DPP- Day 9 Christmas cards

Well, two Christmas parties in one night and no camera means no pictures from yesterday. Best laid plans...

So this morning I got to work finishing up the last of the Christmas cards. I am not a wait-until-the-last minute kind of girl. I do not like to spend any amount of time shopping in a mall during the month of December. It makes me grumpy. But I do love working on Christmas cards, baking and eating cookies, and the general merry-making that goes along with this time of year. I don't mind the busyness, I just have an aversion to rushing. It happens sometimes, but I prefer quiet mornings like this.

Speaking of cards, do you know how many free offers there are to be had this time of year? Here are some examples:

• Staples offered 20 free folded Christmas cards, and 10% back when you use your Staples Rewards card. So I made $2 bucks on those cards. They were great quality, and I just took my thumb drive and uploaded my photo and design to their computer in the store.
• MyPublisher.com offered 10-15 free cards (no other purchase necessary) and free shipping, so some of our family/friends got those cards...they were really pretty.
• Staples also had HP photo paper on sale for $10.99, and offered a $10 Visa Card back when you purchased it. So I got 2 packs of photo paper for $2, and printed our own cards this year. We have an old Brother printer but it works well with generic ink. The cartridges are about $3/each at Label Outfitters. We didn't even use 1/2 of any cartridge to print out our 100 pictures and letters. That said, I still like a 4x6/5x7 photo better, so I may revert back to that next year.
• This doesn't even include the gazillion free and 6 cent photo print offers that rolled around...so many deals to be had!
• One Kings Lane offered these ErinCondren.com labels for half off, and I had some credit, making them free except for $6 in shipping. I LOVE this company. The paper quality and designs are great, though pricy without any kind of discount. They sent me a few extra personalized samples of products I didn't order...just an all-around classy business. 

We do budget for Christmas cards, but even when I handmade them all it was a struggle to stay within our budget. We have about 130 people on our list, which is a lot less than some friends, but enough to make me less motivated to handmake cards. This year, I was able to squeeze in the extra funds to pay a friend to design our card (not what she is worth, but still...), which was a nice treat! 

What do you do for your Christmas card/letter? Do you handmake your cards? Or do you make it easy on yourself and get a photo card? Do you write a letter? Or do you wait until the busy season is over and just send Valentine's Day greetings? Inquiring minds want to know!