With Thanksgiving all but here, Christmas and its associated preparations are not that far behind.  As a matter of fact, Christmas stuff was available for purchase a few days before Halloween.  I had been at Target trying to wrap my mind around the fact that another holiday season was up on us when I spotted these:

Holiday cards have definitely been on the brain. The girls Christmas dresses are in pre-production, and I hope they will be delivered in time for me to get them photographed for our annual card.  I opened our Christmas addressee list from last year and found myself adding names to our already multi-paged document.  The prospect of the Christmas card assembly line (cards, envelopes, stamps, return address labels, address labels, stuffing, and licking) already makes my blood pressure spike, but I always look forward to the satisfaction that comes with slipping the wad of cards into the mailbox.

I was reading the latest issue of Real Simple magazine the other day and the etiquette dilemma of the month was the following:

It was like the magazine had been reading my mind! Seriously! When I uploaded the photos of the girls in their Halloween costumes, part of me thought, “Crap! Now what am I going to put on the Christmas card?! Everyone’s already seen this.”  In our everyday goings on, don’t we bombard one another with every hiccup, burp and fart by way of photo, YouTube link or Foursquare update? We could save ourselves a whole bunch of time, effort, and potential fatal envelope residue poisoning by just uploading/Tweeting/list-serving, right?

I thought about skipping the cards altogether for some pretty practical reasons — cost, cost, and cost.  We are in a recession, right? What about “going green”? Maybe I can just send out an e-card and save time, money and trees.  The etiquette expert in Real Simple was of a similar mindset, until her spouse asked her what other time honored rituals she was going to axe next (Trick-or-treating? Hunting for Easter Eggs?).  Couple that with a dear friend of mine who is living abroad this year, imploring her friends to send her holiday greeting so that she can decorate her home with the smiling faces of the friends and family she’s left behind.  Who can say “no” to a request like that?

Truth be told, I love getting Christmas cards, too.  Instead of draping my mantel with garlands of greenery, I tape up the Christmas cards we’ve received **koff, koff** so get up off a card**koff,koff*.

The final paper cut straw came as I was reading the newest blog posts from my blogroll.   I’m not the only one thinking about Christmas, cards, and holiday greetings.  As it turns out, over at Little Page Turners, they’ve got Christmas cards on the brain and are carrying the banner for the return to the Christmas card by touting Shutterfly’s blogger promotion for 50 free holiday cards.

What the what?!

Awww, yeah.  Shutterfly is currently offering bloggers a 2010 Holiday Card collection promotion.  Click here to learn how you can contribute and receive 50 free holiday cards. We’ve used Shutterfly in the past for our Christmas cards((http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards), so I can say that they’ve got a great selection of templates, sizes, and options for whatever you would like your holiday card to convey.  We usually go with a photo or several of the girls — really, y’all don’t want to see my smiling face year after year — after our pilgrimage to the Picture Peeps or Portrait Innovations.  This year, I’m going to do it myself.  I’ve got a few ideas in mind, but barring that, you may see some photos that already debuted on Facebook.

Just act surprised when you open the envelope.