As the evenings darken and the cold wind bites your nose, nature hints that Christmas is coming (in case you didn’t know from the advent calendars and festive snacks that fill the shops for months).

That means it’s time to send Christmas cards to everyone you know, love, or anyone who sent you one last year, so now you’re bound to return the favor.

If you want to stand out from the barrage of similarly themed Christmas cards this year, many services allow you to quickly and easily personalize yours, often with bespoke images or messages. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite sites, so you can send a card that will make your friends laugh and bring some Christmas cheer into their lives this year.

If you’ve never thought of making your own cards and are worried it might be too complicated, be sure to read our guide to making Personalized Christmas Cards online as it walks you through the process step by step. simple process. If you’d rather save a few trees and create an online version instead, consider something a little more ambitious with a custom Christmas video instead.

moon pig

Perhaps the best known custom card company is Moonpig. It is not uncommon to see advertisements for the company on television, touting various services which not only include Christmas cards, but also birthdays, anniversaries, baby arrivals, new jobs, retirement, plus a range of other festivities such as Halloween, Diwali, Eid, Chinese New Year, and more.

You can also order custom mugs, aprons, liquor, and t-shirts, as well as general giveaways that include card games, gadgets, flowers, or even experience days.

There are a variety of designs available for Christmas cards, ranging from large single photos to several smaller ones that are ideal for showing off the whole family. A standard card (132mm x 185mm) costs $4.49 / £3.79 each, while the larger ones (205mm x 290mm) will set you back $5.99 / £5.99, or you can purchase multiple cards at once for fairly substantial discounts.

Visit Moon Pig

Vistaprint

You might recognize Vistaprint more for specializing in business card printing over the years, but the company offers a huge amount of options for those who want to personalize cards, cloths, bags, tags, stickers, calendars, pens and just about anything else you can. put a logo or text on it.

Its selection of Christmas cards is no slouch, with plenty of designs and styles to choose from. You can have single, multiple photo layouts or a standard image with custom text. That’s not all, Vistaprint lets you control all sorts of design elements. Whether paper, square or rounded edges, background colors, embossed text and the use of recycled materials.

If you want to go to town with your card, this is probably for you. Prices vary depending on the choices you make, but for a standard image-based layout, you should expect to pay less than $1/£1 per card.

Visit Vistaprint

Optimal printing

Another company with lots of choices is Optimalprint. Like Vistaprint, it offers a wide range of designs that can be tailored to your particular tastes, but the simpler interface makes it less intimidating for those who don’t want to get bogged down in the details.

Each design is available in a variety of sizes and formats, all of which can be edited to include your own photos or messages. The average price is around $3.59 / £2.25 (including envelope and VAT) with an extra postage charge.

Again, you’ll find plenty of novelty gifts that can also be personalized, including mugs, calendars, and posters, all of which can be purchased with a good degree of confidence (if you’re worried because you don’t have heard of Optimalprint) due to the average rating of 9.5 out of 10 the service received from nearly 45,000 reviews on Trustpilot.

Visit Optimalprint

awesome pigeon

Another mainstay in the custom card business is Funky Pigeon, at least in the UK. It also has a range of options when it comes to creating your own cards, including using templates where you can add your own images and edit the text to make it unique.

There are different themed templates – couples, moms, dads, godparents, grandparents, pets, teachers and more – plus several that are editable so you can say whatever you want. If you don’t want to add an image, there are plenty that just allow you to enter specific names instead.

The cards are available in four sizes and prices: Small (A6) £1.99, Standard (A5) £3.79, Large (A4) £5.99 and Giant (A3) £8.99.

Postage rates vary depending on the size of the card, but if you need the card in the recipient’s hands by 9am the next day, you can pay extra for special delivery.

It should be noted that Funky Pigeon also has an impressive range of themed gifts, with personalized baubles for the tree, mugs for mulled wine and our favorite being the Christmas snow globes which feature a photo of your choice on the inside. inside.

Visit Funky Pigeon

Charity Christmas cards

As Christmas is traditionally the season for giving, it’s only fitting that we include companies that donate part of the cost of the cards to charity, while allowing you to personalize the design. In the UK, the best bet is simply named charity Christmas cards, while the best option in the US is Cards for Causes.

Choose from a range of classic festive cards that feature people carrying trees to their winter cabins, burning candles on a mantel, nativity scenes, snowmen, Robin Redbreasts, plus a number of doodles. religious or winter-themed offerings. These can then have your own message printed inside, along with details of the charity supported.

If you want to add your own photo to a card, that service is also available, but the templates are pretty basic and there’s not much to choose from.

The charity support sites are a little different from some of the others on this list, as it’s assumed that you’ll be buying cards in bulk rather than just one or two. As such, it might seem expensive initially, but if you send out a lot of cards or just want stock for a few years, it might be worth the investment.

Typical prices are around $100/£100 for 50 personalized cards, of which a variable amount will be paid out per card (the amount is stated in the description on the site). You can also choose which charity will receive the donation.

Visit Charity Christmas Cards or Cards for Causes