Christmas cards are one of those weird things that give me unnecessary anxiety.

I know why and I recognize that it’s totally ridiculous but that doesn’t stop me from stressing about them every year. It’s basically a little card stock representation of your family sent to both your closest friends and family as well as those that you don’t get to see often. Or often ones that only “see” you once a year when your card arrives in their mailbox. There’s that whole expectation of trying to share that perfect version of your family – it’s like the original instagram. No lie, I have spent more hours than I’d like to admit narrowing down card selections on Minted the last couple years.

In the past, I’ve been more on top of that game. The perfectly styled casually poses of all of us smiling, laughing and generally portraying our personal #familygoals professionally photographed. Welp, that didn’t happen this year. My bad.

For at least three weeks, I tried to make it happen. And then I realized, it wasn’t in the cards (no bad pun intended) this year. That being said, I wasn’t going to skip the annual tradition since I love sending snail mail as much as I love receiving it.

Minted has been my favorite for holiday cards for a while now, I think I’ve bought our Christmas cards from there the last three years, so when I hit the equivalent of writer’s block for holiday card shopping, I started scrolling through the options to see what I could make happen.

One of my favorite things about Minted is that you can narrow down your choices to find a card that works perfectly for you. One of my favorite options they have is the ability to preview your photos in the cards while you’re narrowing down your choices. Not just on the actual page with the card but on the page with ALL the options. In the past, I’ve uploaded my favorite couple images and played with this feature but I realized quickly there was no way we could go the single photo route. Seriously, we JUST took a picture of all five of us last week on our trip to Vermont and as you can see (it made it in the mix), it’s not perfectly styled.  We couldn’t even all manage to look at the camera at the same time. Just as quickly, I realized we couldn’t even swing the three carefully selected photo route, so as you can see, we’re just throwing it all out there.

I normally brush past the multiple photo option but this year it was our only option. I combed through both Drew’s and my instagram accounts for some winners and dug through my phone for a few extra options. Then I, once again, spent more time than I’d dare admit figuring out my favorite card. One thing we always like to do is send a card that actually says Merry Christmas. I love that Minted has the option to customize cards with the message of your choice: whether it’s happy holidays, a religious holiday message, happy new year or just your standard Merry Christmas. So if you see a card you like but didn’t like the message on first glance, you can switch it up in the customization part.

I tried to get fancy with the back of the card – Minted has all these cute options/infograms where you can share your highlights from the year – but instead stuck with a standard little note. Going to set a goal for next year to get it together and do one of those.

Best Year Ever Holiday Card Suite (comes in a variety of colors) 

The best part, by far, is that Minted will address your cards for you in the same style as the card of your choosing. We all know that is the hardest part of getting cards out the door – so all you have to do is upload your mailing list and they take care of the rest. You can even order custom stamps to go with your card. Again, these are on my list of goals for next year since I don’t have a list of all my go-to addresses on my computer. I will say I have used this service for a baby shower and it was so clutch.

And if you’re like me and still a little behind, you can order your cards this week (just go my route and pull a couple of your favorite snapshots from the year) and still get them with plenty of time to get them in people’s mailboxes before Christmas. Plus you can save 15% off with code SNOW15. And hey, if that doesn’t happen – just do a New Year’s card!

Disclosure: I was not paid for this post but Minted did provide me with a product credit. I am freaking obsessed with Minted so I would be singing their praises either way. As always, I only write about and support businesses that I love and am happy to recommend to you.