Category: Personalized Christmas Cards

What’s a Personalized Christmas Card Going to do for a Bad Back?

Oh the weather outside is frightful, and shoveling is so not delightful…so much to a large extent that my back is now in shambles! I’m one of those guys who tends to hurt himself getting out of bed, never mind having a driveway of snow in my way. So the snow came down…it has been shoveled, and now I’m taking a sick day because I can’t get out of bed.

Can there be anything worse than this? Well I guess there can but I’m talking about me now. There’s nothing on TV, the dog won’t leave me alone, and I would rather sit in silence then call my fiancé one more time.

Oh look, the mail is here. Maybe I’ll get up for a minute to see if the new Sporting News has come out. Oh shucks! It hasn’t. This was a wasted trip. Oh wait, maybe not. Here’s an envelope addressed to me from my dear Aunt Rose who resides in Florida.

I open it up and then followed today’s first and only smile.  My aunt has decided to send me a holiday Card. That may not mean much to you, but to me that’s big. Someone took the time to pick from hundreds and thousands of personalized Christmas cards one that would make me smile.

How did she know a snowman would bring this smile to my face? Who knows, but sometimes holiday cards can do that to you. In an era where people don’t like to take the time…a holiday card shows me you care. A bad back couldn’t even take that away.

Personalized Christmas Cards Haven’t Always Been my Thing

To me Christmas cards were something I was used to receiving rather then giving. I guess the old Christmas saying, “It’s better to give, than receive,” was meant for someone other than me.

I was never one to give personalized Christmas cards. In fact, at home my wife and daughter usually held this honor. And I must say, it was an honor they both did with great enthusiasm. However, a career change would eventually alter my perception about giving Christmas cards.

My earlier business occupation was in a blue collar field that was mostly dominated by men. We were not accustomed to giving gifts and exchanging personalized holiday cards with each other. For the holidays we would usually have a quick group lunch. Afterwards, we would run home to help out our wives.

However, as the world changed, so did our field. More and more women began taking interest in the technology field and during this transition, the giving of Christmas cards became a yearly event. However, I must admit, I was a little shocked to receive holiday cards from some old-time field personnel.

Now, several years later, I enjoy giving Christmas cards. This is a way for me to show someone that I took the time to say “hi” and to wish them happy holidays. I like to send out personalized holiday cards because of my terrible handwriting. It wasn’t easy growing up as a southpaw and my handwriting is pretty terrible. I certainly never won any awards for my penmanship. Personalized Christmas cards took away a lot of the stress of signing. It’s faster and neater. My friends can easily see that the card came from me.

Today we live in a fast pace world of electronics. People don’t talk…they chat; people don’t read books…they read web pages. It’s a great feeling to receive a Christmas card because it tells me someone took the time during there busy day to think about me and to say that I am special to them.

Personalized Holiday Cards and their Historic Roots

I frequently find myself pondering over the mysteries of life, like who was the first person to find that cow milk would be good for other creatures…namely humans. Who, indeed, coined the term “human?” Who searched for wax in trees and efficiently mixed it with sugar and other chemicals to form chewing gum?

And in the same fashion, do you ever wonder where personalized holiday cards first came from? Who imagined to inscribe something artistic on some form of canvas and then thought, “Let’s get creative this year. Instead of expressing to everyone best wishes for the holidays in person, why don’t I create something festive and write a note inside it.  Auntie T. might appreciate it since I haven’t seen her in years.  I wonder how her dog is.” It was in this regard that the very first custom holiday cards came to be…though this being on a very basic level.

Personalized Holiday cards actually first came around in the early 19th Century from where else, but Europe. Wouldn’t you know they would be the trend-setters of the day back then as well? The first technique was founded in 1796. Lithography, as the technique was called, could be used to reproduce large numbers of drawings first drawn on a finely-textured stone, starting the craze as we know it today.

The year 1843 marks the coming of the first Christmas card in England, produced by John Calcott Horsley for Sir Henry Cole. Americans didn’t catch up until the 1860s when a German Lithographer started producing the first colored cards, although custom Holiday cards around this era were primarily associated with New Year’s (and I would think this cut the hassle of going out the next day with a hangover). And as it were, roughly 20 years later these cards were replaced with the modern Christmas card as we know it today and the large-scale marketing frenzy for personalized Christmas cards began.

It’s funny how the mind works. One question leads to another and another, until finally I’ve determined the historical roots of personalized Holiday cards.

Peace on Earth Holiday Cards Show the True Spirit of the Season

These days, personalized Christmas cards are available in an endless variety of designs and themes, but one of my favorites is Peace on Earth holiday cards.  For me, this sentiment really conveys what the holiday is all about.  It also reminds me of one of the most special Christmas cards that I received many years ago.  The Christmas card was from my cousin Mike.  He was serving in Vietnam during the war and counting the days until his tour of duty was up so he could come home to his family in Pennsylvania.  A few days before Christmas, he sent me a beautiful Peace on Earth holiday card that expressed his wishes.  It showed “The Lion and the Lamb” resting peacefully side by side.  I cried like a baby when I read Mike’s Christmas card and I hoped and prayed for his safe return.  Thankfully, my prayers were answered and my cousin came home safe and sound three weeks later.

As I think back on that time so long ago, I realize that the one thing that all of us wish for, especially at Christmas time, is peace on Earth.  This might seem like a pipedream that will never come true, but I don’t ever want to give up hope that we someday will live on a peaceful planet.  I suppose that sounds naïve and unrealistic.  Well, maybe so.  It would probably take a miracle for our world to be at peace, but Christmas is a time for miracles, so I’m going to keep on hoping.

This Christmas, I’ll be sending Peace on Earth holiday cards to all my friends and family.  Sending holiday cards is a small but meaningful gesture, one that will make me feel a little more hopeful that one day Mike’s wish will become a reality.

GalleryCollection.com Donates 180,000 Personalized Holiday Cards to Soldiers’ Angels

GalleryCollection.com is excited and proud to announce our donation of 180,000 personalized Holiday cards to Soldiers’ Angels for use in Holiday care packages to deployed troops. If you recall, last year we made a similar donation to the organization, which provides support and assistance to fallen, injured, and deployed members of the United States military.

Regardless of anyone’s personal sentiments towards the war, there are thousands of men and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan who won’t be able to celebrate the holidays with their friends and family. Being a publisher of holidays cards – and in the spirit of the Soldiers’ Angels credo, “May no soldier go unloved” – GalleryCollection.com wants to make sure that no soldier feels forgotten this holiday season. So all 180,000 of our troops stationed overseas will be receiving an imprinted holiday card thanking them for their services and wishing them a happy Holiday Season and New Year.

We are donating three different peace-themed greeting cards. Here is what each design looks like:

511CW 398CS 641CW

And here is the personalized message that will be imprinted on the inside of each card:

Personalized Message

We also donated an additional 180,000 blank holiday cards to a fellow company, which will be sending the cards to each service member overseas to write home to their family and friends.

Stay tuned for more activities involving GalleryCollection.com and Soldiers’ Angels.

Winter Scene Cards Bring Back Happy Memories

I don’t know about you but I always have the hardest time picking out my Christmas cards every year. I personally like to go with one of the winter scenes cards we offer since they seem to be the most universally appealing to the very diverse group of people on my holiday cards list. I also have a personal preference for the personalized holiday cards we offer with winter scenes since they bring back some very happy childhood memories

I am especially fond of winter scene cards depicting a country landscape, since those greeting cards remind me of the Christmas tree farm we would trek to every winter to cut down our family Christmas tree. If you have visions of ten-year-old girl wielding an ax, don’t worry, my dad was in charge of the cutting and my sisters, brother, and I were in charge of getting the hot chocolate and apple cider from the stand set up in the farm’s barn.

Looking back, my parents were pretty brave taking their five kids on this annual adventure. We weren’t exactly the most pleasant group of people to have in the back of a station wagon (later on, a minivan) for the two hour trip from our home in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon to the farming communities brimming with Christmas tree farms. Looking at winter scenes Christmas cards really puts a smile on my face. I think I’ll send one of those greeting cards to my parents and siblings to see if they all have the same thought when they get their holiday cards in the mail this year.

Personalized Christmas Cards Make Life a Little Easier

The holiday season is fraught with tasks that seem to never get done. Whether it is in the business world or one’s personal life, the holidays are, without a doubt, the most hectic time of the year! Although we all enjoy receiving Christmas cards, preparing and sending them to clients, family, or friends can be quite a tedious undertaking. Signing the cards, addressing envelopes, and applying postage stamps to each one are not only time consuming tasks but can often prove to be very frustrating. A way to eliminate one of these jobs is rather simple.

Personalized Christmas cards can do away with the chore of signing each and every card you send. Stuffing, addressing, and applying postage to the envelopes are jobs that still remain to be done but the elimination of signing each card is not only a time saver, but an impressive way to indicate from whom these holiday greeting cards were sent. Along with your personalization you might consider adding a line such as “Happy Holidays,” “Have a Wonderful New Year,” or “Merry Christmas.” Use your imagination to convey that little extra expression of your feelings toward those who are important to you.

I’d bet if you try it once you’ll send these custom personalized Holiday cards year after year.

Personalized Christmas Cards with Celebrity Status

Have you ever heard of a famous Christmas card? I’m not talking about a card that may have an imprint by a famous artist (like our Museum Masterpiece Cards). I’m talking about anthropomorphizing a card and giving it celebrity status. This may sound like a very bizarre concept but when you work for a greeting cards company, it’s rather befitting.

A bunch of our cards became famous several months ago when they were used as background props in a scene with Harley Davidson Cooper (played by Beth Ehlers) on CBS’s soap opera Guiding Light. Our devoted administrative assistant, Felicia, also happens to be a devoted viewer of this longtime running daytime drama. She was watching the show on a Thursday in December, as she does every Thursday, when she noticed several of our personalized Christmas cards hanging around the frame of Harley’s front door.

Take a look at the stills below:

Guiding Light Holiday Cards 1 Guiding Light Holiday Cards 2

Designs 491CS, 684CX, 676CX, and 678CX are all in the background. Here is a better view of each design, respectively:

491CS - Seasons Greetings Snowfrost Ornament Card 684CX - Merry Christmas Traditions Holiday Card

676CX - Gift Box Starburst Seasons Greeting Card 678CX - Holiday Fanfare Happy Holidays Card

For any other viewers of this scene, they would’ve been engrossed in the plot line in which Harley receives a postcard from her missing ex-husband. But for the rest of us here at GalleryCollection.com, we were more interested in getting a better view of our holiday cards hanging in the background. If the thought never crossed your mind that an ordinary personalized Christmas card with an ornament on the front could obtain celebrityhood – think again. Our cards aren’t so ordinary after all…they’re superstars!

Peace on Earth Expressed With Greeting Cards

A close but cynical friend, in thanking me for the Christmas cards I sent in 2001, asked me why and how I had come to choose Peace on Earth holiday cards at such a sorry time. Our grief, never forgotten, was still very raw from the senseless and insane acts of hatred that had taken so many innocent lives. I did my best to explain my thoughts, feelings and reasoning for sending Christmas cards with this theme. I have since found other examples of peaceful greetings throughout history, whose simple statements are eloquent on the necessity for all of us to achieve peace on Earth through our thoughts and actions.

“A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.”
– Aesop

“Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.”
– Abraham Lincoln

“Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.”
– Jawaharlal Nehru

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
– Calvin Coolidge

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
– Neil Armstrong

“The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. So we must never neglect any work of peace within our reach, however small.”
– Adlai E. Stevenson

These benevolent words can inspire us to seek peace on Earth through everyday actions. Each of the Christmas cards I send expressing peaceful greetings is one small step that I can take toward making this world a better place.

The Twelve Days of Christmas Cards

On the first day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
A silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the second day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the third day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Four sparkling ornaments,
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Five Golden Bells!
Four sparkling ornaments,
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Six reindeer prancing,
Five Golden Bells!
Four sparkling ornaments,
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Seven stars a-shining,
Six reindeer prancing,
Five Golden Bells!
Four sparkling ornaments,
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Eight winter scenes a-shimmering,
Seven stars a-shining,
Six reindeer prancing,
Five Golden Bells!
Four sparkling ornaments,
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Nine snowmen dancing,
Eight winter scenes a-shimmering,
Seven stars a-shining,
Six reindeer prancing,
Five Golden Bells!
Four sparkling ornaments,
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Ten snowflakes a-swirling,
Nine snowmen dancing,
Eight winter scenes a-shimmering,
Seven stars a-shining,
Six reindeer prancing,
Five Golden Bells!
Four sparkling ornaments,
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Eleven poinsettias a-pointing,
Ten snowflakes a-swirling,
Nine snowmen dancing,
Eight winter scenes a-shimmering,
Seven stars a-shining,
Six reindeer prancing,
Five Golden Bells!
Four sparkling ornaments,
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
I received custom Christmas cards from thee;
Twelve holiday greetings glittering,
Eleven poinsettias a-pointing,
Ten snowflakes a-swirling,
Nine snowmen dancing,
Eight winter scenes a-shimmering,
Seven stars a-shining,
Six reindeer prancing,
Five Golden Bells!
Four sparkling ornaments,
Three frosted pinecones,
Two peaceful doves,
And a silhouette of a glistening Christmas tree.