Like most families, we annually sent out Christmas cards to a our friends and family. Over the years, it has taken on many shapes and formats. Yet, increasingly, it has become a labor of love.

The Early Years

When we first got married, these were very generic and what was available “off of the shelf.” In fact, I pretty sure our first Christmas card as a married couple was more to announce our new address. Soon, it began to include a wallet-sized picture of our children (we always had a surplus of those courtesy of Sears Portrait Studios or The Picture People).

Enter the Digital Age

VistaPrint enabled/empowered us to take it to the next level. Initially, it was just upload a simple picture and place it into one of the predefined templates. I believe we did just that for a few years…then it all changed. I soon found out that they could custom print whatever we wanted. 2006 we went all in. We did some campy Christmas pictures and a little a bit of Photoshop and this is what you get:

In 2008, we tried to get clever and challenge people to guess that holiday song…with mixed success:

2009 began the pop culture statements…and always to trying to have fun with our last name.

In 2010, our life became really crazy with three active children. Ironically, we have no real idea what was crazy compared to our life now.

Next, we had a little fun using Facebook format:

Going Political

With 2012 election, we saw an opportunity to have a lot of fun with it. Our inspiration was literally hundreds of political mailers that we received that fall. By far, this was one of our favorite.

In comparison, 2013 was not that good in comparison. The looming government shutdown was chosen as a theme. I just do not think we executed this well:

Back to Having Fun

Next, we used the Windows 8 Start screen as inspiration. It was a little rushed but it had originality.

In the age of “selfies” and the Pope’s visit to the United States, my wife is credited with this great concept (as documented in the first picture) for 2015.

With the ugly campaign of 2016, rampant sarcasm was our inspiration:

Now for Something Totally Different

2017 was the year of the puzzle. Surprisingly, feedback was very polarizing. Either people hated it (e.g. “Too much work”) or they absolutely loved it.

If you want the answers, please visit this link.