Letterpress me

It's expensive and time consuming, but it also leads to some beautiful art. Albertine Press has found success with it, and with a studio cluttered with history and smelling of chocolate, it would be hard not to get caught up in the uniqueness of what Shelley Barandes is producing each day in Somerville.

Many hippo returns

The year I was born, Sandra Boynton drew a picture of a hippo, a bird and 2 female sheep. Ten million birthday greetings later, you have a card has been redrawn five times because the printing plates keep running out. She was 21. I think I'm having a BTR moment.

Greetings from Bethlehem

Each year, hundreds of people (I assume in my area) who think their Christmas card receivers are really going to notice, travel to Bethlehem, Md., to make sure that their postmark is even more authentic. The postmaster of the town of 150 estimates she processed more than 50,000 cards during the holiday, and that people really, REALLY want to make sure that folks know the lengths they went through making that arduous trip to the Eastern Shore, to get the blessed stamp.

"Postmaster Karen Durham said she has seen her share of interesting people stream through the lobby every Christmas. "Then there are people who send cards and their people don't even notice, and they get really annoyed. So this one lady made stickers that she put on the back of her envelopes saying, 'I mailed this from Bethlehem.' "

Merry Christmas, dammit.

Eye Write 4 U

I was standing in line at a store once, and the man in front of me was laboring over what the write in an enclosure card. He was holding up the line. While the cashier looked at those of us behind "Lost for Words" sympathetically, I leaned forward and offered him two simple lines, and waited for him to finish. He did, and as I put whatever it was I was buying on the counter, he asked me how I "did that so fast." I think the jist of my response was -- "What you write shouldn't be hard if you mean it. And if you don't -- keep it short and it won't look forced."

I am amazed that people struggle writing cards -- especially thank yous and birthday cards -- but I am not surprised that some companies just run out of time (or don't plan well enough) to handle them efficiently during the holidays. Here is where the company that that businessman likely went out and helped found (or fund) after our conversation in Easton, Pa., while I likely went back to my tiny desk to update basketball stats for the next 10 hours with a cup of ramen soup at my side: Red Stamp.

Don't have time to thank Grampa for the $50 this holiday? Outsource it. Etiquette experts may think it's uncouth, but let's face it -- not everyone has the time, or patience, for sitting down and writing out 250 holiday cards every December. And if you have the money, the least you can do it make sure it is personalized.