How I Plan a Year of Christmas Cards
By Chris · · 7 min read
Fifteen years of making Christmas cards taught me that the planning matters more than the crafting. Here is the system I use.
I have made handmade Christmas cards for more than fifteen years. For about the first five of those, I made them in December, in a panic, and mailed several of them in January.
What changed was not my crafting. It was that I started planning in July.
Count the list first
Before anything else, count. Not "about forty" — an actual number, from an actual list. Forty-three cards is a project. "About forty" is an anxiety.
Pick one layout and three colorways
One layout, made forty-three times, does not look lazy — nobody on your list is comparing their card to anyone else's. Three colorways is enough variation that you stay interested, which matters more than you would think by card thirty.
Cut everything in one weekend
Cutting is the least enjoyable part, so it should be a single defined block rather than a tax on every crafting session. One weekend in September, everything cut and scored, stored flat in a box.
Then make five a week
Five a week from October gets you finished with weeks to spare. Five is small enough that you will actually do it on a Tuesday evening.
Address the envelopes first
This is the one that surprised me most. Cards that are finished but unaddressed sit on the table indefinitely. Addressed envelopes waiting to be filled are almost impossible to ignore.
