Postmarked with love: Holiday cards to highlight your little ones

It's that time of year again. The leaves are changing, the smell of wood smoke is in the air, and the holidays are right around the corner. Too early to order your holiday cards? Hmmmm, not in this household where it took me five months to get my birth announcements out (actually, I still have a few to put in the mail!). I figure if I can address a few a day I will get them all out before the New Year. Oh, and I will definitely be ordering return address labels to speed the process. I really regretted skipping those on the birth announcements in the name of cost-saving. At this point I value time-saving more readily than cost-saving!

The go-to place for stationary needs for us is Tiny Prints. Several of our friends sent us Holiday cards and birth announcements from Tiny Prints last year, which was how I found them. We ordered Pooka's birth announcements from here and were pleased with the design and quality, and received many compliments on them. They have one of the largest selections, are reasonably priced and are delivered quickly. We had to reorder more of Pooka's announcements and their customer service was great. One great feature for their birth announcements is that you can choose your design and pre-order the envelopes to fill out before your wee one arrives. Once you have the photo (or not if you are a traditionalist) you can order the cards and pop them into the ready-to-go envelopes. We ordered the envelopes, but I never got around to filling out the addresses in advance, so it was all for naught! I like the Fanciful Flurry card, the more traditional Warm Memories with multiple photos, the Holiday Blessings photo and story card, and the charming Snow Lamp for NYC families.

My new favorite stationary site is Minted. The designs are fresh and unique in part because Minted holds regular design contests for new cards for their collections. My favorite options on the Minted site are the Yearline Holiday Photo Cards and the new Minibook Holiday Cards. While they are not inexpensive they are wonderful for sharing your latest news with family and friends. For a cost-saving measure you could get 25 of these style cards for immediate friends and family, and order a more traditional card for the rest of your addressees. My absolute favorite card from Minted is the Gift Wrapped Holiday Card. For NYC families, try the City Snow Globe Holiday Photo Card or the Bright Lights Holiday Photo Card or let your photo steal the show with the Paris Holiday Photo Card or Vintage Holiday Photo Card.

In a Baby Carriage has similar cute holiday card designs, and they do a cool trifold card. Pear Tree also has great designs and some interesting card styles. Check out the Pocket Cards like the Snow Falling Photo Card and Self-Mailer Cards. I love that you don't need and envelope if you use the Self-Mailer Cards.

Still haven't found what you are looking for? Stacey Claire Boyd offers fantastic designs like the Festive Flamestich (think Missoni), Hip Holiday (think Hable Construction), the bright Be Merry, or retro Hope, Joy and Love cards. Order Stacey Claire Boyd through our friends at Alex and Sam and a percentage of your purchase will go to charity...tis' the season! When checking out of Alex and Sam get 30% off your stationary with coupon code: Pooka

I have the holiday season for many reasons, but one of my favorite parts is receiving adorable photo cards from friends and family and covering our fridge in them! Already got your cards? Let us know what design you picked in the comment section so we can check them out!