Where to order and how much they cost

It’s almost time.

Soon you’ll see holiday greeting cards arriving every day – filled with smiling faces and coordinated outfits from family and friends everywhere.

If you haven’t started creating your greeting card yet, you still have plenty of time. To help you focus on which company’s card offers are best for you, we’ve put together this list of greeting card companies and how much you can expect to pay.

10 companies to order your holiday cards from this year

These card companies offer deals and discounts throughout the holiday season. So much so that you will probably never pay “100%” of the costs, whatever they are.

To help you understand what you’re getting into, we’ve walked through the ordering process of some of today’s most popular holiday card companies. We looked at the cost of ordering 50 standard stock cards. Nothing fancy or extra. Just the basics.

Remember that these prices were for a random Tuesday in November. By the time you order, prices may have changed. But these examples should give you a good idea of ​​a rough price with each brand of card, as well as those that are generally more affordable or considered high-end.

We include shipping where possible in the cost per card, but we have not calculated sales tax as this varies widely.

With that disclaimer, let’s get started.

1. Component

Shutterfly has been in the holiday card game for a while now, so they have a huge selection of quality cards that showcase you and your family.

We made a sample order for 50 5×7 cards at $2.15 each, some of the most expensive cards we’ve found. This totals $107.50 and includes the envelopes. There was an agreement for free shipping when checking out and Shutterfly often has sales, so let’s call it $107.50 for an order of 50 cards. Your total may be much lower depending on the offers you find.

Cost per card: $2.15

2. Snapfish

The folks at Snapfish also give you a wide variety of options when it comes to personalized Christmas cards and holiday photo cards. Their offers start from $1 per card and can go up to $3.70 per card, if you want a card with fancy embossed gold foil typography.

For our example of 50 cards, we have chosen a set of 20 standard 5×7 cards which cost $1 each. Since our chosen theme only comes in sets of 20, we need to order 60 photo cards for a total of $60. Standard shipping on three decks of cards is $11.49.

This brings the total spend for 60 cards through Snapfish to $71.49.

Cost per card: $1.19

3. Hit

Struck offers you many options to choose your Christmas greeting card. You can add a photo and create your own design, or use an already designed card. You can choose a style and format. You can choose religious or non-religious Christmas cards.

Minted’s holiday greeting cards are definitely more expensive, but are of higher quality. For our menu, we have chosen a 5×7 non-foil base board (the sheet is more expensive). For 50 cards, the cost comes to $114 or $2.28 each.

Dispatch ranges between $3.95 and $9.95, so the total price is around $120.

Cost per card: $2.40

4. Vistaprint

Vistaprint features pages full of card designs to showcase you and your lovely family. Prices for many start at $11.99 for 10 cards. Many of their holiday photo cards also have embossed foil options which can cost extra.

For an order of 50 cards on standard 5×7 stock, Vistaprint will charge you $59.95. Eight standard days dispatch runs $11.99 on an order of that amount.

This would bring your order with Vistaprint to a total of $71.94.

Cost per card: $1.44

5. Paper Culture

Like nearly every company we researched, Paper Culture also offered discounted holiday cards in November.

For our base order 5×7 50 cards, Paper Culture only offers premium stock cards. That comes to a total of $66 at a price of $1.32 per card. They also offer 4×6 cards for $1.20 each.

With delivery fees From a standard flat rate of $8.99, the total cost of our cards through Paper Culture is $74.99.

Cost per card: $1.50

6. Zazzle

Zazzle offers a number of designed as well as heavily personalized Christmas card options.

We ordered” 50 basic 5×7 flat cards for $1.22 each. That was a total of $61. Although Zazzle hasn’t provided much information on shipping rates, we’re estimating around $9-$12, depending on other companies’ costs.

After shipping, our order would be around $70 in total.

Cost per card: $1.40

7.Etsy

Etsy offers many more traditional and designed cards without building around a family photo if you don’t want to. Although they also have these options. Even better, you can support small businesses and independent designers while you’re at it.

That said, many of these cards are sold in smaller quantities per game, which makes them more expensive. That beautiful Set of 12 snowy village cards costs $18 per deck, which would cost us around $72 for 48 cards.

The particular Etsy seller we picked offers free shipping over $35, so we’re good to go at $72 flat for holiday cards through Etsy.

Cost per card: $1.50

8. Paper

Papier has a nice selection of pre-designed cards, as well as customizable Christmas greeting cards ready for your family photo.

The most of Paper options vary between $18 and $24 for a set of 10 to 12 cards. We have selected the Bold and bright border set of flat holiday cards. This set starts at $22 for 10 cards. The price per card decreases as your order increases. Our total was $90 for 50 cards.

Shipping is a very reasonable $4.99, bringing the total cost of our 50-card 5×7 deck of Paper to $94.99.

Cost per card: $1.90

9. Raising Artifacts

Raising Artifacts also offers many options when it comes to customizable holiday photo card themes.

Like other companies, the more cards you order, the cheaper your total per card. Most orders of 50 cards are around $2 per card. For our order, we chose a Minimal holiday greeting cardwhich costs $100 in total for 50 5×7 cards.

Artifact Uprising does not provide shipping estimates, but we estimate approximately $110 for our order after shipment.

Cost per card: $2.20

10. Amazon

If you’re just looking for something simple without the family photo, Amazon has plenty of no-frills options.

This basis “Happy Holidays” Card comes in a set of 40, with envelopes, for just $12.14. You can double that amount and come back to less than $25, which is much cheaper than all the other options. But, again, there’s no beaming photo of your beautiful family with these card options. These are basic Christmas greeting cards.

Cost per card: 30 cents

5 Ways to Save on Holiday Greeting Cards

We’ve established that you can get 50 Christmas cards (without photos) for less than $30, and you can find 50 Christmas cards with photos for well over $100. Moreover, there are many options in between.

But what if you’re looking to save a little more? We have ideas.

1. Look for offers

Offers. Many of these companies still offer discounts of some kind. Our examples above were just that – examples. By the time you read this, the discounts we found could be replaced by even better or worse options. The goal is to visit all of these sites and compare prices to see what best suits your budget. Waiting for a better offer? Sign up to receive email notifications.

2. Opt for digital cards

There’s no shame in saying “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” over email. Not only are these digital cards quite cheerful and charming, but many companies are giving them away for free! Sites like American greetings, blue mountain and PunchBowl have many free options for sending your greeting cards online.

3. Narrow your list

Do you really need to send 50 cards this year? Maybe 25 would be enough? Consider narrowing down your list to the most important people in your life or those you don’t see often. You might spend a little more per card, but overall you’ll save money.

4. Deliver by hand if possible

Save on shipping costs by simply skipping them when you can. Drop off cards at a co-worker’s desk, put them in your neighbor’s mailbox, or hand-deliver them with a smile at the front door.

5. Buy as soon as possible

This advice is for next year, but go ahead and start comparing prices in early fall for next year’s personalized greeting cards. If you don’t include a family photo, go ahead and order next year’s cards right after Christmas this year. You’ll generally save more by ordering early, especially after retailers mark down holiday items.

Robert Bruce is editor for The Penny Hoarder.