O Night Divine

Gather Ye Addresses While Ye May

Now would be a good time to start gathering the addresses of those you want to include on your Christmas card list.  Go through your existing list and make any changes or corrections that are necessary. Don't forget to update for new friends, newly married couples, people who have moved and any other life changes that have occurred to your nearest and dearest over the last year.  If you are super efficient you might want to buy your cards now and get them addressed. I use labels that I print from MS Word. Nearly idiot proof.  Those of you with the fancy pants Mac can use File Maker Pro which I understand is nearly idiot proof and very comprehensive.

Or you can be the kind of woman my mother wanted to raise and do them all by hand.  If so I bow down to your fortitude.

Whatever you do, just do it. This week.

Christmas Cards

No, no, no you scream when you see the title. Not yet!

Yes, now. 

Now is the time to start thinking of the Christmas card.  If you are going to send out greetings this year it would be very helpful to you to at least have the plan in place now so that when you are ready you can just gather everything together and get it done.

For example, lots of people include photos in their cards. Is there a vacation photo you love?  Have it printed now.  Avoid the rush.  If you prefer a portrait type photo make the appointment now when the studios are not busy. If you have a larger family these photos can take a long time and it is so much more pleasant when there isn't a line of impatient people waiting their turn behind you as your toddler refuses to cooperate. You can even bring Christmas outfits or seasonal clothing for the children to change into at the studio. Who has to know it was taken in August?  I received a cute studio photo once of a family of children in adorable Christmas pjs.  All different. Turns out smart momma purchased then for a song on E-bay in July and had the photo taken in August. Genius.

Begin gathering your addresses and updating your list now.  I have mine saved in a file that is already to print on labels.  While you are out buying school supplies buy the labels.  Have one of the older children type in the names and addresses (great typing practice - counts as school!).

If you are making your cards, and I encourage you to do that, the various school supply and craft store sales that happen at this time of year could be helpful.  Involve the whole family in the design.

If you write a newsletter, get going now. Have each child write a paragraph. There is still plenty of time without anyone feeling pressured.

Please check out these posts from last year to help get your cards started;

Alice's Family Christmas Card Post

Mary's Homemade Christmas Card Ideas

If you have any ideas for photos and cards please leave a comment or email them. I would love to share them.

From Your Heart and Hands - Homemade Christmas Card Ideas

Sending greetings to friends and family by means of Christmas cards has been part of the Christmas tradition for over 150 years, with the first printed cards commissioned in England in 1843.  There are many card options available for purchase, but one fun and creative approach to sending out your yearly Christmas greeting is to make your own cards. 

Now, I know many of you are thinking, with all there is to do during Advent and in preparation for Christmas, "Why would I want to make my own cards?"  Please know this is just an option for anyone interested, but it really can be a wonderful family tradition.  There are many great reasons for making your own cards. If you enjoy paper type crafts and want to have a very tangible product to share with others this is it. It's a great outlet for creativity. It is something that the kids can be involved with and contribute to the Christmas preparation.  You can also customize your Christmas greetings in a way that commercial cards can't. You can pick the exact theme and sentiment that you want your cards to have.  It puts a very personal touch on the card sending tradition.  For example you can:

• Decorate to tell the legend of the Poinsettia, of Twelve Days of Christmas, or Candy Canes
• Highlight a favorite aspect of Christmas
• Make them Advent focused
• Incorporate a family photo
• Incorporate a child's art

We have made our own cards for many years and in that time used a variety of techniques.  Following are some basic approaches to making a couple different cards.  All samples utilize 8 1/2 X 11 inch card stock as the base.  Cut the card stock in half so you have 2 pieces each 5 1/2 X 8 inches.  A paper cutter is a big help in doing all the cutting quickly but is not necessary. Fold those in half and you have cards that fit size A-2 envelopes. You can make your cards so they open either vertical or horizontal.

Rubber Stamped Card

Rubber stamping can range from very simple to quite involved, but it is an excellent technique to use for anyone who doesn't think she is artistic.  The rubber stamp does all the drawing for you.  You will need to purchase a rubber stamp with an image you want to use.  The big craft stores have a section for rubber stamps and there are also specialty rubber stamp stores that offer a wide variety of Christmas stamps.  The type of card in the sample is very simple but produces a striking image.  Use a white or cream card for the base.  Cut out a piece of dark colored card stock slightly smaller than the front of the card so a border of the white color surrounds it and adhere to card.  Using a rubber stamp you have purchased (the one in the sample is from Stampin Up) and an ink pad that is similar in color to the dark background, ink the stamp and stamp it on another piece of white card stock.

Tear away the paper around the image at an angle to produce a deckled edge (you could also choose to cut around it with decorative scissors). 

Dab the torn edge with the ink pad to lightly color the edge of the paper.  Attach image to center of card.  I prefer either rubber cement, double sided tape, or photo mounts to adhere parts of cards. You can add a highlight to the card in some way.  For example on the sample card the star is glittered with ultra fine clear glitter.

There are literally hundreds of rubber stamp companies, but a couple I really like for finding religious themed Christmas stamps are:

• Catholic Rubber Stamps
• Saint Nicholas Center
• The Stampin Place

Layered Card

Layering is another easy-to-do technique that can produce a card that says "elegant simplicity." In this sample I started with a dark colored card stock for the card.  Then cut a light card stock so that is was smaller than the card by 1/4 inch around sides.  Choose a smallish image that you would like to use as the focal point for your card.  In this sample I used a canceled Madonna and Child postage stamp.  It is layered on gold paper that is slightly larger.  That in turn is layered on card stock and card.  A Christmas greeting is stamped in gold ink below (but it could be hand written or printed on the card stock ahead of time.)  Your focal point can be any shape (circle, oval diamond, star). Nesting templates are a great way to cut different size shapes for layering. The image you use as your focal point can come from a variety of sources:

• a piece of old Christmas card
• a child's small drawing
• a holy card
• a magazine
• photo

Printed Card

Another technique that is great for displaying your children's art work on a card is linoleum printing.  Technically this is done with linoleum blocks available at art supply stores, but can also be done using a styrofoam tray as the print block surface for children.   First a design is drawn on the linoleum block then using a  linoleum cutter the design is carved out of the linoleum. Children do need supervision with this step as the tools are sharp.  In our case the youngest children only drew their design and I did the carving.  The older one carved his own.  Once the design has been carved, the brayer is rolled in paint until is has a thin coat of paint all around it.  The brayer is then rolled over the linoleum block design to entirely cover block.  The block is pressed face down onto the blank card and removed. You end up with a printed reverse image of your block print.

For the inside sentiment you can hand write it, stamp it with one of the many Christmas saying stamps, or pre-print it by computer/printer before cutting and folding the cards.  If you are only making a few cards completing the cards one at at time is probably fine, but for large numbers I recommend the "production line" approach.  Complete each step for the total number of cards you are making before going on to the next step.  For example cut out all the base cards first.  Then cut all the layering pieces. Then stamp all the images.  Then tear out the images. Until the final step where you assemble each card.

Family Fun magazine's website has lots of ideas for cards to make.  As do many of the rubber stamp sites, like Impress Rubber Stamps and Rubber Stamp Club. The possibilities are endless and the satisfaction of creating a greeting from your heart and hand is immense.

A Family Christmas Card

by Alice

It was early September 2005, and my children were looking positively lovely for a family reunion. The girls' hair was curled and bouncy, and those five pale green matching dresses were a sight to behold. Little Patrick, our only boy, with his new haircut and button-down shirt, looked as handsome a tyke as ever there was. Gazing at them with a sigh of motherly admiration, a brilliant idea occurred to me--take the Christmas photo!

Before my six hapless children even knew what hit them, I had planted the whole troupe down on the couch and was snapping away feverishly, exhausting an entire roll of film in a matter of moments. Stopping to reload, I fired off another round, bombarding them with flashes and flickers and repeated entreaties to "Smile!" Somewhere on those rolls, I knew all six children would be smiling and looking directly into the camera. If not, I rested secure in the notion that there was still plenty of time to plan a separate assault for later on in the month.

This was a far cry from years past. My usual routine was to take the Christmas photo on Thanksgiving Day. This may sound reasonable, but the results were far from ideal. The awful process of capturing just the right photo inevitably made us late for Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws,' and Murphy's Law seemed to grip the effort from the start. I remember the year our baby son, Patrick, looking fetchingly cute in a pair of black velvet Hanna Andersson overalls, fell asleep on the floor just before our shoot. Needless to say, he bawled through about three rolls of film when we woke him. Doggedly refusing to throw in the towel, I enlisted the help of everyone on hand in a vain attempt to get that tired, cranky boy to smile. At one point during the quixotic shoot, the girls unexpectedly broke into peals of laughter (and a row of photogenic smiles). I wheeled round to find my husband, ever the team player, hidden under a buttoned overcoat with a bust of Beethoven peeping out the top. Patrick cried louder than ever, but it was a valiant effort nonetheless.

In spite of all the difficulties, there are few things more valuable or worthwhile than enclosing a family photo within a Christmas card. Just this past weekend, I ran into a friend we had not seen in about six years. I stood dumbfounded as she rattled off the names of all my children (except for the brand new baby) and managed to tell them apart. It was my faithful yearly Christmas card that had allowed her to make the connections. We joked that no matter how far apart we are, she would always know all my children, although she could not be held accountable for anyone born after Christmas!

While we are not quite as ahead of the game this year as we were in 2005, I plan on making a date with my children for a family photo in mid-October. Our Hanna Andersson order is in, and somewhere upstairs a drawer full of soft rollers awaits its yearly excursion. One or two more details completed, and two hundred or so cards will be ready to go out the door. (That is right--two hundred!)

Over the years, I have learned at least a few ways to tame this Herculean task:

1. Gather addresses in advance, and make sure they are up to date. If possible, input them all into the computer to make label making a breeze. Last year, my black address book went missing about six months before Christmas. Procrastinator/optimist that I am, I kept thinking it would magically turn up. It didn't. Many of the gains of time I had made by taking the photo early were lost by my late season dash to gather two hundred or more addresses.

2. Buy stamps as soon as possible. Religious stamps are often sold out or hard to come by in December. You might want to consider trying photo stamps this year. They are a perfect personal touch, and make great gifts and stocking stuffers as well.

3. Return address labels save so much time. Trademark Catholic Stationery makes labels that are reasonably priced and a faith-filled alternative to the usual santas and snowmen. For something truly unique, try personalized family labels with amusing cartoon representations of the entire family--even pets!

4. Plan a pre-printed message. As meaningful as it is to write personal notes to everyone on your list, it helps to have the closing of your card pre-printed, especially if you are blessed with a large family. I solved this problem last year by ordering separate address labels from Trademark Catholic Stationery, and replacing the address with the message: "Love, the Gunthers, [all of our names] Have a beautiful and blessed Christmas!"

5. Consider enclosing a holy card inside. One Christmas, a friend of ours included gilded paper cards highlighting the moment of Consecration with the prayer, "The Beautiful Hands of a Priest" printed on the back. I read that prayer over and over and was deeply moved by it. Boxes of paper holy cards are inexpensive, readily available, and may touch the hearts of the recipients more than you could imagine.

6. Invite a friend to help, or get the children on board. I do not need to tell you that large holiday jobs are more fun when they turn into a party. Invite your best friend over to help stuff envelopes and stick on address labels. [My best pal Lissa actually spent one of her last nights in New York doing this with me five years ago. Sniff.] Children would enjoy this task as well, especially if there is hot chocolate involved. (Although, as I think about it, children, hot chocolate, and two hundred crisp clean Christmas cards might be a risky combination.)

7. Mail early. Your post office will love you, and all your friends will think you are a genius of organization. I can't tell you how many afternoon-before-Christmas Eves I've made the mad drive to the post office, dropping stacks of envelopes on the laps of poor harried postal workers. My Christmas gift to them this year will be to mail early in December. (Some of you "O Night Divine" readers are on my list, so you will have to hold me accountable.)

8. Remember how important your photos are to friends and family. When you stop to think of the joy you bring to others by sharing the bright faces of your young ones, it makes the effort seem so much more worthwhile. Last year, I wrote about how much the photos sent to our family mean to us at Christmastime and how precious each image really is. The wall of photos we adorn day by day is every bit as indispensable as the tree.

9. Enclose a prayer. These past few years, I have made it a habit to say one Hail Mary for the recipient of each card as I stuff and seal the envelopes. "Sealed with a prayer" beats "sealed with a kiss" anyday.

10. In spite of everything I have said, do not hesitate to send out cards after Christmas. If you would prefer fewer distractions during Advent, send your Christmas greetings after December 25th. After all, Christmas Day is only the start of the Christmas season. I know for myself, I am always a bit sad when the flood of cards in the mail each day begins to taper off, and it is a treat when a few arrive in the middle of January.

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God bless all of you as you anticipate this happy and holy season. I am so grateful for Mary Ellen's vision in beginning "O Night Divine" and for her gracious generosity in allowing me and my family to be a part of it. My prayer is that it will blossom like the flower of Jesse and become a part of our Christmas tradition for many years to come.