Every year, without fail, I receive tons of photo Christmas cards from my family, my friends, and even my stockbroker. Unlike the other beautiful greeting cards that I receive, display all over my house, and then throw away in January, I just can’t bring myself to throw away the holiday photo cards.

These holiday cards, most of which are created with digital photos from Christmas scenes past and present, contain images of people I know and love. How could I possibly throw them away? It would be too devastating, like somehow throwing them away. I just can’t do it. So instead, I add them to my picture box and one day I will gather them and finally make that memory scrapbook I have been promising myself I’d make for years.

It’s amazing how over the years the people depicted in the holiday photo cards have grown. They started as babies or as young families and over time have grown into young adults, ever expanding families, and yes – even old families. I would really love to make photo albums for each family and arrange the pictures chronologically so they too can be reminded of how time flies and also of how old they are!

With advertising budgets at a bare minimum this year, we found our best advertising for the money would be spent on business holiday cards. Not only can business holiday cards be sent to all our clients, but it can be done in a minimal amount of time. The cards were imprinted with our company name and logo inside along with our return address on the back of the envelopes. All we had to do was address them, stamp them, and put them in the mail. We thought what better way to keep our company name on the minds of our clients than by sending them some holiday cheer.

Most people will throw away an advertisement when opening up the mail, especially during a year when money is tight for many, making it difficult to purchase the items these advertisements contain. But when December comes, and everyone is in the holiday spirit and decorating their offices and cubicles, they are more likely to open and read a holiday card and maybe even hang it up for everyone to see.

ChristmasCardsDirect.com had the most beautiful corporate holiday cards for us to choose from. We found one that we loved right away, and the order process couldn’t have been easier. Their customer service representative was incredibly polite and helpful.

Once we sent out all our business holiday cards we immediately received calls from our clients thanking us for the beautiful cards. Mostly everyone wanted to know where we got them from and we happily obliged by telling them. They all appreciated the thoughtfulness and were happy we remembered them. It generated a great deal of communications for us; we heard from clients we thought we would never hear from again. So it just goes to show the old saying is true – it’s the thought that counts.

Seems everyone has gotten on the sending Christmas photo cards bandwagon, myself included. While I started sending Christmas photo cards way before some of my friends and family did, mine is now just another photo card amongst the sea of them that I get every year. My brother also found himself in this position and decided to break away from the pack. I always like to complain that my brother got all the creative genes, leaving none for me. He did send out his usual Christmas cards with a photo of his lovely boys, but for a select few close family and friends, he decided to do something a little extra. Along with the photo Christmas cards, he sent each of us a drum. Yes, you read it correctly, a drum (as in the Little Drummer Boy).

Now I should say that when my brother gets an idea, he does like to go all out. I found out later that he spent many days locked away in his office during Christmastime making these drums much to my sister-in-law’s frustration. It was a beautiful, functioning drum and it had the Christmas card photo of the boys on the barrel of it! What a great idea! He also had the forethought of making it a miniature drum that could be hung as an ornament on our Christmas tree. So I will now always have my little drummer boys (nephews) on my Christmas tree, year after year, and my brother can continue to call himself the creative one.