun to add a little personality.”

Leighton agrees: Last year he sent all his holiday cards from the United Nations, which has its own postal service. He also sent a pack of cards to the North Pole in a large envelope; the postmaster will send them with the North Pole postmark. “Then people get a letter from the North Pole,” he says.

Add a surprise

Consider slipping a small photo, a child’s doodle or a pressed flower into the envelope of your card. Tobabin often adds brightly colored fall leaves from her Kansas City home, or a note of a fortune cookie that she saved because it resonated with her. Sometimes she adds a few extra stamps, which is “a nice way to convey the idea of ​​staying in touch.”

Adding something to your card is “a special surprise,” she says. “It’s unexpected, and it just adds to the tangibleness.”

Include date

Jennifer Yang performed the “timeless magic” of cards in 2021, when she went to her parents’ house and found a box of letters she had saved from her childhood. “Holding those letters and seeing the handwriting and the little trinkets inside the envelopes, it was like the world had changed,” she says. “Time stood still and I was a child again.”

This inspired Yang to found Dearist, a program that helps instill a love of letter writing in young people. One of the essential elements of a good note that she always brings home to the children: includes the date, including the year. “I don’t get hung up on formatting, but I think it’s important to include the date,” she says. “If anyone revisits it later in the future, it’s nice to have a reference as to when it was sent.”

Decorate (or perfume) the envelope

Your work is not necessarily done once you complete your map. There is also an envelope to consider, although people often overlook the opportunity it presents. Tobabin likes to add decorations like stickers or a subtle scent of pine or cinnamon. You can even use it as a “bonus space” to add a very sweet little note for the recipient. “It makes your card memorable before you even open it,” she says.

Insert it the right way

Resist the urge to just slide your card into the envelope without hesitation. There is a correct way to do this, although Leighton often finds that people get it wrong. The fold should always point down, he says, and when you look at the back of the envelope, the front of the card should be facing you.

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“If you held the envelope in your left hand and pulled the card out of the envelope with your right hand, it would be in the correct orientation to read it as soon as you took it out,” he says. This helps ensure that checks or other surprises hidden inside the card don’t slip out and that people who use letter openers (like Leighton) have no difficulty doing so. “It’s just the right way to do it,” he says.

Check the names

Perhaps the ultimate greeting card faux pas is getting the recipients’ names wrong. This includes assuming that a newly married couple shares the same last name. If you don’t know how to address someone, ask, advises Leighton: “You have to address people the way they want to be addressed,” he says. “If you don’t know, you can definitely contact us and say, ‘Hi, how do you like to be addressed in correspondence?’ » »

And he implores you to keep in mind one of his pet peeves: When writing to families, there’s no need to use apostrophes to make nouns plural. “It’s the Leightons,” he said. “Not the Leightons.”

Don’t worry if you don’t get it out in time

Leighton likes to start working on her holiday cards right after Thanksgiving, writing about five at a time and putting them all out the first week of December. If that seems like too much work in an already chaotic season, there’s nothing wrong with sending a New Year’s card (or a Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day card). “I have a friend who sends Groundhog Day cards, and it’s an annual tradition,” he says. It’s really the thought, not the arrival date, that counts.