Giveaway: Shutterfly Cards

Now that it's officially November 1, I can start to talk about Christmas. I still have my focus on Thanksgiving, but this is finally going to be the year when I get my Christmas cards out on time. By on time, I mean mailing them early enough in December - or, la! in November after Thanksgiving - so that it doesn't look like I'm only sending people cards because they sent me cards first. That means I need to think about what cards I want to send and start getting a holiday picture taken now.

I was one of the last people I knew to convert from the traditional Christmas cards where you sign them yourself and write a little note inside to the preprinted photo cards. I resisted them a long time because they seemed so impersonal to me. They've changed a lot, however, in the past few years, and I actually enjoyed sending them last year - along with a Christmas letter, of course.

Now many of the cards are more traditional folded cards where I can still sign myself and write a little note congratulating people on their new babies or asking how lives are going in new cities and the like. I can keep my connection with them, and it feels much better to me.

In fact, I think I've already found the card that I'm going to send this year. I'm not sure it fully replaces the Christmas letter that goes in each of the wee ones' memory boxes, but I love how the card itself is personalized with memories.

Because so many of my friends aren't Christian and don't celebrate Christmas (hello, my Jewish friends!), it's important to me to find a card that is something I can share with them. In the past, I've had to carefully sort through my cards to find ones that are focused on the "season" - though I hate that expression as it has been co-opted - to send to them in recognition that not everyone celebrates Christmas. Fortunately, Shutterfly offers lots of holiday cards that aren't so religious, including many that focus on it being the end of the year and recap and reconnecting rather than Christmas. Fortunately, even some of the ones that are overtly Christmas in the Shutterfly collection can be edited to not say "Merry Christmas" as needed - and yes, I need it.

On second thought, maybe I'll go with this card this year.

Or maybe this one.

Ok, so maybe part of the reason I always get my cards out late is because I can't decide. But hey, if Shutterfly didn't have such a great selection of holiday cards, I wouldn't have this problem, would it?

Because misery loves company (yes, my tongue is placed firmly in my cheek here), I'm not the only one going to have to agonize over what card to send this year. I have three codes for 25 free cards from Shutterfly to give away to lucky readers. Yay, right? So what do you have to do to win? First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Tuesday November 15 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 48 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner. Though there are two prizes, a person can only win once.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me which holiday card you would choose.

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for following me on Twitter, then tweeting this contest with the following tweet: "Time to start thinking about your holiday cards. Win a 25 card #giveaway from @Shutterfly and @honestandtruly http://bit.ly/s3mu0f" (leave a link to your tweet as your comment and make sure you do all the steps!)
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Friend Connect.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Friend Connect.

And no, you won't earn any extra entries for it, but you will get good karma for liking me on Facebook!

Good luck!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a package of 50 free cards from Shutterfly. I was not compensated for this campaign. That said as always, all opinions expressed remain my own.