Not another gift guide

More handwritten letters please.

It’s that time of year again, gift guides galore, coming at you via social media, email, website banners, and so on. I thought I’d try something a little different this year…

Rather than sending gifts, which, to be honest, I mainly just send to my niece and nephew, I had the idea to send handwritten notes. I recently received one from someone I had just met (just for the sake of it), and it was so nice. No one sends letters anymore. It’s just quick texts and funny memes or videos from Instagram. I’m not complaining, I do it too. But before we had all these channels and fast ways of communicating, we’d call up a friend or even send an email with more than five words — at least that’s what I did.

So I started digging around online, looking for blank greeting cards that I could fill with handwritten notes. Not mass-produced greeting cards, but ones from smaller companies and independent designers, or ones I could customize. I sent a Google Form to all my friends asking for their addresses. Then I realized that between my New York friends and all the new friends I’ve made here in Amsterdam (expat life is fun!) I have a lot of letters to write. Haha. Sending a handwritten note to everyone in December is unlikely, but that doesn’t mean I can’t send letters at random times or for people’s birthdays. So that’s my plan.

Anyhoo, in case you’re feeling inspired by this idea (not so novel, I know — let’s call it a reminder), there are loads of beautiful blank greeting cards available on Etsy.

My top pick is this seller who sends you a random selection of greeting cards that she creates from her original fine art photography. So creative!

Love the modern design of these handmade greeting cards.

Last weekend, while I was at the Our Lord in the Attic museum in Amsterdam (highly recommended!), I was reminded that museum gift shops are also a great place to pick up blank greeting cards for whenever you need them. I can’t find a link to the exact ones I purchased, but these Delft Blue cards are similar.

I stumbled across some cute letter-writing paper from Papier that you can personalize with your name or initials. If you’re feeling extra creative, you can design your own personal stationery at Vistaprint or spice up one of their templates.

I’m curious how all this will go over when I send a handwritten letter to my 10-year-old niece this year instead of a Christmas gift. My prediction is that she’ll remind me how “old” I am again — which, really, is not old at all.

See you soon,

Alexis

P.S. What’s your take on sending handwritten notes/letters instead of gifts? If you have a favorite greeting card/stationery company (that’s not Hallmark), please share in the comments of this post!