Poll: What Do You Say on Your Christmas Cards?

It really depends on the look of my photo cards . . . if they're red I'll do "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

A couple of years I've done a tropical theme (living in SoFla) and I'll just do a "Happy Holidays." Then I'll generally hand-write Merry Christmas somewhere on the card.

I always send a Happy New Year card. Mostly this is because I never get it together earlier enough to send a Christmas card. But I also like it that my card comes a little later.

I always go for the "Peace" sentiment, can't go wrong with that.

Happy Christmakwanzakah and a
Festivus for the Rest of Us

JK!! Merry Christmas usually. Happy Hannuka for my sis in law is added to the Christmas card sent to her and my brother and family.
Most of the time, I just never get them sent...

Whatever the card I like says. If it says Happy Holidays, then there's that. If it says Merry Christmas, then it's that. Usually I have some Happy Holiday cards because I do have Jewish friends and I make sure to send them Happy Holiday cards.

But I'm not stuck on that PC Merry Christmas thing. My Christian friends don't care if they receive Happy Holiday cards and I don't mind if I get Happy Holiday cards. I don't need Merry Christmas to remind me that I'm Christian.

Dawn

Guilty of being Christian. My usual message:

Merry Christmas! May the Spirit of Christ be with you all year round!

To Russian Orthodox friends and family - CHRIST IS BORN!! GLORIFY HIM!!!

To Friends and family - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! May God continue to bless and keep you in His loving arms....

Have a Very Merry Christmas, and Happiest New Years!
Thank you for being in our lives. We love you.

I'm an atheist and I say Merry Christmas. i'm not sure what saying that has to really do with Christianity. I mean, I get it, but Christmas is a holiday separate from the church and God for a lot of people. In fact, the date has more to do with winter solstice celebrations than with a god, so....

So I write, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

I really think you are overthinking this. I wouldn't send an Xmas card to a Jewish friend or some other non-xmas celebrating friend, so there is no need to think about the wording.

Although my husband is Christian, We usually send out one that says

Happy Holidays.. "accordingly, yours... (insert son's name)
and it's always a pic of our son..

my son plays the accordion.. (ok we did still the signature from Myron Floren... but it works :)

holidays works for most and if it doesn't at least they get a cute pic :)

A couple of years ago, my daughter was Princess Leia for Halloween and my dog was Yoda. I put a picture of them on the card and said "May the Force Be With You This Holiday Season and Throughout The New Year". Usually, I just go with Happy Holidays!

Our Christmas messages usually say something resembling "Merry Christmas" more than "Happy Holidays." It varies because we make our own.

But most of my friends, Christian or not, don't think much about the wording one way or they other. They're just thankful to get their cards addressed and in the mail.

For what it's worth, I send Hanukkah cards to my Jewish friends, and they send Christmas cards to me!

P.S. Just read the other answers. I like the Russian Orthodox greeting best.

I purposely buy cards that reflect the exact sentiment I wish to convey - and that is MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! If the recipient has a problem with it, then too bad.

Depending on who the card goes to, I'll put in a school picture of my kids and off it goes. I do not put in any of the "yearly newsletters" - I only send cards to those close friends and family I truly want to send wishes to and they already know all my news!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I always say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I don't think I would send out Christmas cards if I didn't celebrate Christmas, and I don't send Christmas cards to anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas. In fact, I don't know anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas. My Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, atheist and agnostic friends all celebrate Christmas (in a secular way at least), and they all wish me a Merry Christmas. I do make sure to acknowledge my friends other celebrations as well. I wished my Indian friends Happy Diwali yesterday.

I always say "Merry Christmas," and usually I add something like,"May your New Year be bright and filled with joy!" That is printed on the card, and I write a personal note to each family that I send cards to, also.

I use MERRY CHRISTMAS. I think the people in my world are flexible, which is why they are there. I get HAPPY HANUKKAH cards from my Jewish friends. Fine with me.

Merry Christmas or Onto us our Savior is born. Something like that. Yep I'm Christian and I celebrate it as such.

I have given up trying to be PC.

They vary. One year they didn't go out until after christmas and it said
"happy new year"
We switch it up every year:
Merry Christmas
JOY
Unto us a child is born
All is calm
this year it is a Christmas ornament ball shape and it is saying
Wishing you a holly, jolly season

Most cards seem to have those messages. I usually choose the Merry Christmas, but will go with Happy Holidays if I like the card design better. I reserve the vocal Happy Holidays for the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas because Hanukkah falls between the two and there are multiple holidays, hence "Happy Holidays". Once the "multiples" are past, then I say "Merry Christmas". It's not out of a fear of offending, but rather a recognition and respect of others. To me it seems like an excellent solution :)

ADD: Oh, yeah, and if you can't get your act together to send them out before Christmas, Happy Holidays is the fallback (like the other poster said! LOL)

Our family is not particularly religious but we DO celebrate Christmas, therefore our cards ARE Christmas cards and they usually say something along the lines of Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.

Ours say Happy Holidays or something like Wishing You Joy and Happiness this Holiday Season.
or if I get to them late, they say Happy New Year!
LOL!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Everyone on our card list is Christian - they send cards that say the same thing.
I don't get offended if people tell me 'Happy Hannuka' or "Happy Solstice" or what ever anyone else calls the winter break.
Alright - 'Happy Kwanza' annoys me a little but that's only because it starts on my birthday (Dec 26) and it's yet another reason people forget my birthday (it's Boxing Day, too).

They say Happy New Year. Yeah, November and December are usually pretty busy for me....

We usually craft ours with whatever important events happened that year. If a baby is born, we'll say something about being thankful for the gifts we received, wishing good things for others in the coming year, and we always include some form of "Merry Christmas."

I think last year I did something like, "May the peace and blessings of our Emmanuel be with you this Christmas and in the year to come."

Sometimes I'll look up a poem, but I am always sure to keep it religious, because that's what the whole holiday is about anyways. If I wasn't religious but wanted to send a card, I'd just to New Year's cards, which is very secular and can't offend anyone, religious or non-religious.

I have two cards one that says Merry Christmas, and one that says Seasons Greetings. In both I usually write any important events that have happened in the year, and continue with a" Blessings and love this holiday season" for the ending.

I have many friends who practice different faith's and religions.So, the Season's Greetings is a good card for them. Merry Christmas goes to everyone else in my huge list!

I used to try to do the PC thing and do the happy holidays thing but then I remembered that everyone I send cards to celebrates christmas so why the heck do I not say that when I celebrate christmas. So i always say merry christmas now. On a side note I need some new christmas wrapping paper and for the Santa gifts I do like to have santa paper. At target I found some santa paper but it only said happy holidays. UM santa IS christmas so I think it is dumb to say otherwise.

We order two sets of cards - about 50 Christmas versions, and 10 Hanukkah ones. On the Hanukkah ones, we have them printed with "Happy Hanukkah" and write "Love, [blah blah blah]" with a sharpie- these are for my husband's family and a couple of our friends who we know are Jewish. For the Christmas ones, we have them printed with "Happy Holidays" and pick a non-religious theme. On those, we write "Merry Christmas! Love, [blah blah blah]" if we know they celebrate Christmas and just our signature if we don't know what, if any, holiday they celebrate or we know they don't celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah. There are very few people who we don't know what their preference is...it happens once every year or two that we add someone to the list who we don't know that well yet. Usually, if I send you a holiday card, I know you well.

The exception to this is teacher gifts and things like that - unless it's for Sunday school (Catholic) or I know the teacher very well, I use Happy Holidays and a neutral winter holiday card instead of our family photo card.

I buy cards that say Happy Holidays and I write our names with the word love. I don't even repeat the Happy Holidays saying because it's already on the card.

I don't affiliate myself with any particular religion, but I am not an atheist. We celebrate Christmas, but don't really talk much about the religious aspect of it.

I admit to being a bit puzzled about being Christian and specifically not saying "Merry Christmas" in your own cards.

Cards are a big thing for us. We usually send one of the following: A funny Christmas card, a generic seasonal card or a religious Christian card, depending partially on the recipient. We write a letter to go inside, either my straight up letter or DH's totally irreverent/funny one (people say they enjoy them). For many, this is our "gift" and we enjoy receiving any and all cards and hanging them up. Our letters are signed off as "Merry Christmas" because that's the holiday we are celebrating. Sometimes they also include "Happy New Year!" None of our non-Christian, non-Christmas celebrating friends have ever complained. Further, they usually send us a card relating to their holiday and we hang up the Solstice or Hanukkah ones with all the rest.

Wishing you a happy holiday season and a healthy, happy 2013!!

I'm not overly religious but don't care if I get a card wishing me Merry Christmas or a beautiful season as we celebrate our Savior's birth.

We send a little letter in our card to people we don't see often with a picture of our family. Those close by just get the card and picture. We don't do it every year..just the years I feel I have time for it to be on my to-do list.

At the bottom we say something like, "May you feel the spirit of Christmas during this beautiful season as we celebrate our Savior's birth. We love you!"