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AVOID HEARTACHE OF WRITER'S CRAMP CARDS SENT
Too busy to address, stamp and mail all those holiday cards yourself? Help is just a mouse click away
Date published: 11/24/2007
BY CATHY JETT Blame it on Englishman Sir Henry Cole. In his day, it was common for people to hand write seasonal greetings on calling cards or in letters. But Sir Henry was so busy in 1843 that he hired well-known London artist John Calcott Horsley to design and print a card he could send to friends instead. The card, which bore the greeting "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year," proved so popular that people have been sending them ever since. Today Christmas is the largest card-sending holiday in the United States, with approximately 2.2 billion cards arriving in mailboxes across the country each year, according to Hallmark. Yet the problem of signing, stamping and popping them in the mailbox by the U.S. Postal Service's suggested date of Dec. 20 for first-class postage still remains for the time-pressed. Luckily, there are a number of alternatives that even Sir Henry would have appreciated. Downtown Fredericksburg stationery specialty store The Write Touch, for example, can do everything from designing and printing chatty Christmas newsletters to slipping them inside cards the staff can personalize, address and mail for you. "Actually, more people [take advantage of these services] than you'd think," said owner Anita Brown. "Their lives are busy. They're hectic." The Write Touch, 1006 Caroline St., offers three options for personalizing cards: calligraphy, laser printing and hot stamping, which engraves the cards, she said. Laser printing is the quickest and offers the most choices--500 different commercial fonts alone. But it also is pricier--about $30 for 60 cards signed in black ink--than the more labor-intensive hot stamping. The later process, which typically has a turnaround time of 7 days, costs about $26 for the same number of cards. The Write Touch generally reserves calligraphy for wedding announcements, but the service is available if the calligrapher isn't busy, Brown said. The store also will address and mail cards, as will Wendy Troster of Leisure For You in Spotsylvania County. She will address 100 cards for $25, and mail them if you provide postage. For $35, she'll even make a database of your mailing list and put it on a CD. (To contact her, visit leisureforyou.net.)
Date published: 11/24/2007
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