Holiday cards connect us with friends and loved ones – especially if we haven’t been in touch since this time last year! But our window of opportunity is closing quickly to buy or DIY – so it’s time to make a plan. If you’ve just moved to Crystal Valley, our gorgeous master-planned community in Castle Rock, you can also use holiday cards to let your friends know you’ve relocated!

If you have a favorite family photo, creating your own holiday greeting cards from design to delivery can take 10 days. Default options like Costco (warehouse pickup in five to seven days) and Vistaprint offer quicker turnaround times.

For cards that don’t look like everyone else’s check out Huffington Post’s collection of custom-crafted (and somewhat pricey) cards here.

PaperSource.com has a huge variety of conventional holiday cards with exclusive artwork and metallic accents complete with traditional, tart and tongue-in-cheek greetings for Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s.

DIY CARDS

Buzzfeed collected 23 Christmas card ideas you can make in less than an hour (can you say potato stamp and torn paper Santa?). We like the thumbprint holiday lights, and the Washi tape Christmas tree cards.

If you have more time, and a glue gun, HGTV.com has holiday card ideas accented with felt, cotton and the kind of paper you buy in sheets at craft stores. For more inspiration, check out these Pinterest pages.

ALMOST DIY CARDS

If you’re only sending a few cards and want something unique AND handmade, (just not with your own hands), check out this Etsy array of holiday cards.

These by StuffAnnaLoves are hand-stamped, hand-embellished, and come with standard greetings and a blank inside page for personal messages.

This boxed set of pen and ink vintage cards from Melissa Colson stand out from among all the contemporary fonts and lettering.

You can print-your-own cards (sort of DIY, right?) with LittlePiper’s funny selections, including the ever popular, “Get Those Fat Pants Ready….It’s Christmas!”

Little Piper also has printable gift tags and so does IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor.com.

MAILING TIPS

When it comes to sending your holiday cards, early is always better than late. Remember the Castle Rock post office gets backlogged this time of year, so try to send your cards out before the second week in December so they will arrive before Christmas and Hanukkah.

TECH MAILING OPTIONS

Shutterfly mails your cards for you – no envelopes to address or stamps to lick. If you import your holiday card list from Excel or Outlook (among others), you won’t even have to type in mailing addresses to get your cards to friends and family.

Sincerely’s Ink Cards is an app rather than a website. It lets you customize cards with images straight from your phone and have them mailed directly to recipients. Expect to spend $2 to $3 per card plus an extra $1 to send them domestically ($1.70 internationally).

If you like adding a note to your holiday cards, you can still get the convenience of pre-addressed envelopes from Tiny Prints and Paperless Post.

CARDS ON DISPLAY

Once you’re on the receiving end of all those cards, you need a place to display the holiday invasion of paper. Martha Stewart has a few ideas (of course she does!) about some ways to do that. In fact, she has more than a few, and a video, too!

Jenna Burger and CountryLiving.com have several creative ways to showcase those cards, depending on the volume you get, and the amount of free time you have!

Your Crystal Valley Neighborhood

A growing display of merry and bright is visible all around Crystal Valley. Enjoy the holiday cheer as a resident, with one of several quick move-in options, or drop in and see the new home designs from Richmond American Homes. With ranch and two-story models in this master-planned community in Castle Rock, new homes are priced from the $300s.