The Holiday Card Checklist Every Busy Parent Needs
How to Get Family Photos, Cards & Mailers Handled Before December Gets Crazy
There is a very specific kind of December panic that happens when you suddenly realize:
You still need a family photo.
You still need to choose a card.
You still need to address 87 envelopes.
You still need stamps.
And somehow, your children have grown three inches since the last time you looked at them.
Let’s not do that this year.
The easiest way to make holiday cards feel less like another item on your already-too-long December to-do list is to move the important decisions earlier in the Fall.
And if you’re planning to use a professional family portrait for your card, your timeline starts sooner than you might think.
Your Holiday Cards Need a Timeline
Start With the One Thing You Can't Fake at the Last Minute
Your family photograph.
If you're hoping to send a card featuring a professional portrait, that needs to happen early enough to allow time for the photographs to be created, selected, printed, and delivered.
This is why I recommend thinking about your holiday card as soon as August/September, rather than waiting until the holiday season is already underway. The majority of photographers are already opening up their calendar that early. For real.
That's your first domino.
Once the session is on the calendar, everything else becomes much easier to plan around.
Then Give Yourself Some Breathing Room
One of the biggest mistakes people make is treating the photo session as the finish line.
It's actually the middle.
You still need to choose your photographs. You may need to make decisions about your card design or additional artwork. Your order needs to be produced and delivered. And then someone has to get those cards into envelopes and onto their merry little journey through the postal system.
Giving yourself a few weeks between the photo session and your mailing deadline changes the entire experience.
Instead of:
"WE HAVE TO GET THESE OUT!"
you get:
"Oh, these are ready! Let's mail them!"
That is the holiday-card energy we are after.
Don't Leave All the Decisions Until December
Here's another little secret:
The easiest holiday cards are the ones where most of the decisions have already been made.
Know roughly what you want your family to wear.
Know who needs to be involved in decisions.
Have an idea of what you want to do with your photographs.
Know when you want those cards in the mail.
You don't have to have every detail figured out months in advance.
You just want to avoid making every decision when your calendar is already packed with school events, shopping, parties, travel, and the general December tornado.
Your Holiday Card Game Plan
If you remember nothing else, remember this:
August/September: Get the photo shoot on the calendar.
October: Photo shoot dates
November: Photo shoot dates, choose, and order.
If clients book within my timeline, I can deliver by the Thanksgiving card sales!
December: Receive cards. Mail.
That's the whole strategy.
The downloadable checklist below breaks that strategy down into the actual things you need to remember at each stage, so you don't have to keep the entire operation in your head.
Download the Holiday Card Checklist
I've created a simple, printable checklist to help you move through the process from before your session to the mailbox without wondering what you're forgetting.
Keep it on your phone. Print it out. Put it on the fridge.
Whatever works.
Because your holiday cards should be a way to celebrate your family, not another December project you desperately need to finish.
Get Your Holiday Card Roadmap!
To stay up to date, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter here.
