Valentine’s Day is coming up, and it’s my favorite holiday! I bought some vintage reprints for the occasion.
It had me thinking… how early should I send my holiday cards on Postcrossing? How far in advance do ya’ll choose to send holiday-themed cards? Do you send them a month early, a few weeks, a couple of days early, etc?
I would love to know any suggestions!
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For overseas recipients I tend to send a month or so early, local ones I send within the week (but Singapore is a small place so YMMV)
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I think it depends on where you are sending to and how long mail takes to reach there. I would send overseas a few weeks early.
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yes it’s mostly distance related, germany usually takes 2 days and russia a month so i take that in mind.
but it also depends on who i am sending to. if i have the perfect card for an official profile i can send it some weeks early, because there’s no other time. and for my dutch penfriend i (almost) sent my christmas card late because i was thinking all this time ‘oh it’ll take one day i’ll send it out as late as possible’ but then i had a busy week and almost forgot.
i think it’s the thought that counts.
and i always start collecting my christmas cards in november because by christmas i want them all hanging on my string of lights. but i mostly join the tags for that, so i can share my early christmas joy with other people.
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You can always check the average time it has taken for your sent cards to get to a particular country - even in a particular date range - on your Stats page. And looking at a particular country’s details can help you rule out outliers as well.
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I am wondering aobut New year cards. I was thinking to start mid November
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I think that sounds about right from our part of the world 
I am thinking a month should be relatively safe, and 2 weeks extra couldn’t hurt given that it’s the holidays and there will be more letters/postcards being sent.
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Yes. Being in Serbia, i think Europe can get postcard in 7 days up to 14 and all the rest of the world usually takes around 30 days to arrive, some places it took even 70-80 days.
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I was thinking I should start mailing my Thanksgiving postcards and cards this week. Although Thanksgiving is celebrated in the U.S., I mail Thanksgiving greetings to U.S. and international postcrossers, friends, and family. I will probably mail Christmas and New Year’s postcards soon after Thanksgiving day (November 23).
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We celebrate New Year on January 1st (I realise it differs in some countries) so I don’t think I’ll send new year cards until mid to late December, depending on the country I’m sending to.
I’d definitely be happy to receive new year cards any time in January, but I might think them turning up in November was a little odd x
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Yeah we all celebrate january 1st too, but what is common in our country is that whole december is filled with new year spirit so people often send cards earlyer so they can fit under the tree and be a reminder of people thinking of them.Therefore i too took liberty of making my own Cristmas and New year card , because in Serbia it is hard to find them, they are not often used nowadays.So giving the time for card to arrive if it takes usually 30 days as for many countries does, it will get there mid december wich colides with cristmass spirit. Cuz here after January 1st we have Cristmas January 7th and then by Serbian new year wich is January 14th all decoration and spirit is gone, so we prefer december for all that stuff.
Add images
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Hello 
Thank you so much for telling me about how you celebrate Christmas & New Year in Serbia, that’s really interesting.
The card you have designed is wonderful, I’m sure everyone who receives it will love it 
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Exactly what I’m thinking!
I’m already preparing stamps & postcards for Christmas, but probably start to send them in mid November.
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I’m done with my Christmas cards on Halloween. I just need to visit the post office to mail them out!
October is busy month for postcard writing. I’m writing for World Postcard Day, World Post Day, Halloween and Christmas. 
Ha Ha Ha Ha !
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Omg good reminder, I need to work on mine and mail it ASAP
I want to send Christmas cards right now. But I’m afraid if they delivered after over a month later.
To Germany it’s OK. I really trust that the cards will be delivered before Germans put away the Christmas tree. (I heard they places the tree until around 8th January)
But what if the card will be heading to other countries?
Even the U.S. I can’t trust in these days. The recent cards to the U.S. always take over weeks.
Ah, I forgot the one. I must be afraid if the recipient may be away from home for holiday, although the cards are delivered properly.
It depends of the country I’m sending and the Holiday. Germany and USA usually takes around 20 to 25 days from my country, others countries I realized it can take from 30 to 40 days, and if it’s Christmas I add 5 days just to be sure. So that’s the time I take into to consideration to send a card. For Valentine’s day I would send my card 1 month before, an average.
I used to think the card should be there before the actual holiday days, but now I think, travel mode cards are sended, I get it when they are not on their travel anymore, meeting cards, and the meeting is over when I get it, I was not even there, WPD cards I get mainly later than the actual day. So now I take it that it’s from my moment, I’m in Christmas spirit. If they get it very late, it’s not “happy this day”, but more like a historic moment of my life during the christmas season (because I don’t only send “Happy Christmas” -wish, I normally write the messages as usual).
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I love your card♥️.