How to Send Christmas Cards: List, Address, Mail by When

To send Christmas cards, build your list and fill in missing addresses first, then choose a card or postcard, write one message you can personalize, address each card correctly, and mail it in the first week of December. USPS recommends mailing First-Class by December 17, 2026 for delivery before Christmas. If you'd rather skip the envelopes, stamps and post office, you can send the whole list online and have every card printed, stamped and mailed for you.

This guide goes in the order the job actually happens. The part most people underestimate is the list, so that's where it starts.

Disclosure: ShipNote is our product and it appears below. The USPS mailing dates and the Emily Post addressing guidance were checked on their own pages on September 29, 2026.

Step 1: Build your Christmas card list

A Christmas card list is a spreadsheet with one row per household: the names as you'll write them, and a full mailing address. Start from last year's list if you have one, then add this year's changes. Do this in early November, because chasing missing addresses is the slowest part of the whole job.

Good places to pull names and addresses from:

• Last year's list, or last year's return addresses if you kept the envelopes you received.
• Your phone's contacts, exported as a CSV. Most people have addresses for only a fraction of their contacts, but it's a start.
• Your wedding or baby shower guest list, which usually has the most complete set of addresses you'll ever own.
• A group text to the family for the handful of addresses nobody has.

Keep one row per household, not per person. The Kellys get one card, not four. Write each name the way you'd greet them ("Aunt Carol", "the Kellys"): services that mail cards for you usually print the same name on the address line and in the greeting.

Don't spend an evening cleaning up the formatting. If you send through a service that reads a messy list, you can paste it in the shape it's in (more on that below).

Step 2: Fill in the addresses you're missing

Send one short message to everyone missing an address, all at once, a month before you mail. Something like: "Doing Christmas cards this year and I want to make sure yours gets to the right place. What's your mailing address?" People answer that text faster than any form.

For people who have moved, ask for the full address, apartment number included. An address that is off by one unit number is a common reason a card comes back.

ShipNote, which prints and mails postcards from a list you paste in, has a shortcut for this. When you press Next: Review on your list, any name without an address is flagged, and that row offers "Don't have their address? Request it with a link." You send the link to that person, they type in their own address, and ShipNote tells you when it arrives. Every address on the list is also checked against USPS records before anything prints, so a typo in a ZIP code gets caught before a card is wasted on it. We've written more about collecting addresses you don't have; the advice there works the same for a Christmas list.

Step 3: Choose a card or a postcard

Pick a postcard if your card is mostly a photo and a few lines. Pick a folded card in an envelope if you're writing a real letter or tucking in a photo print.

A postcard also means nothing to stuff, seal or lick, which adds up across a list of 60. For the full postcard-versus-card decision, and the size limits that decide the price, see postcard vs. letter postage.

Step 4: Write one message you can personalize

Write one message for everyone, then change the greeting line per household. Most people sign "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays", add one or two lines about the year, and close with everyone's names. Nobody expects a unique letter on every card. For wording by recipient, see what to write in a Christmas card.

A simple shape that works on a card or a postcard:

Dear Aunt Carol,

Merry Christmas from all of us! This year brought a new kitchen, a first lost tooth and far too much soccer. We hope we'll see you in the spring.

Love, Jane, John, Emma and Leo

Only the first line changes from card to card. If you want ideas for the middle, read Emily Post's take on printed cards first: its holiday greeting cards guide says it's "okay to send printed cards exactly as they are," and suggests you at least sign them. A greeting with each person's name is the easy middle ground.

How ShipNote handles this part. ShipNote prints, stamps and mails a real postcard to every person on your list. You write the message once and put [RECIPIENT] where the person's name goes. On each card, that placeholder becomes the name from that row of your list: "Dear [RECIPIENT]" prints as "Dear Aunt Carol" on hers and "Dear Kelly family" on theirs. You can still open any single card and rewrite it before checkout.

Step 5: Address each card correctly

Use the names the household uses, on one line where they fit. The etiquette books agree that the order of the names doesn't matter for a couple; what matters is getting each person's name right.

Every couple form above follows the Emily Post Institute's guide to addressing correspondence, which also notes that "Mr. and Ms. John Kelly" is incorrect: Ms. is never linked to a husband's name. If a couple's names don't fit on one line, put each on its own line and indent the second.

Below the name line, write the street address with any apartment or unit number, then the city, state and ZIP code. Use the two-letter state abbreviation, and add a return address in the top left corner so an undeliverable card comes back to you rather than disappearing.

On a family card, save the children's names for the greeting inside. They only go on the address line when the card is really for them, like a card to your niece at college.

Step 6: Stamp it

A 4 x 6 postcard mails at the USPS postcard price. A card in a standard envelope under one ounce takes one Forever stamp. A square envelope, or anything stiff or lumpy, pays an extra nonmachinable charge on top, because it can't go through USPS sorting machines. Check the exact figure for your card's shape and size on our stamp calculator before you buy a sheet.

Buy stamps before December. Post office lines in mid-December are the longest of the year, and holiday designs sell out.

If you send through ShipNote, skip this step: First-Class postage is included in the price of every card.

Step 7: Mail it on time

Mail in the first week of December and your cards arrive while people are still hanging them up. Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday, and there's no mail delivery on December 25, so Christmas Eve is the last day a card can land.

USPS published its 2026 dates in its holiday mailing and shipping dates announcement: First-Class Mail by December 17 for expected delivery before December 25. Treat that as the last safe day rather than a target, because December mail runs slow. To see USPS's standard for your own route, and which day a card mailed today should land, try the ZIP-to-ZIP mail time calculator.

Missed it? Don't worry about it. The Emily Post Institute's holiday card guide says cards are usually sent "anytime from Thanksgiving until a couple weeks into the New Year." A Happy New Year card sidesteps the rush entirely.

The do-it-for-me route: send Christmas cards online

If the list is long, the fastest way to send Christmas cards is to have them printed and mailed for you. ShipNote prints a photo postcard for each person on your list, addresses it, puts First-Class postage on it and mails it the next business day. You never touch an envelope or a stamp.

Here's the whole process, start to finish:

1. Pick a holiday design and upload your family photo, or choose one of the designs that needs no photo. Keep "Happy Holidays" or switch the greeting to "Merry Christmas" with one tap.
2. Write one message with [RECIPIENT] where each person's name goes.
3. Paste or upload your list in whatever shape it's in: a spreadsheet, a CSV export of your contacts, last year's list, even a photo of a handwritten page. ShipNote's AI pulls out each name and mailing address, with no columns to map. Any name without an address can get a request link.
4. Review the cards. Every address is checked against USPS records.
5. Check out. Each card is printed, stamped and mailed the next business day.

It costs $1.99 a card from 10 cards, with printing, postage and mailing included, and there's no account and no subscription. To have cards arrive by Christmas Eve, order by December 14, 2026: we mail the next business day, and most cards arrive 4–7 business days after that.

Start your holiday cards

If you're weighing other services that mail cards for you, we've compared ShipNote with Minted and with Postable and its alternatives on price and process. Missed the Christmas window? New Year's cards go out after the rush and fit every faith.

Frequently asked questions

When should you mail Christmas cards?

Aim for the first week of December, so cards arrive while people are still putting them on the mantel. USPS recommends mailing First-Class by December 17, 2026 for delivery before Christmas. Anything later is fine as a New Year's card: etiquette allows holiday cards from Thanksgiving until a couple of weeks into January.

How do you address a Christmas card to a family?

Address it to the adults and add "and Family", or use the family name: The Kelly Family, or Mr. and Mrs. John Kelly and Family. Inside, greet everyone by first name if you know them. Children's names only go on the address line when the card is really for them.

How do you address a Christmas card to a couple with different last names?

Put both full names on one line, joined by "and": Ms. Jane Johnson and Mr. John Kelly. Either name can go first. If the names don't fit on one line, put each on its own line and indent the second. The same form works for couples who live together but aren't married.

Can you send Christmas cards online and have them mailed for you?

Yes. On ShipNote you upload your photo, write one message, and paste your address list from any spreadsheet. Each card is printed, addressed to its own person, stamped with First-Class postage and mailed the next business day. It's $1.99 a card from 10 cards, with no account and no subscription.

What is the last day to order Christmas cards that are mailed for you?

On ShipNote it's December 14, 2026. Cards go out the next business day, and most arrive 4–7 business days after that, so December 14 is the last order date whose slowest delivery still arrives by Christmas Eve. Earlier is always safer in December.

Are postcards OK for Christmas cards?

Yes. A postcard puts your photo in front of the reader the moment they pull it from the mailbox, costs less to mail than a card in an envelope, and has nothing to open. Pick a folded card instead when you want to write a long private letter or tuck a photo print inside.