Holiday photo card + separate birth announcement= too much??

[cdlamis]

Need advice please:
Since the new baby will more than likely be here before Christmas, we were thinking of sending out a photo holiday card (probably a "Happy New Years" card) with either a picture of all 4 of us or just Julia and the baby.

Will it be too much if we also send a photo birth announcement a few weeks later?

Is it weird that most people will receive a picture of the new baby before the actual birth announcement?

Am I stressing too much??? :)

*ETA- I have put my sister in charge of handling the New Years cards- she will take the picture, have the cards done at Costco, etc. I am not that crazy! :0

Daniella
Mom to Julia 6-13-02
And another little girl EDD 12-30-04!!

[kristine_elen]

I don't know if it's "weird" but I guess if I got a holiday card with a picture of the new baby on/in it (and obviously a mention of the new babe) and then a few weeks later I got a birth announcement, I think I might say to myself, "Yah! You told us that already." But maybe I'm just crusty? But if it's important to you, then who cares?

[houseof3boys]

I don't think it's too much. Ironically, we sent Ryan's "announcement" out when he was 6 months old and people thought that it was a Christmas card (even though it said not one thing about holidays on it and was quite a normal stats and introduction birth announcement) and made lots of comments about how they liked our card. :)

Go for it if you've got the energy and the time!

[amp]

I don't know if it would be weird or not, but I would probably do both, just because I would want an announcement to keep for the baby book and to just announce the stats that the holiday card won't contain. But I'm so anal about these things, that I would likely try to do a holiday card in time for Christmas and then do a birth announcement. But I would feel weird about that too, since the baby won't likely join you until after the holiday. So just do what you want to do, and don't worry about what others think. If you want a separate announcement, then I'd say baby girl deserves it!

ETA: Or, tie them together and indicate that you are starting the new year with a new life/family member and wish others well while also adding her stats to the card. I don't know if Costco adds text, but perhaps you could find another way to do this so that you announce the baby with all the traditional info and make it a New Year, New Beginning card type thing. You could even make it yourself, or enlist the help of some talented mamas here to make it and then print at Shutterfly or Costco or whatever. Just a thought.

[JLiebCamm]

I ran into this situation when Nate was born 2 years ago. I ended up combining them by putting the announcement in the same envelope as the holiday card. I liked doing it that way because it saved me time and money (I have a pretty long holiday mailing list). But if would prefer to do them separately I don't think anyone would think that you overdid it.

[emilyf]

I combined ours-put the stats and arrival info on the inside flap of the card and our holiday message on the inside (main part) of the card-if that makes sense. He was our first though, so that seemed to make sense. I think I would still do that with two though, and do a picture of them both. Newborns aren't that exciting up close anyway. Either way would probably be fine, I just like to simplify things if possible!
Emily \r\nmom of Charlie born 11/02

[DebbieJ]

We have a December baby. Last year we did a joint holiday card/birth announcement.

We ordered the "Baby's First Christmas" photo card from Costco and had them add his stats to it. Then MIL took a pic of the three of us and there you go!

Maybe we took the easy way out, but it worked for us.

~ deb
Mommy to my sweet boy
B born 12/03
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/10023.jpg http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/10029.gif

[octmom]

I can completely understand wanting the new baby to have its own announcement, but I'd save the stress of trying to get two good pics and just combine it. We did a really cute one last year (if I do say so myself). I had a close-up pic of DS in a Santa hat with his mouth open and it said "Ho! Ho! Ho!" beneath the pic. On the inside, the text said something like, "Our Christmas gift arrived a little early this year!" Then we had his stats and a holiday greeting from our family.

Jerilyn
DS, Sean 10/03

"Baby makes days shorter, nights longer, home happier, and love stronger."

[suribear]

Well, when DD was born I had a huge mailing (a couple of months later) with her birth announcement and a postcard that said Happy New Year and noted our change of address, as we had moved two weeks before she was born! It wasn't easy putting it together and I wish I had done a Costco type announcement instead of making the darn things :)

I strongly believe in being practical, and no way was I going to do two mailings for 100 plus people :) I think anything goes, especially fter having a baby! People have to understand.

If you really want to do two mailings, go for it.

Kris

[cdlamis]

Thanks for all the suggestions! We decided to try and send out one
card like many of you suggested. Maybe "baby's first Christmas" with a picture of Julia and the baby.

Few questions-
Is it weird to have Julia in the picture as well? I guess I don't that close attention to what others have done.

How should the wording be? We thought something like:
"Our best Christmas gift- Isabella Ann
Born 12/18/04, 8lbs, ........
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas season!
Love, ...............

How does that sound? Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance! You are helping me prevent sleepless nights worrying about something so small and trivial!

Daniella
Mom to Julia 6-13-02
And another little girl EDD 12-30-04!!

[ppshah]

I don't think it's wierd at all to have Julie in the card. My SIL did a combo Holiday/ birth announcement a few years ago for my niece. It had a picture of both my nephew and niece on the cover and on the inside it said something like

Happy Holidays

Mom, Dad, older son

& Announcing

Baby's name
Baby's statistics

[new_mommy25]

Here is a card from Blue Daisy Greetings. http://www.bluedaisygreetings.com/holiday9.htm
Maybe you could do something similar to that on Photoshop, print it as a 4x6 picture (.18 a print at Costco) and stick it in with the Christmas card? If you get a good picture there are many talented people on these boards who would be happy to help you create your announcement.

[McQ]

Like we did for Declan, we waited to do Meghan's annoucement until she could hold her head up and have some personality. So we're just now doing them and want to get them out before the Christmas card. We're still working on them so it's getting close!

We wanted to annouce her before people just seeing her in the Christmas photo. Otherwise it just seems out of order :)

Allison
~ mama to Declan 3.24.03 and Meghan 8.26.04

[amp]

I don't think it's weird to have both kids in the pics. It will probably make for an even sweeter pic because Julia can be smiling and hugging/holding the baby.

And I like the text saying that the newest baby is a gift. That is so true and such a beautiful sentiment, especially at the holidays.

And i would do just like you are doing now and worry about the text, card, etc and then all you have to do is worry about getting the right pic to Costco and have them printed. You wont' want to be drawing up the text and picking the card with a newborn around. Pick it all out now and make sure your sister understands what you want and then relax!

[JLiebCamm]

Just wanted to tell you that Dec 18 is my birthday! Glad to share the day with your baby.

[vikivoly]

We did the combo holiday card thing for DD #1. She was born at the end of November. This is the wording we used:

God’s perfect gift of love, then… and now.

Announcing our new baby girl
and wishing you the
blessings of
Christmas love
all through the
New Year!

NAME & STATS

May your holidays be as
wonderful as ours!

OUR NAMES

DD #2 was born in early October and since I had many complications, I wasn't able to get her announcements out until this week. I'm still sending Christmas cards with a photo of both girls and plan to get them out later this week. I'm a little worried it will be overkill, but since I'm a photographer, everyone is used to me shoving my kids pictures in their face. :) I'm guessing that a lot of people with think that that birth announcement is a Christmas card.