How to Make Email Christmas Cards

You can skip that hassle by designing your own digital Christmas cards for email, bringing inexpensive joy and holiday cheer to your recipients.

If you want to make your own Christmas greeting cards, there are plenty of ways to do so online. Some websites don't charge for some types of cards. Even if you pay a nominal fee, it will almost certainly be less than purchasing paper cards and paying for postage stamps.

This is doubly true as of 2021, when the USPS imposed a temporary price increase from October 3 until December 26 of that year. During this time, the price of a regular postage stamp increased to 58 cents from 55 cents. With an online card, you also don't have to worry about how long your cards will take to arrive, since online Christmas cards arrive immediately.

• Sites like Greenvelope offer email greeting cards for Christmas and Hanukkah, with hundreds of designs available.
• With these sites, you can use templates and add your own photographs, animations and music.
• Choose colors and themes and write personalized messages.
• The instructions are easy to follow for most such sites, and you can preview the cards before clicking "send."

Websites like Got Free Ecards offer free cards, but most of these provide simpler designs. Some, like Blue Mountain, offer a trial subscription if you want to try their services before committing.

When you join a fee-based email greeting card provider with a free trial, it may require your credit card information. It is important to write down the last date of the free trial so you remember to cancel; otherwise, your card will be charged for the subscription. It can be nice for be a subscriber, however, as some services like this allow you to make unlimited electronic Christmas cards and other cards for specified amounts of time.

• When using any of these services, you will have to create an account with a username and password.
• The designs and options for free email greeting cards are more limited than paid services, and they may have a lot of pop-up ads as you work.
• You may be able to sign up for unlimited cards for a month during the holidays, cancel and then join again later.

Making your own Christmas cards saves time and money, and some companies provide "handwritten" options and choices of emailing or texting the cards.

• Smilebox is among these, with free, unlimited options, plus $5-a-month premium services. For $12 a month, you can download unlimited cards and print them.
• Punchbowl is another good service for sending cards, but your cards will include ads if you want to pay nothing. Its $3-a-month plan removes the ads and provides video messages on up to 10 cards a month.
• Evite started as an online invitation platform, but you can design custom ecards on its site, attach photos and videos, or even add e-gifts from Amazon.

The Christian company DaySpring is in the business of religious greeting cards, and besides Christmas designs, it offers cards for anniversaries, birthdays and other life events, all focusing on thankfulness. You cannot customize these cards, but they are free.

There's also Culture Greetings, a Black-owned business that offers cards with diverse themes. You can create your own personalized Christmas card with this service, using a script-like font that makes the cards look as if you actually signed them. Culture Greetings will print and mail the cards for you, if you like. The company will also include gifts if you choose that option.