Many people wait until at least October to begin thinking about Christmas, but not yours truly. That’s because I love Christmas. Although I have to admit that I’m quite happy to move onto other things right after it’s over; by May I’m ready to hang my stockings by the chimney with care once again. It’s about that time that I start looking around the Internet to see if I can find any new vintage holiday gift tags to expand my already large collection. That puts me ahead of the game when I begin designing my handmade Christmas cards in the fall. Because of that I don’t have to do any searching for images; I can just start creating the cards. Since that’s a complicated process, I’m always happy to have image searching out of the way.

One aspect I do leave until right before Christmas, though, is creating Santa letters for all the kids I know. These can’t really go out until the beginning of December because they actually have to be sent to a post office located at the North Pole to be stamped with a special postmark. They’re then mailed to each child in stamped envelopes I provide. That process only takes 10 days to a few weeks, so I don’t begin too early. Children get excited enough about Christmas without any help; they don’t need letters from St. Nick before Thanksgiving! But it is gratifying to watch them tear open those letters from Santa. Because I make them myself, I can insert personal details to make them think Santa really knows them. If they have toys they’ve been wanting, “Santa Claus” lets them think that they’ll only get them if they behave well. If there’s a lot of figthing between brothers and sisters around the time the letters are sent, I also include that they have to get along with everyone in the family if they want their Christmas presents. Nothing like some good, old fashioned pressure from Santa to get kids to mind!

And I still can’t rest even after I get my Christmas cards and letters from Santa mailed. I always make handmade New Year cards for select friends and family members, as well as an electronic greeting for everyone else. When I make those, I pick from my collection of free vintage New Years cards. I make the handmade versions pretty elaborate, since I don’t have to make that many. They’re fun to make and I always enjoy the process of creating them.

If you’d like to experiment with making your own handmade Christmas or New Year cards, try these tips:

• Use pre-cut, pre-folded cards from the stationary store, or on the heaviest regular card stock your printer will allow.
• If your printer will take photo paper, you can print the images on different stock 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 can be cut slightly larger than the image size and used to frame the artwork. You can find these at discount stores such as Target, or at stores that specialize in craft supplies.
• Glitter glue that comes in “pens” work wonders for adding a little shine. Just don’t use too much! The cards may warp and also have a tendency to look overdone.