I have traveled all across the country and the one enduring picture from all of my travels is of a landscape highlighted by a myriad of colors present in every sunset. I love the purples, mauves, reds, yellows, oranges and all the different hues they carry. There is nothing more breathtaking to behold, and taking digital photos of a sunset has allowed me to capture that beauty for a long time to come.

Pictures of sunsets are perfect to use as your Christmas photo cards...especially beautiful images like this one!

The lovely soft mauve that fades into the peaceful serenity of Lake Tahoe paints a picture of waiting tranquility. The bold oranges and reds that appear upon the distant horizon of the Painted Desert bring the vivid starkness of desert life into bold relief just before total darkness envelops the emptiness. The feeling of awestruck wonder sets in when the setting sun tints the Grand Canyon walls with too many shades of red to count. The most amazing feeling of loneliness comes about while standing on a cliff to watch a ball of flame as it floats on the surface of the Pacific for the longest moment, and then falls instantly out of sight. Taking pictures of sunsets is a most rewarding practice. Ah, wouldn’t it be wonderful to share these images with my friends.

By taking pictures of a sunset on every vacation, I can now share these travels with my nearest and dearest. This year, I’m including a collage of sunsets on my photo Christmas cards.

But I digress. In this age of digital photography and photo-editing, people do not have to be afraid of their yellow teeth or under-eye circles. It’s as easy as snapping the shutter button, inserting the SD card into your card reader, and opening Photoshop on your computer. You can whiten teeth, get rid of red eye, and even airbrush out the unsightly pimple that crept onto your chin overnight! Sure, it used to be that the only photographs that looked good were the ones in magazines, but if you have a savvy computer friend (or anyone under the age of thirteen) in your household, you have the power to make your digital photo Christmas cards really stand out.

So the next time you whip out your camera, only to be met with eye rolls, sighs, and the sight of your Uncle Tony fleeing the scene, let the subjects of your photos know that you’ve got it covered. They may ask to see proof, but it will be worth it to never have to photograph a “talk to the hand” pose again!

Whether you’re using your photos to send holiday greetings or using them as invitations, announcements, or thank you cards, you might not need to go crazy trying to devise a new display shot. Digital photos make the whole process that much simpler. You can easily scan your already-available vacation photos until you find “the one.” These days you can even cleverly crop your digital vacation photos to eliminate that stranger whose loud clothing accidentally appeared off to the side of your familial group. Better yet, if you thought to ask that stranger to snap the picture so no one is left out by standing behind the camera!

One of the really nice attributes of vacation photos is that everyone tends to look genuinely happy, at-ease, and naturally well-rested. Honeymoon shots make excellent first Christmas photo cards, not to mention distinctive thank-you-for-the-wedding-present cards!

Give it some thought. Which would you rather have people see – frozen smiles from a studio shot or mischievous grins from the backyard kiddies’ pool during your economically-challenged vacation?

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!

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.

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.

Keep in mind that you have to first lay your groundwork by building up your “rep” as an adult who does not make idle threats. So, do not bandy about parental threatening phrases unless you are committed to carrying through.

You also have to give some thought to your threats so you can craft them to suit the specific child. For example, somewhere during the “tween” and teen years, many youngsters go through a sullen phase. Getting this child to show up for the family holiday photo is near to impossible and getting them to smile is usually too much to hope for.

A good threat for your daughter may be, “If we can’t get a decent, smiling photo of you, I’m going to use that baby picture of you in the saggy diaper!” Be aware, however, that this threat may leave your male child totally unmoved. For that child, you may need to threaten to personally and thoroughly clean out his bedroom and throw out all of his much-loved “junk.”

Have a bit of faith in your parental wiliness and hang on to your patience until that wonderful age when they stride off to college, confident that they already know more than their parents. They will become condescendingly sweet to the old folks for a while and you can snag some fabulous digital photo cards to one day show your grandchildren, with whom you will snicker over their parents’ weird hair styles, poses, and clothing choices!

International holiday cards are also a means to demonstrate your social responsibility. Donations given in honor of business and trade partners are an excellent way to build international, regional, or local relationships. Here are four examples of donation texts placed in business holiday cards:

A GIFT HAS BEEN MADE IN YOUR HONOR TO
THE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL

—

The Children’s Hospital
gratefully acknowledges a donation
made in your honor by
THE JONES CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
in the hope that through this gift to children,
warmest Season’s Greetings are conveyed to you.

—

IN THE SPIRIT OF HOLIDAY GIVING
THE SMITH LAW FIRM HAS MADE A DONATION TO
SAVE THE CHILDREN

—

Telecom Company wishes you
a Joyous Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!
In our effort to give back, Telecom would like
to make a donation on your behalf to the
charity of your choice.

Taking the time to craft thoughtful business holiday cards is well worth the effort.

It seems that unbeknownst to me, grandma bought him a digital camera for his birthday in an effort to, “get him out of her hair with a hobby.” Little did she know that she would create a monster. He never went anywhere again without his camera by his side.

I discovered he had a proclivity for the “candid” shot. He later sent a picture of me asleep on the couch at his house. That was fine, but he happened to catch me with my mouth wide open and my eldest son holding a worm over it. Hilarious, Pop.

But getting back to the holiday photo cards he sent out, I had to take the bull by the horns and explain that after a certain age, couples in bathing suits in Florida are no longer considered photogenic. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with on his next foray into the digital photo world.

One year, in the corporate holiday card I received from my boss, he asked me to go Christmas shopping, a day after Christmas. A TV station tried to match letters to Santa written by needy local children, to people who would be willing to provide the gifts. The station had a few unclaimed letters from children because their families were so big. One was from a family of 14 written by a child named “Elvis.” My tender-hearted boss was watching so my coworker and I were sent out to purchase Elvis’s family a mountain of gifts.

The family of 14 was identified to us as being from the Lao Hmong culture. We had to do some quick research to find out what would be the best gifts. A brightly wrapped present was obtained for every individual. We finished our shopping by going to an Asian supermarket, and with the assistance of the market’s cultural food expert, a veritable food feast was selected.

We drove to the address which was a tiny two bedroom apartment in a run-down complex. There was an immediate language barrier when the marred door opened, but some of the school-aged children could understand why we came. Two boys eagerly helped us unload the gifts and the food along with a huge bag of rice. The father of the household arrived and remained at distance outside the doorway. He did not approach us but rather held his position in a deep, reverential bow. Once we were all inside the cramped, sparsely furnished living room we attempted to communicate with the adults without success. But, as we were about to leave an elderly woman came forward with a lovely hand-embroidered cloth in her hand; It was a “thank you” gift.

So you see, business is fun – fun for giving and receiving, especially during the holidays.