Christmas prep has hit the blogophere earlier than I expected this year. We are Jewish, but half of our family and most everyone else we know celebrates Christmas so there are many aspects we take part in. In my mind, I’m already gearing up the asks for our boys (both the wants and the want nots, like plastic baby toys that take batteries!). Even though we don’t have a tree or anything, the holiday Martha impulse still hits me pretty hard, though fortunately the urge to shop and overbuy for friends and family does not. One tradition I love: holiday cards

This is my hard and fast rule for cards — I always buy next year’s cards in January when they are on sale. I store them in the same place each year and I address and sign them over Columbus Day weekend. We may not have the family photo taken yet, let alone printed, and the little update letter comes later, too, but I can do the bulk of the job in October. If I meet someone between October 15 and December 15 that should receive a card, I add theirs at that time, but really, what’s the chance of there being a lot of people like that?

In regards to the photo, we generally have a professional do an outdoor shoot the last week of October. We order a CD of the shots rather than individual pictures, and then I used up photo credits I’ve banked all year to get prints. I have more than 200 credits right now at snapfish, if you can believe it, just for paying attention to their promotions. You can use the web services to print copies of school portraits as well, just scan them in so that two jumbo wallets make one 4×6, order half the number you need, and then cut them yourself when they are delivered. Must cheaper than whatever “Package B” gives you!

Assuming you don’t have a stockpile of cards to make this work, the internet won’t let you down. eBay has tons of odd lots of cards (modern and vintage) available. The holiday stamp isn’t available yet, but if you want to add postage to your cards early, the cute “Celebrate” stamp available now would certainly do.