Trends in Christmas Photo Cards For 2008

By Jill A Cooper

The 2008 Christmas Season is fast approaching and many of you are thinking about what kind of Christmas card to send to your loved ones this year. First of all, the importance of sending out a Christmas card cannot be overlooked. Today, families and friends are spread out all across the country due to job changes and the ease of national travel, so families and close friends do not get to see each other on a regular basis anymore. In fact, the holiday season may be the only time during the year when you can catch up with them, and sending a photo Christmas card is a great way to not only show off your family, but to share well wishes with those who are close to you.

So what are the trends this year in Christmas photo cards? Well, in recent years companies like Wal-Mart and Walgreens have offered cheap Christmas photo card prints with a picture on one side and a generic greeting on the other. I'm sure all of you have received one of these rather generic Christmas photo card prints from someone in years past. However, as these companies have fought over price, the quality of these Christmas photo cards has suffered tremendously and the photo materials are now so thin, the end product usually curls so much as to resemble a large potato chip. If you're in a really tight budget crunch and don't have time to think about a quality Christmas photo card this year, this may be an option for you, but not one that we would recommend.

The biggest Christmas photo card trend this year are photo cards that are printed on thick premium cardstock, but also double as a magnet. One thing that my family always had a problem with was where to display the Christmas photo cards from our closest friends and family. Mom would always place the most important Christmas photo cards on the fridge, but had to cover them up with a bulky magnet to get them to stay put. Now, however, companies are starting to offer Christmas photo cards that come with their own magnets. Gone are the days where we had to tape them to the wall or put them in a pile on the counter. Now, we can place the Christmas photo card right on the fridge!

The great thing about the new technology is that the pricing for a magnetic Christmas photo card and a regular Christmas photo card are the same. Other trends for this year are a move away from clip art graphics and toward a more refined, crisp look for their Christmas photo cards. Artists are concerning themselves more with the use of color combinations and patterns in these Christmas photo cards, and less on the use of traditional images of Santa and the North Pole. The continued trend in Christmas photo card coloring appears to be the use of an espresso brown color coupled with a combination of blues, greens and reds.

Although espresso isn't a typical Christmas card color, it is an inviting and warming color that works well with other colors, so we think this trend will continue on into 2009 as well. Whatever you decide to do this year for your Christmas photo card, make sure you don't just "throw something out there" without any forethought. Take some time to get a quality photograph and consider sending out a special Christmas photo card that shows you care. This may be the only time you correspond with loved ones in awhile, so make it count!

Greg Froelich founded http://www.magneticmessenger.com He is a graphic designer of beautiful announcements and invitations and owns several websites that feature chic and trendy invitations for holidays, weddings, birthdays, and other events. Greg offers advice on getting the most out of your beautiful announcements and invitations to create a special memory!