Posted on: Wednesday, December 15, 2004
What does that holiday card say about you?
By Laura Trujillo
Arizona Republic
Maybe they're already in your mailbox, mocking you with their eerie perfection: Christmas cards so elegant, so expensive-feeling, so carefully hand-embossed, that something about them demands analysis.
Photos by Cori Takemoto Williams • Gannett News Service* Somewhere within each paper confection, among the family photos and ribbon, is the expected message: Merry Christmas. But often, deeper within, there is something much more entertaining going on — the undeclared American family Christmas card competition: "My kids are cuter than yours," "I'm craftier than you," or "I have more money than you." Of course, the participants will never admit they're playing the game.
Last year, the average family sent 26 to 50 Christmas cards, according to the national Greeting Card Association.
"A Christmas card, at its very essence, is who you are," says Marlene Dunn, owner of M & Co Papery in downtown Mesa, Ariz.
And who many of us want to be, at Christmas, is the happy American family hunkered around the fireplace in cozy sweaters, with the dog curled nearby, smiling and looking happy.
You can be someone who sends a simple, elegant red card with a photo, printed on your computer at home and packaged in a square envelope for 55 cents. Or, much more tempting, you can be the person who buys a hand-painted, hand-tied, 9-by-9-inch card of a giant Christmas ornament with your family photo tucked inside, costing $6.45 each.
It can also just say this card is pretty, and you had extra money to spend.
Christmas cards are becoming prettier and more elaborate every year, says Marianne McDermott, senior adviser for the Greeting Card Association.
It began a few years ago when all those scrapbookers started creating handmade cards. The greeting card industry responded, making cards that look homemade. "It tells the recipient you care about them," McDermott says.
Pretty cards are everywhere. Stationery stores sell cards with ribbon and vellum that you can print yourself and then assemble, adding stickers for the custom touch. Target sells cards that look homemade with little snowmen made of buttons glued to a glittery card.
Some moms confess the homemade card at Christmas makes up for many things: never making a pretty baby book for the child who is now in middle school, getting take-out every night and never having the chance to do crafts with their children.
They can't do all that, but they can make time to make their own cards.
The photo is an important component of the Christmas card competition. Almost half of cards now contain a photo, according to the Greeting Card Association, and here is why: It's the illustration in the storybook of American family happiness; it's the proof of perfection. It's the easiest way to show how you are, in lieu of a letter, which no one seems to have time to write anyway.
Who are these people who hand-tie homemade cards with velvet ribbon? How do they have time to wrap them in vellum and stamp them with gold ink? Are all these children, pristine in matching sweaters, really as lovely as they seem? Most importantly, what are the cards trying to say?
A few years ago, those creative scrapbookers turned their attention to Christmas cards, spawning a trend of handmade holiday pieces.
The card says: We are not about to get divorced, our son isn't failing geometry, and our dog doesn't pee on the carpet.
Leah Long makes Christmas cards during a card-making class at Memory Lane in Gilbert, Ariz. Handmade cards are all the rage this year.
