How to Get Addresses for Christmas Cards: 5 Tools Compared
To get addresses for Christmas cards, start with the list your cards went to last year, then ask only the people you're missing. Postable exports its address book to a spreadsheet; Shutterfly and Minted don't, so you copy those lists out by hand or with a workaround. For the gaps, send each person a link where they type their own address.
Disclosure: ShipNote is our product and it appears below. We read Shutterfly's, Minted's and Postable's help pages on October 19, 2026; what each one can export or collect is as of that date.
Which tool should you use to get Christmas card addresses?
Use the service your cards went out through last year to get the list back, and a collector link to fill the gaps. Which service you used decides how much copying is involved. The table compares the five tools people reach for, by the three jobs a Christmas card list needs: getting the old list out, collecting new addresses, and mailing the cards.
| Tool | Getting last year's list out | Collect missing addresses | Mails the cards? |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShipNote | No export, so keep your own copy. Takes any list in: paste it, or upload a CSV, an Excel file or a screenshot | A link for each person whose address is missing; you get an email when it arrives | Yes, every card, as a postcard with First-Class postage |
| Postable | Out: yes, Address Book > Export, as an Excel file | One address collector link for everyone; answers land in your address book | Yes |
| Minted | Out: no, only print it or save it as a PDF | Request Addresses, by email or a copied link | On some orders (Mail It For Me) |
| Shutterfly | Out: no Shutterfly tool; a third-party Chrome extension adds one | Request Addresses, by a copied link | For a fee (Mail for Me) |
| A Google Form | Answers can go to a Google Sheet you link | One link for everyone; you build the form | No |
If you already have most of last year's addresses, the job is getting them out and filling a handful of gaps; the next three sections cover each service. If you're starting from nothing, skip to collecting the addresses you're missing.
Can you export your Shutterfly address book?
Not with a Shutterfly tool. Shutterfly's address book help page, dated October 1, 2026, says "Contacts can be manually added or imported via CSV," and it has no step for getting them back out. Its separate Address Book Service is one-way too: you email Shutterfly a file of addresses and it adds them to your address book.
That leaves three ways to get a Shutterfly list out:
- A third-party extension. "Shutterfly Address Book Exporter" in the Chrome Web Store adds an Export button next to Shutterfly's Import button and saves a CSV. It is open source, and its Chrome Web Store listing showed 2,000 users and a 3.5-star rating on October 19, 2026. Shutterfly doesn't make it, so read the permissions it asks for before you install it. It works inside your signed-in account, where your contacts' home addresses are.
- Screenshots. If your address book page shows names and addresses, a screenshot of each screenful is a usable copy. ShipNote reads names and addresses from a screenshot you upload, so you don't need to retype them.
- Copy and paste. Select the addresses on the page and paste them anywhere that reads a messy list.
Whichever you use, check the count against the number of contacts Shutterfly shows. A list that stops early usually means a page that didn't scroll in.
Can you export your Minted address book?
No, Minted doesn't export to a spreadsheet. Its help page is direct about it: "we do not support exporting your Address Book into a spreadsheet, or other file formats such as .xls, .xlsx, .csv, .doc, or .docx." What it offers is printing the list or saving it as a PDF. Minted also can't move an address book to another Minted account.
The PDF is your way out. Save the address book as a PDF, open it, select all the text and copy it. Text copied out of a PDF often loses its columns. That's fine if the place you paste it reads a list in any layout; it's an evening of retyping if it needs one field per column. ShipNote's list box takes the pasted block as it is and shows you each person it found, so you can check the rows before anything prints. A screenshot of each PDF page works the same way.
Minted imports cleanly, for what it's worth. It takes Google Sheets, .xls, .xlsx and .csv files, plus a vCard from an iPhone or the Contacts app, up to 5 MB and fewer than 5,000 rows.
Can you export your Postable address book?
Yes. Postable's FAQ: go to Address Book > Export, and "it will export your entire contact list as an Excel spreadsheet." Minted's import takes an .xlsx file, Shutterfly's wants its own CSV template, and ShipNote reads the Excel file directly, so there's no need to rearrange the columns first.
Postable's address book is also where its collector link sends answers, which makes it the easiest of the three to leave with everything you've gathered. We compare Postable with the other services that mail cards in Postable alternatives.
How do you collect the addresses you're missing?
Send each missing person a link where they type their own address, a month before you mail. A link saves you retyping whatever people text back, and the address arrives typed by the person who lives there. The tools differ in whether everyone shares one link and in where the answers go.
| Collector | One link or one per person | Where answers go |
|---|---|---|
| ShipNote | One per person, for a name already on your list | Into that person's row; ShipNote emails you when it arrives |
| Postable | One link for everyone | Your Postable address book |
| Minted Request Addresses | An email per person, or a copied link | Your Minted address book |
| Shutterfly Request Addresses | A copied link | Your Shutterfly address book |
| A Google Form | One link for everyone | A Google Sheet you set up |
Which one fits depends on how many addresses you're missing.
- Collecting a whole list from scratch: a one-link collector is the better tool. Postable's address collector is built for exactly this, and its FAQ says anyone with the link "can add info, but nobody can retrieve info." Minted's and Shutterfly's Request Addresses do the same job inside their own address books, which suits you if you'll order from them, since neither lets you export the list afterwards.
- Filling the handful missing from a list you have: ShipNote. Paste the list, and any name without an address is flagged with "Don't have their address? Request it with a link." That link goes to that one person. They type in their address, it's checked against USPS records, and you get an email with a button that puts it on their card. Each link lasts 30 days.
- A Google Form works if you want the answers in your own spreadsheet and don't mind building the form.
ShipNote doesn't have a single collect-everyone link. If you're starting with no addresses at all, collect them with Postable's collector, whose answers land in an address book that exports to Excel, or a Google Form first, then bring the list over.
Which service should mail the cards once you have the list?
ShipNote, if you'd rather not address, stamp and post each card yourself. Paste or upload the list in whatever shape you ended up with, pick a Christmas design, write one message, and ShipNote prints a Christmas postcard for every person on the list, stamps it with First-Class postage and mails it. It's from $1.99 a card on 10 or more, postage included.
You can order now and pick the day your cards mail, up to 90 days out, so the list you finish in November goes out in the first week of December without another trip to the computer. Every address is checked before it prints, which catches the typo in a ZIP code that would otherwise send a card back.
Christmas postcards, addressed from your list and mailed with First-Class postage.
For what the other services charge once the stamp is added, see Christmas cards cheaper than Minted. For the rest of the job, from the card to the mail-by date, our guide to sending Christmas cards walks through each step.
How do you keep the list for next year?
Keep a copy outside whichever card service you use. As Minted and Shutterfly show, an address book inside a card service can be hard to get back out. A spreadsheet with one row per household, the names as you greet them and the full address moves to any service. Our free Christmas card list template has those columns plus sent and received, and it shows how to fill it from your phone's contacts.
Frequently asked questions
How do you get addresses for Christmas cards?
Start from where last year's cards went out: Postable exports its address book to Excel, while Shutterfly and Minted have no spreadsheet export, so you copy their lists out. Then send the people you're missing a link that lets them type their own address in. Postable, Minted and Shutterfly have one, and so does ShipNote.
Can you export your Shutterfly address book?
Not with a Shutterfly tool, as of October 2026. Shutterfly's help page covers adding contacts by hand and importing a CSV, and has no step for getting them back out. A third-party Chrome extension, Shutterfly Address Book Exporter, adds an Export button; Shutterfly doesn't make it, so read what it can access before you install it.
Can you export your Minted address book to Excel?
No. Minted's help page says it does not support exporting the address book to a spreadsheet or to .xls, .xlsx, .csv, .doc or .docx files. You can print it or save it as a PDF, then copy the text out of the PDF.
What is the best website to collect addresses for Christmas cards?
For collecting a whole list from scratch, a one-link collector: Postable's address collector, whose answers land in an address book that exports to Excel, or Minted's and Shutterfly's Request Addresses if you'll order from them. For the few people missing from a list you already have, ShipNote gives each of them their own link and tells you when the address arrives, then prints and mails the cards.
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