I am a holiday card ho this year. (Ho ho ho!)

I cannot tell a lie. Over the course of this year, at various blogger events, I collected three different $50 gift cards to customized paper goods companies, and I was determined to use them all.

My annual mailing list is about 75 households long. Hence, I uploaded the same photo to Minted, Paper Culture, and Tiny Prints, and split my order three ways. So… spoiler alert: if you are on my real-life friends mailing list, you’re about to see what our 2011 holiday card picture looks like. (BUT still, a surprise remains: which version will you receive?)

Version A) The Tiny Prints gift card was given to me at a luncheon the Bay Area company hosted for bloggers in November. I let my children choose the card. It looks a little more Happy Gay Pride than Happy Holidays, but I love it.

I put a picture of me and Ryan on the back which looks a little random, but hey, when you’ve got a nice picture of your hot husband and yourself (wearing makeup and contact lenses and earrings all at the same time!), how can you not show it to everyone you know?

Version B) Next, we have the Minted card I ordered. A $50 Minted.com credit used to come in the Citrus Lane mom-to-be gift box (no longer in existence). I was doing some work for Citrus Lane, had lunch in their offices, and went home with this card. (Thanks, Citrus Lane ladies!)

I chose this one:

Minted seems to have a new promo code every day, so I’m not going to post one here, because it might expire before you read this. When you shop Minted’s Holiday Card Collection, look at the stripe at the top of the page for a discount code. (These cards are expensive, but you already may have guessed that given that I said that I spent more than $150 on a total of 75 cards.)

Version C) Paper Culture slipped a $50 credit into something I picked up at this year’s BlogHer conference. I was first seduced by Paper Culture because of their rounded corners. I am obsessed with rounded corners.

Save 20% at Paper Culture with the code I just got in the mail: TYPMN9. Ends 12/31.

Pro tip: My crafty friend Jackie gave her sharp-cornered cards this premium look with a handy corner clipper. I love this thing!

In Kindergarten, Julian’s Special Person of the Week poster was 100% rounded-cornered photos, and boy was I pleased with myself. (If you stuff your own stocking, grab the corner rounder for $6 on Amazon!) Some of the card companies charge an extra $0.10 for rounded corners. I say if you find a great deal, order square ones and then do it yourself.

Note: My kids’ unisex red-and-white-striped jammies were provided by Polarn O Pyret, and you might see more of them this month because Heather’s boys all have a set as well.

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Whitney

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents.