Ahhhh, Christmas card season. MY FAVORITE. I don’t know what it is—the cute babies, the glittery designs, the rare opportunity to see photos of people who aren’t on Facebook—I basically love everything about Christmas cards. During the month of December I don’t even wait for the mail to hit the mailbox, I just stalk the mailman from the porch like a crazy person.
I take Christmas cards way too seriously. I know this about myself. I plan an entire photo shoot for our cards and then I obsess for three hours over which photo to pick (last year we didn’t get a good photo so I settled for five almost-good ones instead). Then I mock up 20 different templates until I find The One.
It’s sick, really. I admittedly care way too much about Christmas cards.
But then.
BUT THEN.
I pull out our cards from the last two years and I see this:
And I think to myself: no. You are not too crazy about Christmas cards. The coordinating outfits, the ideal scenery scouting, the seven hours playing with card templates, the trip to the post office with an antsy toddler—it’s definitely worth it.
I always keep one Christmas card for our memory box. I keep bazillions of pictures too, but there’s something special about a Christmas card, right? It’s kind of like the one picture that sums up the end of the year. When I look at these three cards together, I keep thinking about what it will be to have five, ten, twenty of them in a line. More wrinkles, more babies, more names in script-y fonts.
Our family story is in these Christmas cards.
You know how some people make handmade twig wreaths and some people do Elf on the Shelf? And other people make DIY snow globes and bake Christmas cookies from scratch? I don’t do any of those things. Me? I do Christmas cards. I spend hours and hours obsessing over the right photo, the right template, the right holiday stamp.
Tell me I’m not the only one. Are you a tiny bit OCD about your Christmas cards?
You can admit it here. This is a safe place.
To all the outfit-coordinating, photo-fixated, card-obsessing people out there, I want you to know: I get it. I’m with you. I support you. It’s okay. Not everyone understands us, but that’s alright. We will always, always have each other.
And, we will always have our Christmas cards.