This post contains affiliate links to Minted.com, which we use to order our holiday postcards every year.
Living in the Midwest, winter can get a bit dreary. Seemingly endless stretches of cold gray days. However, our family is really lucky because every month from October through March, we have something to celebrate. Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November, Christmas in December, Kenzie’s birthday in January, mine in February, and Jeff’s in March. It really helps to always have something to look forward to.
This year, we got our decorations up early, so I thought I’d share a few of our traditions. First is our holiday postcard. There’s something so charming about getting a postcard in the mail. You don’t have an envelope coming between you and the sentiment, and postcards always convey good, happy news. Plus, you save a little on the cost of postage and envelopes. We’ve done holiday postcards with Minted.com for the past five years, and it’s been a lot of fun. The one from this year follows the same formula I use every year…family picture, picture of mom and kid, dad and kid, and fill the rest up with photos of the kid.
Minted is awesome, because you can save all your designs to your account, along with the custom copy, so there’s always a digital archive of previous cards. You can also upload a spreadsheet of your addresses, and they’ll custom print recipients for free! I spend about $1 per card, and postcard postage is $0.35 this year.
We also do a Christmas village every year using thrifted Dept 56 treasures. Over the years, we’ve been really lucky to find these second-hand treasures, usually for less than $10 each! Full retail is typically in the $70 range. My favorite is the North Pole series, but we also have a few pieces from the Christmas in the City collection. The idea is that our village progresses from a realistic city to an imaginary one.
Earlier this year, we visited Bronner’s Christmas Store in Frankenmuth, MI. I wish it wasn’t so far away, because the entire town was adorable, beer gardens and boutiques lining a beautiful riverside walk. While there, we picked up an Advent-style miniature Christmas tree that came with 24 teeny-tiny ornaments. I folded each ornament in a small piece of paper and sealed them shut. Kenzie loves opening one every morning and putting a new ornament on the tree.
Last year, we added a family of hand-crafted Christmas gnomes to our decor. These were really fun and easy to make, and I even did a few as Christmas gifts.
And finally, our Christmas tree! I used to insist on a fresh tree every year, but it always looked a bit droopy by Christmas…so three years ago we switched over to a fake tree. I thought I’d regret it, but that wasn’t the case! I love our tree. It’s perfect for us.
Every time we go somewhere new, we buy an ornament for the tree. And I’ve been really good about labeling them with the year and location, so it’s always fun revisiting those memories.
I’d love to see some of your family traditions! Please share some of your holiday spirit with us in the comments below?
