For those in the catering business who normally send business holiday cards to former and/or potential future clients, I propose that this year you instead send Thanksgiving cards, for many reasons. What better holiday to associate your food-related business than to the holiday which some think of as a celebration of all-day eating! Sending a  Thanksgiving card will also allow you to get a jump on those who are sending business Christmas cards.

It also can’t hurt to remind customers of your high-quality food and service right before the holiday season madness begins. Sending a Thanksgiving greeting card might encourage customers to contact you for both their personal and business holiday catering needs in December and beyond. Businesses that are late in booking their holiday parties and find themselves shut out of banquet halls and restaurants can turn to you to cater their Christmas parties at alternative venues. Individual recipients of Thanksgiving  cards will consider you to help out with their culinary needs for their family celebrations. If you send it out at the right time, you might even get some last-minute Thanksgiving catering work from stressed-out hosts!

What is Thanksgiving and what does it mean to you? Ask that question to a group of people and you are sure to get a different answer from almost everyone. Thanksgiving is celebrated to commemorate the first Thanksgiving, to celebrate the harvest, to give thanks to God for our many blessings, and the list goes on. Well it is those things and so much more.

Thanksgiving, by its definition is the act of giving thanks…plain and simple. So it makes sense that companies would want to (and should) send business Thanksgiving cards. After all, their “harvest” is a result of their business relationships with their employees, customers, clients, and associates.

We all receive business greeting cards for any number of occasions – our birthdays, our anniversaries, you name it. But what are they really saying? Well yes, I do hope that my insurance agent is sincere in wishing me a Happy Birthday and I’m sure he is. But isn’t he is also saying, “I want to acknowledge your birthday because I want you to know I appreciate you and your business”?

So, in my opinion, if you want to “give thanks” to someone, send a Thanksgiving card…plain and simple.

“More Thanksgiving cards,” you said, and we have added several new designs at The Gallery Collection. We are seeing more and more interest in sending seasonal cards to convey best wishes during the fall and winter holidays. Among our newest cards is Little Tree of Thanks Holiday Card, design #158CX, by Marla Shega.

At first glance the front of this Thanksgiving card looks like a line drawing of a tree, just right for autumn because the leaves have fallen. But then you see the spectrum of colors in the branches, from purples to gold to red, with a few shiny bronze leaves completing their descent. Under this delicate embossed tree is the message, “Happy Thanksgiving” in a gorgeous script font in gold foil.

Design #158CX - Little Tree of Thanks
Holiday Card

This business Thanksgiving card communicates your appreciation for the season. At the same time it lets your customers, friends, and colleagues know that you care about them and want to extend your good wishes at this time of Thanksgiving. Complete your message with one of our Thanksgiving greetings inside followed by your two lines of personalization in gold foil and you will be sending a striking card. The gold foil lined envelopes complete the feeling of understated elegance.

Thanksgiving cards are a lot like Independence Day flags – joyful means of celebrating and sharing an All-American holiday! On the Fourth of July, we rejoice in our freedom to hold opposing political viewpoints while living together in relative peace. On Thanksgiving, we join in gratitude for the many blessings we Americans enjoy, regardless of (and perhaps because of) our differing ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs.

While both holidays are usually occasions for festive parades and the eating of traditional foods, July 4th tends to take people outside of their homes to picnics and fireworks displays, where we share in a collective camaraderie. Thanksgiving Day, however, tends to find us gathered inside of homes, a bit more insulated from our fellow countrymen. Sending business greeting cards at Thanksgiving provides a warm and personal way of reaching out to clients and colleagues, a way to say, “I’m happy to be here and grateful that you’re here with me.”

For business associates, we can pause to share our gratitude for the freedom that allows us to make a living and to preserve our way of life. Making this gesture by sending business holiday greeting cards at Thanksgiving is truly appropriate and your message is received at a time when your recipients may be more inclined to notice and reflect upon your cooperative relationship with them. We may not be out on the street, waving a flag, but we can be in the offices and homes of our business associates and friends, extending a celebratory hand in gratitude and mutual thanks.

In design #577CW, Thanksgiving Glow Greeting Card, Sunlight glistening on the dewy leaves lends a sparkle to the crisp autumn air. I love the way the bright dew drops contrast against the welcoming sun and warm brown tree and border. A stroll in the park after a big Thanksgiving dinner is just the ticket for a perfect ending to the festivities. I am also amazed at the way the dark and light are played against each other. What one might envision as a somber color is transformed into dignified accompaniment to the glorious burst of color portrayed in the sparkling leaves and sun filled earth beneath them.

Design #577CW - Thanksgiving Glow Greeting Card

This business Thanksgiving card is a perfect messenger to remind everyone that Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for the gifts our earth has bestowed upon us.

Do you want to make an impression with your business clients and friends this Thanksgiving season? Well #152CX, Elegant Thanksgiving Wishes Card, is the business Thanksgiving cards design to send that will truly express your Thanksgiving goodwill in elegant style. This greeting card is printed on a smooth matte finish in tones of pale ivory and dark brown. There’s a mixed ivory and brown region of the design that resembles pressed Japanese rice paper but without the texture that rice paper has. The entire outer border of the card is framed out in dark brown, giving this thanksgiving card a corporate look.

Design #152CX - Elegant Thanksgiving
Wishes Card

In the middle of the design is an embossed rectangular ivory border, and at the top of the border are five individually embossed framed boxes with dark brown backgrounds that spell the word H-A-P-P-Y. Inside this embossed ivory border with the five framed squares there’s another rectangle that’s in an ivory pearl finish, adding even more dimension to the classic elegance of the design. To finish the look, the word “Thanksgiving” is embossed in a large exaggerated script font that sweeps across the entire inner border of the card. The bronze foil adds a punch of color to the otherwise muted colors in the card design, and as another added bonus for anyone who purchases this business Thanksgiving card, the paper stock is environmentally friendly and proudly displays the eco-friendly symbols on the back cover. This alone will appeal to anyone with concerns about our environment.

Ah… the energy of autumn! Children rushing back to school, leaf raking (and that annoyingly loud leaf blowing), crisp air, football mania, the hyper festivities of Halloween, the bustling crowds of Christmas shoppers. Amidst all this hurly-burly activity, Thanksgiving is that all-American pause that calms and restores us during this hectic season. (If you are the lone chef/host of your family, just go along with me here anyway, okay?)

Whether your year was banner or bust, Thanksgiving is our honored traditional time of acknowledging gratitude for the harvest from our labor. It’s also time to gather the seeds we’ll need for planting next year’s harvest. That’s where business Thanksgiving cards come into play. Arriving before Thanksgiving Day, they precede even the earliest of corporate Christmas cards, guaranteeing the uncluttered attention that sets you and your business apart and above the crowd.

Consider design #611CX, Fall Reflections Thanksgiving Card, which shows three very relaxed ducks (no fear of hunters here!) floating along on a glassy-smooth body of water. The colorful autumn trees overhanging the water shed their leaves around the handsome trio of birds. This peaceful reflection of nature has a masculine appeal. It is framed with simple embossing and sedate gold foil lines. “Happy Thanksgiving” in gold foil is gracefully centered below the frame.

Design #611CX - Fall Reflections
Thanksgiving Card

On the other hand, design #064CX, Autumn Tapestry Card, seems to make a bolder statement with its tasteful blend of autumn-colored, multi-variety leaves. It is richly pleasing to one’s tactile senses, with its deep embossing and considerable detailing. Coppery-colored foil states your wishes for a “Happy Thanksgiving” from an artful off-center position.

Design #064CX - Autumn Tapestry Card

I have one more piece of advice for choosing your business Thanksgiving cards. While you want to be the “early bird” and while it may be all “yummy-good” for your personal Thanksgiving cards to picture a steaming turkey, I don’t think it would be a good idea for your business Thanksgiving cards to represent you as a turkey – steaming, stuffed, strutting, or hanging in a butcher shop window!

The Gallery Collection has introduced a new business Thanksgiving cards design that’s sure to impress friends, relatives, and business clients you wish to extend Thanksgiving wishes to this season. Design #132CW, Glittering Maple Leaves Thanksgiving Card, shows off the Thanksgiving fall colors in true autumn splendor. The design has a thick framed border in smooth chocolate brown that looks as though chocolate syrup was poured around the outer border of the card design…and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love chocolate of any kind

Design #132CW - Glittering Maple Leaves
Thanksgiving Card

In the center of this rich chocolate brown frame is a raised picturesque array of sun kissed orange maple leaves with hints of red, brown and green. The large orange-hued leaves that appear in the forefront sparkle with tiny beads of glitter reflecting off the sun and resembling morning dew drops brushed onto the leaves. The glitter is actually printed directly into the card design so there aren’t any flecks that come off on your hands that would undoubtedly end up on your face or in your hair. This is a unique feature of The Gallery Collection’s greeting cards.

Framed around this slightly raised picture of maple leaves is a thin sea foam colored border that goes around the picture of the leaves but not quite to the inner edge of the chocolate brown border. This gives the maple leaves added depth around the centered frame edges. The final touch that pulls this elegant design together is the words “Thanksgiving Wishes” centered below the picturesque leaves in an antique gold foil.

This elegant design places you right into the seasonal view, where you imagine yourself walking through a park or a neighborhood lined with beautiful trees on a brisk autumn day; the leaves are floating down around you. As you stroll along taking pictures, you spot a pile of leaves that have fallen to the ground and a sun beam bounces off the maple leaves. You take that perfect picture of nature’s foliage. Now that’s the way to express your Thanksgiving greetings, showcasing the true colors of the season.

I know you may think I’m crazy, but by the time Labor Day rolls around, all I can think of is Christmas. Christmas shopping! Christmas decorations! Christmas trees! Christmas carolers! And most importantly, Christmas cards! It’s enough to make even the most relaxed of us turn visions of sugarplums into visions of that mean one, Mr. Grinch!

For those of us already mentally making our list and checking it twice, the act of sending business greeting cards is not strictly a Christmas ritual anymore. This is a relief for a number of reasons. First of all, as much as I’d love to make a point to send my best wishes to colleagues and clients, if I wait until December, I’m taking a gamble on whether those business greeting cards will ever make it to the mailbox! Secondly, if I wait until December, my Christmas cards are bound to get lost in the shuffle with all of the other business greeting cards being sent at the same time.

That’s why business Thanksgiving cards are a great alternative. Thanking those you’ve done business with a month before the norm allows your message to stand out when it’s received and allows you to cross one more task off your list before the end of November. It also saves you the trouble of choosing between Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or Season’s Greetings for the face of the design on your business greeting cards.

There is plenty to be thankful for as autumn and winter are coming upon us, and one of those things is the option of business Thanksgiving Cards!

Thanksgiving is the time of year that is traditionally known for giving thanks. Why not use this holiday as an opportunity to express your gratitude to your customers and clients by sending Corporate Thanksgiving Cards. Sending Thanksgiving cards to your business associates as a message of your goodwill and appreciation for their valued business is the perfect opportunity to convey the sentiment of the Thanksgiving season.

Sending business Thanksgiving cards also helps to minimize some of the frantic “festivities” of the season. Thanksgiving usually represents the start of the holiday season. Black Friday, the day after the holiday, is the biggest shopping day of the year. For me, the day after Thanksgiving signifies the start of the “race”…decorations need to be hung, presents need to be wrapped, and personalized Christmas cards need to be sent. To help eliminate some of the mad holiday rush, I have adopted a tradition of sending Thanksgiving cards both to my personal acquaintances as well as to my business associates. This practice has helped to alleviate some of the season’s stress by completing this task well before the season starts.

Sending Business Thanksgiving Cards also gets your wishes of gratitude and goodwill out there before all the other holiday cards start to arrive. Thanksgiving cards, sent out before the crowd, will make a lasting impression in the minds of your business associates.

Additionally, by sending business Thanksgiving cards you don’t have to worry about who celebrates what and if your message is appropriate. I used to spend a lot of time and effort to make sure that my holiday card was suitable for everyone. With Thanksgiving, this isn’t even a consideration – everyone celebrates Thanksgiving!

As the holidays approach, consider the “write” way to say thanks and send Thanksgiving cards as a way to extend your message of appreciation to your clients and customers.