Cookware Center

Forget everything you thought you knew about Christmas cards. Gone are the times when your only options were paper cards folded in half with a holiday image on the front or a flat postcard with a family photo. Now you can find cool Christmas cards that pop up, play music, fold out, can be used as Christmas tree ornaments or Christmas letters, and offer more personalization options than ever before. And that’s just the paper Christmas cards. Customized digital Christmas cards offer even more options, and if you really want to get wild , you can even send an edible holiday card .

This year, check out some of these options and have fun with your mail. Here are some ideas for unusual Christmas cards.

Calendar Christmas Cards – If you don’t want your greeting to get trashed after the holidays, make it useful. At Studio Style, you can personalize one of these fold-out cards with your own photo. After Christmas is over, your recipient can hang it up and enjoy the photo and the calendar all year long.

Christmas Tree Ornament Cards – Another way to give your card a second life is to opt for a card designed to hang on a Christmas tree. Don’t worry – they’re not just rectangular cards with a hole in them! You can find some cool round ornament cards at PhotoWorks.

Musical Christmas Cards – Greetings that play music are readily available at most drug stores and superstores . Like the now-popular musical birthday cards, these cards look traditional until you open them up. Then they’ll play a Christmas tune such as “Deck the Halls” or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Christmas Letter Cards – Who wants to spend time printing out Christmas letters and stuffing them in cards? Turn your card INTO your Christmas letter! PhotoWorks offers several oversized or fold-out cards that contain room for writing. You simply personalize the cards online and they’ll arrive with your Christmas letter already printed inside.

Digital Christmas Cards – Sites like Smilebox.com make it simple for anyone to create fun digital Christmas cards. They offer hundreds of designs for all occasions, and you add your own photos and text and select the music. The result is a fun digital greeting that your recipient can open and view on their computer. For a small fee, you can even save these creations to DVD.

Edible Christmas Cards – You won’t be able to send these cardsto everyone on your Christmas card list unless you’re willing to spend a lot more than you would for traditional cards, but if you know someone who loves Rice Krispie treats or chocolate, you can send them giant greeting cards made of with their favorite treat. Check Gourmet Cookie Bouquets.com for the krispy card and Savannah’s Candy Kitchen for the chocolate greeting.

Any one of these unusual Christmas cards are sure to make your card stand out from the crowd. The only problem may be coming up with something MORE unusual next year.