It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

Fine, so it may still be early November and this is Arizona, so it technically doesn't look anything like a magical snowy white Christmas. But it's getting close to my favorite time of year. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and then December always seems to fly. One of my favorite things about Christmas is sending and receiving cards. I take choosing my Christmas cards pretty seriously, believe it or not. I collect snowmen, so my cards usually feature them or snowflakes. This year, I'm especially excited because Mr. Kingston and I will be sending cards out as a married couple. So I've been pouring over pretty designs.

I have a couple challenges in picking the right cards: finding something that's not too serious but not too cartoony, doesn't have religious wording on the inside, and doesn't say "Season's Greetings." I do like something creative, but if it's got traditional wording, I prefer "Merry Christmas" and I'm okay with "Happy Holidays," but I don't like the phrase "Season's Greetings" for some reason. Since everyone is trying to be more PC and sensitive to different beliefs, you can imagine that my eliminating a popular Winter Holiday phrase makes my job a little difficult. Here are a few of my favorites from my favorite store, Target:

I love blue and white for Christmas rather than the traditional red and white and these look like a snowy hill.

I love this design!


These are lovely, but might be too girly for Mr. Kingston's taste. I just put him through the fun of a purple wedding, he might appreciate a break.

Now, if I had an unlimited budget for Christmas cards and wanted to splurge a little, I might go with something like these from Tiny Prints:


Of course, Tiny Prints specializes in birth announcements, so they mostly have photo designs. We've decided not to do a photo card this year, but if we did want to do one, I like the simplicity of this design:

Of course, I can't forget Etsy as a great source for truly unique cards.

These are from BethsCardCreations - snowmen AND snowflakes?! Sold!

And these just might be my favorite! They're from SilhouetteBlue and say "Make the Season Bright" at the bottom.

I love and look forward to my annual search for Christmas cards. What's your favorite part of preparing for the holidays?