The winter holiday season is already back around, and it is the most expensive time of the year for all families. Take into account the costs of holiday entertaining, groceries, travelling and, of course, the holiday gift shopping list and your budget seems decimated before you even start. The consider that   gifts and holiday parties. Then of course, you can’t turn down those company christmas party invitations which are so important for networking and keep bosses and employees alike in a happy holiday mood, so you’ll need to budget for the cost of those stylish holiday gladrags for you and your significant other as well.

Another obligation is to deal with holiday greeting cards. Men are very often criticized for avoiding, neglecting or in some cases completely forgetting their obligations to send Christmas cards and invitations. This has traditionally been left to wives and girlfriends. After all, it’s estimated that only 15 % of paper cards are purchased by men, and then only for their partners and close relatives.

So in any case, dads, you might ask, ‘Why should dads worry about sending cards and invites?” if our wives and partners are going to do it anyway? We have enough to do moving Christmas trees, boxes of decorations and detangling miles of lights – more than a contribution in itself! More on that later.

Furthermore, surely, in these internet obsessed times, the age of the greeting card is dead and buried?

Wrong! Greeting cards are still way more popular than you might think

According to the USA Greeting Card Association, more than &billion greeting cards are brought each year, a market size of over 7.5 billion dollars. Furthermore, the average household buys 30 greeting cards every year and the market is growing by 3% per year.

Greeting cards are even popular thanks to milllennials who are particularly keen on creating personalized holiday pic cards via digital apps that allow them to upload their favorite pictures from a smartphone and compose their message, and choose from a mind-boggling variety of custom cardstock, custom colors, fonts  and more.

Men often get stereotyped for only sending out cards when absolutely required to do, and/or so to get out of trouble. The traditional legend is that they have a real tendency to forget birthdays and anniversaries and then rush to get a last minute card and flowers for their wife or girlfriend’s birthday, or an anniversary. Although there might actually be some truth in this…

A few years ago, researchers in Norway discovered that men do have a greater tendency to forget than women! A study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) did a study of 48,000 people, who were asked to report their recollection of and who were asked a number of questions as to their ability to remember names, dates and events from a year previously. Men by far showed less recollection ability, and it tended to decline between the ages of 30 and 60 years old!

Not the best excuse, but keep it in your back pocket! Seriously though, with all the technology ad online calendars, you’ll be treading a slippery slope if you use science as an excuse.

So, if you are tasked with sending out Christmas cards and invitations by your significant other, set your smartphone reminders now, and let’s take a look at a few things to look for when choosing great holiday cards.

The elements of a great Christmas card

 Personalize and customize

Whatever your preference, there is are so many options to personalize and customize Christmas cards these days at the click of a mouse. Take a look at this example -  people love to receive photographic cards, so you should think carefully about how you are going to stage your family picture.

Maybe you want a fun ‘family in ugly sweater’ type, maybe you want to showcase your new baby, or your newly decorated house perhaps. Think about how you can stage your photographs to best effect

It is easier to create different styles of card for different categories – loved ones, distant family, friends, work colleagues, businesses friends, then you can customize the designs and of course messages for each.  

Choose the best quality card that you can afford

Look to create the best possible impression with a high-quality paper with the highest resolution print. More people are becoming concerned about sustainably these days, so perhaps consider printing on recycled paper, the quality of which is very comparable to conventional paper these days? Do your bit for the environment, and make sure that you mention that the cards are made of sustainable materials, and encourage friend, family and colleagues to use the same products. 

Send the right message to right person

Your message is really the heart of a good Christmas card, but it is something that is often overlooked. Think about your relationship with the people to whom you are sending the card and what they truly mean to you – the beauty of a paper card is that unlike e-cards they can be kept and read for years to come. Your words may come to be treasured by future generations – choose them wisely. 

Send your cards early

This might seem obvious, but how disappointing it is if your cards do not reach their destination in time – the postal service gets overwhelmed at Christmas, and that means delays - so try and get your cards off in the mail say by the second week of December.

It can also help to avoid social faux-pas - if you get your cards there early, this can act a prompt to your recipient(s) who may have forgotten to include you in their Christmas Card list, to reciprocate quickly and get a card off to you in time for the holiday. This can help avoid a possible awkward face-to-face conversation when you see them at Christmas!

Get it together this Christmas

Finally, just because choosing greetings cards has usually been seen as a feminine pastime, let’s face it gender-specific roles needs to be consigned to a bygone 1900s era where they belong.

Why not use the opportunity to create wonderful Christmas cards online to spend some time you’re your significant other, and combine “men’s work and women’s work”? That way you can create beautiful cards that will provide lasting memories of the quality time that you have spent together at Christmas.

Please share your best Christmas card tips in the comments below. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or something else this winter season, you will find beautiful greeting cards online.

Wishing you ‘Happy holidays and peace “, from all of us at Everything For Dads.