Autumnal Cheer: Free Christmas Cards

Wait.....what?

First of all, thank you all for reading my Autumnal Cheer series - I'm not quite done with it...meaning, there's been no fall recipes yet! But I just have twenty gazillion other things I want to share with you, too. And really, the time to pick your photo Christmas cards is planted firmly in the fall. If you wait too late, well, you'll be sorry.

Or not. Because you can do New Year's cards. I mean, who is expecting THAT?! Really. It's been done by yours truly right after we got married two years ago and they had snowflakes and wedding pictures and it was incredibly cute, even if I do say so myself. =)

Well, I found out this awesome promotion from Shutterfly from my friend Becky's blog and I had to jump on it! Here's the sequence of events...(Edited because I made an error - it's 50 free cards, not $50 in free cards. Still awesome.)

1. You sign up on this page to signal your interest: http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

2. You get an email back that tells you exactly what to do, which involves blogging about the completely adorable Shutterfly photo holiday cards and then submitting your blog post.

3. THEN you'll get a special code emailed to you that awards you 50 FREE Christmas cards! If I could capitalize numbers, I would. Wait, here - FIFTY FREE Christmas cards!

That there is a good marketing plan. Excellent job, Shutterfly. I'm sold.

Now comes the part where I talk about how cute their cards are. Seriously, no one would have to twist my arm to get me to tell you that they are adorable. FREE cards or not. I love, love all the variety and the only problem I'm gonna have is deciding which card to actually design and send! See, we just got back from Savannah, GA, and I have thoughts in my head of which pictures would go best on our Christmas card. We took some beachy pictures where we turned that whole "white shirt, khaki shorts" thing on its head! We both wore BLUE. (Take that, stereotypical beach pictures!) And so I'm thinking that I need to find a card with some pretty blue in it to tie it all together. I took a gander at their card selection yesterday and there were plenty cards-involving-blue for me to choose from. And I want it to actually say "Merry Christmas!" on it. But after that, I'm going to have quite a time deciding if I want it more elegant, more trendy, or more just-plain-cute. (Check out those links I just slipped in there.)

Help! This could take awhile. But I love this kind of thing, so I'm totally O.K. with that. =)

And if you are a busy bee this year yourself, don't forget the whole New Year's card idea. Look how cute these are!

Get to it, fellow bloggers! And if you don't blog, well, you can still make use of Shutterfly's huge selection of holiday cards. They're super cute and there are, like, seven hundred something to choose from.

And since I've already been listening to Christmas music for well over a month now (I'm totally fine with overlapping seasons), here's a little happy for you. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs ever...Sarah McLachlan's version is perfection. Enjoy!