
As a greetings card maker, I should be designing and actively marketing my Christmas wares in the summer. How else do you think the stores can be packed with all that scarily generic festive stuff come the actual time of year? Massive Christmas goods retail fairs are held on the Mainland for buyers to attend and orders placed in the summer just to allow those who supply our mass markets to small independent traders to organise the manufacture of their festive gear in time for ... Halloween! Gah!
Should, however, rarely translates into action on my part so in the weeks leading up to 1st December I generally paint almost every surface I can with added 'snow and sparkles' and due to my lack of forward planning I find myself a wee bit stressed possibly even Grinch-like during my favourite time of year, Autumn and my second favourite, Christmas. This is honestly not a bad thing.
This year things feel weirdly different however. Due to last year's '4 out of 5 items containing gifts not getting to their destination' incident (thank you Royal Mail for sending me a report stating that this did not fall below your expected standards), a family gathering gave me the opportunity to present over half of my presents, all wrapped and tagged, this weekend. Before I went away I had also designed my own business Christmas card and had made all the hand made presents for the class for whom I am a Teaching Assistant. This is all VERY wrong and thoroughly disconcerting.
I LOVE the manic months of early Winter, I love the dark nights which are much more conducive to hours spent hunched over a snow-filled scene painting table than the 'ought to be outside' summer evenings. I revel in the busy-ness of my business and hugely enjoy the challenge of the deadlines that Christmas creates for me .... lots of different production deadlines, post deadlines, present shopping deadlines, the mad decision to 'make' Christmas presents deadlines along with juggling the massive upsurge in general life obligations from school concerts to craft fairs to social gatherings. I also really like eating soup almost every day.
So, please spread the word. Feed my need for stress!! I can make large quantities of personalised Christmas Cards for you or your business. The cards are a brilliant marketing tool for a lot of reasons, especially in these new electronic times, as they stand out from the crowd. Whether as a 'Thank You' or as a 'We're Still Here' to customers and suppliers or as a 'Thank You' to staff from the CEO, Managing Director etc. More original and longer lasting than a tin of chocs, much cheaper than a bottle of wine and more original than that Secret Santa mankini that's been doing the rounds since 2005.
Season's Greetings
Katie