Our First Family Christmas Card And A Sweet Gift For The Kids

I’m a sentimental lady, as you know, and love to hoard memories in any form (ornaments, scrapbooks, endless photo albums). In this house, we don’t have a ton of family photos mostly because I’m trying to keep more negative space on walls here to keep my brain more sane (I think it’s working). But after this year, living here and creating far less memories but feeling VERY close to each other, we could use some commemoration to celebrate, er commemorate 2020, especially for the kids. So when Minted reached out about their Heart Snapshot Mix® print I decided to take all the best moments that the kids had this year and make a fun 2020 framed scrapbook, in the shape of this heart (it was super easy and fast to create btw).

At first, they were like ‘mama, art isn’t really a present’ which tracks for 5 and 7-year-olds around Christmas time. But then sure enough, once they saw that it was full of fun pictures of them with the pups, making snowmen, on an easter egg hunt, etc., they LOVED it.

I chose “The Classic” style and made it by going to Minted’s site and simply dragged and dropped the photos into place (you can do a whole folder if you want, too, if you are already organized). You have lots of options:

Filters – Blush, Black and White, Blue and Rainbow
Background Colors – 12 different options
Sizes – From 8×8 up to 44×44 (so lots of options)
Frame Options – 17 different styles
Plus a ton of other ways to customize. It’s actually really cool.

I went with the 16×16 (but actually wished I had gone bigger, it’s so cute) and the light wood frame to work with the house, but pop off the wall enough. (HOT TIP: White frames on white walls generally just get lost – I know from experience).

I knew that the kids would love the classic color photos the best and it works in their room. It just has a lot of energy and life to it. I didn’t really do any photoshopping of the photos beforehand (mostly because I don’t know how to), but throughout the year I usually ‘favorite’ the ones I love in my phone and brighten them a little.

I styled it out in my office on this credenza but it’s going to go in the kid’s room above their dresser (the light was too dark to shoot in there). It’s VERY sweet and yes would make a great gift to family or just yourself to document any of the good moments of this year. O and there is also a style where you can add little captions that point to certain photos for even more memory hoarding capabilities which is also really sweet:)

Now onto our first Christmas card …

I’ve never done a family Christmas card, mostly because I’m not organized enough to collect addresses. Besides, I always felt like because I publicly update the world very consistently on our whereabouts with a lot of family photos throughout the year, why add this work during the busiest time of year for my job? But this year I’m tempted to publish even our own PO box address because I’m desperate to receive sweet photos or cards in the mail, like from anyone. So when Minted reached out about a partnership at first I was like, ‘well I don’t really do Christmas cards’ but then my 2020 emotional survival brain kicked in and I was like, ‘WELL YOU DO NOW’.

I perused all their great options but when I realized that they had an ornament option… I think you all know how I reacted. The reason I chose this was because I thought they would also make cute gift tags. Plus we could keep them as ornaments for our tree. I still didn’t have my addresses when I placed the order (and had a deadline to shoot) so I have to actually handwrite the addresses, BUT for those of you who have yours on a spreadsheet, it’s SO EASY. In fact, they stay in your account (I’m sure you all know this, but being a Christmas card novice I didn’t). So year after year you can just choose your photo/style and the addresses are automatically printed. Genius.

Again, you have a ton of options on envelope color, address style, fonts, and there are a lot of other ‘ornament cards‘ to choose from if you like this idea.

I actually love having them and so do the kids. I suppose having more touchpoint moments of joy for them is what we are focusing on. Of course, the kids haven’t felt this year as hard as most parents since they are so young. I really recommend checking out all of the ornament card options (there are a ton!) and remember that you can customize in a million ways, including what it says.

Onto of that, personalized gifts feel extra good this year and there are a ton of options. We are eyeing custom puzzles (huge this year), Calendars (always has a purpose), and gift wrap which I think could be fun with family photos on it. Here are some of the customizable options I really like:

Side note, we have bought art and fabric from Minted A LOT over the years and they support and promote a lot of designers and artists, which I LOVE. Head over and see all their personalized special holiday gift options. And thanks for supporting the brands that support EHD.

*Photos by Veronica Crawford