This post is sponsored by Hallmark Signature.
One of my favorite things about the holidays is taking an opportunity to recognize our people–from the closest in our village like our best friends and parents, to ones we sometimes forget to acknowledge–the friends who live far away, our kids’ teachers, the mail lady who carries our kids’ bikes up to the garage when we leave them out. And while I love finding the perfect little gift to make someone smile, the gift that’s most remembered is our words–taking the time to tell someone what they really bring to our lives.
I’ve had a small stack of gorgeous holiday cards Hallmark Signature sent me on my desk for a couple of weeks now, and I finally took some time this past weekend to sit down and write some special notes to people I wanted to recognize–beyond the “Merry Christmas” and smiling faces in the family card we send to all our friends. I loved the challenge of thinking about a few extraordinary relationships in my life, and doing something a little extra to let them know how much I love them.
Now I’ve always been a stationery lover and remember exactly what the first box of cards I bought with my own money looked like (they were peach, embossed, with off white envelopes–I was probably 14 when I bought them), so I speak fluent card love. And these Hallmark Signature cards? They’re more than cards–they’re presents, exquisitely decorated with textured details and stand-out embellishments from removable ornaments to framed jingle bells.
And my extraordinary recipients?
Well, I took some time to tell my friend Lindsey how much I love doing motherhood with her–how I love that she gets as excited as I do for picking out Christmas pajamas and taping preschool projects to the wall and switching regular bed sheets to reindeer ones come December 1st. I told her that no matter how old our kids get, I will always remember preschool drop off days and hugging her in the hallways as some of the best days of my life, and that she always makes me feel like everything is going to be okay.
I wrote three cards to my kids’ teachers, to be left on their desk with presents after the holiday parties next month, and willed meaningful words to match the gratitude I feel for their love and support of my kids. I tell myself “Don’t gush” before my pen starts moving, but then sometimes I cry when I’m writing, so maybe a little gushing is okay. If there’s anyone who deserves an extraordinary card this Christmas, it’s our teachers.
I tucked a Nutcracker ticket in the sweetest Nutcracker card and wrote some words for my dear friend who’s sharing the tradition with us this year.
…and began a letter to each of my parents in the two most extraordinary cards of the bunch because I know that, as much as I’ll search for the perfect gift for both of them, what will mean the most are the words that go with it. There’s so much to say to both of them.
The best gift for all our people who are anything but ordinary? Words. Pour them out. Tell them how much they matter.
Thank you Hallmark Signature for giving us the prettiest place for those words to land.
Hallmark Signature cards are available in the card aisle wherever Hallmark cards are sold. Click HERE to find a store near you! Don’t forget the cocoa to keep you cozy while you write.
There’s my grandad’s spiky signature with the odd smiley face like a Cheshire cat he signed all my cards with – letters with precious words fr my grandma, most special to me is the note she wrote my husband six months after we started dating, welcoming him to our family reunion. He’d lost his family long ago to drugs and alchohl. This is our first Christmas without her.
I have on my tree a crocheted ornament, the handwritten tag still attached, from when I was two – it’s from my grandpa’s mother.
All I wanted to remember my grandma by is a framed handwritten recipe, hanging on the wall with her mothers (who is still alive at 103 and a half) and my mom’s,
… Handwritten is precious and powerful. I come from a poor family. Dustbowl farmers. But they wrote their stories down. What a gift!
This is my first Christmas without my grandma who always wrote us cards and even wrote her prayers in them for us. I just read one of her cards this week and miss the sound of her voice. What a great memory of your grandma welcoming your husband to the family. How amazing that her mother is still alive. This resonated with me, realizing how lucky I am to have the cards and letters from my Grandma and reminding me to keep writing my stories down for my children.
I’m right there with you and the love of cards. My family knows to be sure to read each word because they know I took significant time to find just the right one for the occasion.
I love that you still have the special ones from over the years. I have a box of cards just from my beloved, we have a “happy file” of great cards accumulated over 25 years in ministry…they are most helpful on not so great days!
But most of all, I’ll never forget the look on my nieces and nephews faces when I was able to give them the stack of each and every card they ever gave my mom, after she died 3 years ago. She kept them all, and they knew that she did so because they were special to her. It is a gift to know our words were so treasured! It’s a trait I’m glad I come by honestly.
Aww, I love your shout-out to teachers!!
And you KNOW I love a good old fashioned letter, haha 🙂 I still remember my first stationery that I bought with my own money too (yellow with jungle animals on it)! It was at a Zondervan store, of course, haha! Then in high school I discovered Crane stationery and was all about the Red Florentine pattern for a few years.
Happy letter-writing! xoxo
I can’t remember the first stationary I bought, but I remember the first real letter I received – I was six years old and my aunt Lydia wrote to me on light green stationary with a matching envelope, and put a kissy-lips sticker next to her name. I still have that letter and treasure it, much as I treasure the hundreds of hand-written letters and cards I’ve been lucky enough to receive throughout the years: ridiculous cards from my mom sent to me via the summer camp mail system, long epistles from my sister when she first moved away to college and later to another province, long and short letters written on quirky Japanese/French/Mexican/Australian stationary from friends and family all over the world… all spilling out love and trust and challenges and questions and answers and more questions. If I have an afternoon off, my most treasured of treats is to sit down and write someone a letter – my Oma, my adopted sister in Nicaragua, my best friend who lives down the street – since all the love I am filled with when I RECEIVE a letter gets happily poured back into the next letter I write! Thank you for this post, oh fellow lover of letters! 🙂