Okay, it’s time to fess up! How many of you stopped sending Christmas cards years ago? You don’t know why. Perhaps you just got too many “return to sender, address unknown” cards back in the mail. It felt a bit like a waste to buy a card, write a note, and mail it, only to get a bounce back. You and me both!

But don’t you wish you had kept it up? Then you would have known how those long-lost friends were doing or at least that they were safe and sound.

If you were like me at Christmas, you used to love sending real paper cards. Some were fancy. Some had glitter or foil. Which ones did you like the best? Ones with beautiful snow scenes reminiscent of Thomas Kinkade art? Or ones with no-background that had a glittery Christmas tree, or turtle dove, or Santa on a sleigh. Perhaps you loved those cutesy child-like scenes with colorful swirls of glitter that felt like a dream.

Did you buy a new box of cards every year? Were they all fancy, or did you have some fancy and some plain, using some fancy one year, and some plain? How did you ever keep track of who got which cards? Did you ever send one person the same card two years in a row? Okay, I’ll admit, I’m not sure. How about you?

Have you lost touch with people over the years because you don’t hear from them at Christmas? Do you miss those beautiful cards—getting and giving? Are you considering revisiting your Christmas card list this year? You might want to do it differently this time. Maybe even keep a spreadsheet of who got which card and in which year, so you never send duplicates. A spreadsheet will help you track bounce backs and new addresses. Plus, you can note if you got a return card. I’m attaching a picture of what a tracking template might look like.

You can place all the Christmas cards you receive this year alphabetically in this beautiful Fashion Circle series 13-Pocket Letter Size Expanding File. That way you know who sent you cards, and what kind, and you can add them all to your tracker.