What to Have Ready Before You Order Your Holiday Cards

Placing a holiday card order is the quick part. Deciding what to order is what takes the time, and it is the part people leave until the night before a deadline. Here are the six decisions, in the order they come up, so you can settle them this weekend.

The weekend matters because the 20% tier ends at the end of Monday, November 16, Eastern time. After that it is 10% through December 11, then everyday pricing.

1. The count

Count the list. Then add the people you always forget: your referral sources, your own staff, the vendor who bailed you out in June.

Then look at the price breaks before you round. The minimum is 25 cards, in steps of 25, and the per-card price drops at 100, 150, 200, 250, 500, 750 and 1,000, and keeps stepping down above that. Sometimes the next break up costs less in total than the quantity you were going to order. That is the whole argument of How Many Holiday Cards Should You Order?, and the pricing page will show you the number either way.

2. The design

Every design is priced in one of three tiers, Good, Better or Best, and the tier goes with the card, not the category. If you are choosing for a specific kind of client list, start with our business holiday cards, which are grouped by profession. If you just want to browse, the whole catalog is here.

Decide one more thing while you are looking: whether you need more than one design. A warm card for clients and a quieter one for a list going through a hard year, or a Thanksgiving card for one list and a Christmas card for another. Settle that now rather than Monday night.

3. The wording

You get up to four lines of imprint inside the card at no charge, in roughly a hundred type styles. Use them for the firm: the name, and a short line under it if you want one.

Leave room above it for a signature. The imprint says who the card is from. Your handwriting says it was meant for them. The case for signing every card yourself is in How to Sign Business Holiday Cards.

Type the wording out before Monday and read it out loud once. A typo you catch on Saturday costs nothing.

4. The logo

If you want your logo on the card, it costs $30 to set up the first time, and we keep it on file so next year's order costs nothing extra. The envelope is a separate setup, another $30, if you want the logo there too.

The file needs to be 300 dpi, CMYK, at the printed size or larger, and clean. The person who has that file is whoever designed the logo. Email them today, not Monday. The full explanation is in Your Logo on the Card and the Envelope.

5. The envelopes

Every order includes envelopes. The decision is who addresses them.

• You do: no charge.
• We address them: $75 per 100. You still sign, seal, stamp and mail.
• We mail them: $350 per 100, postage included. The cards never come to your desk.

If you are handing any of it off, the list is the slow part. Get it into one clean file this weekend. How to split a list between your pen and ours is in Should We Address and Mail Your Holiday Cards?

6. The proof

Every order comes with a free virtual proof. You see it when you order online and again with your confirmation, and production continues on schedule. That is your window to catch a keystroke error, so read it the way you would read a contract.

If you want the job to wait for your approval, that is a $20 hold. If you want a printed card in your hand before the run, that is a $45 physical sample, and for a first-time logo it is often worth it. Either way, leave room for it in your dates, so decide now.

Two things that are not decisions

The discount comes off the cards. Add-ons and shipping are at list, so the savings do not compound the way people sometimes assume.

Shipping is ground to the contiguous United States, priced by quantity. Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are quoted separately, so call before you order if the cards are going there.

If Thanksgiving is the plan

Monday is also the last day a Thanksgiving order is worth attempting, and only as a rush with expedited shipping. The honest odds on that are in The Thanksgiving Card Deadline. For Christmas you have more room, and the dates are in The Christmas Card Deadline.

The short version

Count, design, wording, logo, envelopes, proof. Settle all six this weekend, order Monday before midnight Eastern, and the hard part of the holiday card is done. If any of it raises a question, call us at 833-682-8250.