Holiday Cards- a photo is worth 1,000 words

Holiday cards are an American tradition- very few other countries in the world send out annual updates to friends and family with the same dedication we do. The annual note ranges from a single line "Happy Holidays from the Swansons" to a 4-page brief updating people on new jobs, new babies, vacations and projects. It is a way to wish close friends a happy holiday and also a personalized way to stay in touch with people you may not always see or hear from. One of the latest trends in holiday cards is to have one or more photos printed directly on the cards. This enables people to see your trip to Mexico, your child's first day of school, and your newborn without having to read the whole letter. As the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words.

There are a number of websites that help you create photo cards (of varying quality and style). Within the sites are a number of different ways to design the cards- from a single picture covering the whole face of the card to a collage of images in a pre-designed card. Martha Stewart has even gotten in on the act, designing several cards for kodakgallery.com. Here are a few of the available options:

Cardstore.com
The newly-redesigned CardStore is special because this is all they do and they do it very well. Kodak used to outsource their cards to Cardstore, but now do it in-house. For top-of-the-line quality printing with a high-gloss sheen, this is the best bet.
Price: ***
Quality: *****
Available designs: **
Ease of use: ****

KodakGallery.com
KodakGallery is good if you have your images already housed there, making it a very easy transaction. They used to use CardStore (see above) to create their cards, but since starting to do it on their own, the quality has gone down. They print on photo stock, which is durable, though the "sheen" of a high-gloss print simply isn't there. KodakGallery has upgraded it's variety of cards, though, and now has hundreds of desgins to choose from. Watch for sales, which can reduce the price considerably.
Price: ****
Quality: **
Available designs: ***
Ease of use: *****

Shutterfly.com
Shutterfly seems to have the widest variety of designs available and many of them allow you to incorporate more than one image. This is the only site that allows you to the cards' finish- matte or satin. Sign-up for emails which will let you know when discounts are available.
Price: ****
Quality: ***
Available designs: *****
Ease of use: *****


In short, the sites are easy to work with and will generally even mail the cards for you, if you like (note that this means adding all your addresses to the site). You also create your own greeting for the interior of the card, so it is a completely personalized note. The one piece of advice when ordering a large quantity of cards is to first order just one. That way, if you aren't happy with any part of it, it is still very changeable- and remember, you don't have to write a 1,000 word letter because, even if you just have one picture, it says it all for you.