Occasionally Thoughtful

Chinese New Year is the largest Chinese holiday and is celebrated by millions in cities, towns and villages, all over the world! From Chinatown in Sydney, Melbourne, San Francisco, Vancouver and New York, the world comes together to say “Gung Hay Fat Choy” which means “Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year.”

Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year and marks both the start of a new Lunar Year, but also marks the start of Spring. For many who have been socked in for weeks with snow, any sign of spring could be a welcome relief!

Whether you grew up celebrating Chinese New Year with your family and are no longer living near them, or you have friends or co-workers who celebrate Chinese New Year, taking the time to send Chinese New Year Cards will offer you a chance to join in on one of the largest celebrations in the world! Sending a warm, heartfelt blessing, wishing them happiness, wealth and longevity to come in the new year is a great way to reach out in kindness and share in this meaningful tradition!

Chinese New Year	Chinese New Year	Chinese New Year Lanterns

We at GreetingCardUniverse.com have been hard at work, releasing some new updates, new tools for artists and a new color scheme to start of 2011 with a bang! This year we want to help you stay as organized as possible and help you simplify your life as you effortlessly accomplish your new year’s resolutions! All of these tools are free when you sign up for our Free Card Shopper Account

Tool #1: Free Reminder Service. From holidays and birthdays to anniversaries and other special dates, Greeting Card Universe offers you the ability to schedule reminder emails and SMS messages so that you will never forget another special date! Simply log into your free card shopper account and click on the My Reminders link on the top of the screen to set up your personal reminders!

Tool #2: Free online address book. Have you ever been prompted to mail someone a gift, note or a card, but couldn’t find their address? Well, with our free card shopper account you will have access to a free online address book that will not only help you easily manage all of your contacts in one place, but you will also have access to all of your contacts and their information, from anywhere you can gain internet access!

Tool #3: Mail merge function. One of the more recent addition to our service here at Greeting Card Universe, you now have the ability to create one card and have a copy of that card sent to as many of your contacts as you would like, with a few clicks of your mouse! It has never been easier to send out cards to all of your friends and family! Not only does it make sending holiday cards a cinch, it also makes sending invitations, thank you’s and works wonders for the small business owners, too!

These are just three of the ways, above and beyond automating the process of sending out greeting cards! We at GCU don’t believe you should have to pay a monthly membership fee to gain access to necessary tools that will help you save time and money! We are proud to offer these valuable time saving and money saving tools to you for free! Be sure and sign up for your free card shopper account now!

Christmas is upon us and the count down is on! With only 13 days until Christmas we at GCU have come up with a way to help you save time and money when sending your Christmas Cards this year. No more spending hours upon hours writing the addresses on your Christmas card envelopes, writing your personal messages inside the cards, licking the envelopes and licking the stamps… We are happy to introduce a better way!

So, as you are looking over your ‘to do’ list on Monday morning and start thinking about all of the things you have to get done before Christmas, know that we are your partners for your Christmas cards this year!

Simply select the card you want to send and customize the inside! Whether you add a picture from your digital, a quote, poem or heartfelt message, your recipients will appreciate the unique card that you send.

Once the card is exactly how you like it, you’ll want to click on the “Edit” link to the right of the Mailing Option. This will bring you the Shipping Information page where you are able to select the “Import addresses and we’ll mail them for you” option. Next, scroll down and make sure your return address is correct. Then click on the red “Update Shipping Information” button.

This will bring you the Select Recipients page where you are able to either select people from your address book, or you can click on the “Import a List” link and you will be walked through the simple, 4-step process of importing all of your contacts to our system!

Whether your Christmas mailing list has 10 addresses, 100 addresses or 1000 addresses, our system can help you mail out all of your Christmas cards within a matter of minutes, not hours or days! We’ve even got a simple example address book to help you easily arrange your contacts so you make the process of sending out your Christmas cards easier than ever before!

A Christmas Gift For You	Season’s Greetings	Christmas

Festivus is a holiday that was popularized in the television show Seinfeld in the late 1990’s. Every year at Christmas time, the Seinfeld show was sure to have a story line that included the Festivus Pole, the Airing of Grievances and Feats of Strength. The Festivus celebration is truly an expression of another way to celebrate the holidays without having to buy into the pop-culture pressures or mass-commercialism.

Festivus is traditionally celebrated on December 23rd, but has been known to be celebrated at other times of the year, including February. Originally airing on a December, 1997 episode of Seinfeld, the holiday is now celebrated by many, although celebrated with varying degrees of seriousness. Whether you are sharing a fun, inside joke with friends and family, or if you are ready to tell everyone at your Festivus dinner all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year while Airing Your Grievances, GCU is happy to offer the largest selection of Festivus Cards available today!

More recently, Festivus has been featured as a seasonal Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream flavor, and Festivus poles have been erected in neighborhoods, residences and even city halls! If you are a firm believer in “The holiday for the rest of us…” as Festivus was so poetically described in that early Seinfeld episode, then take some time to air your grievances in a Festivus card and send them to all those who you won’t get to celebrate Festivus with in person, this year!

Festivus Wishes	Country Home Festivus Card	Happy Festivus

Kwanzaa is a week long celebration of African heritage and culture that is celebrated from December 26th through January 1st. The most common activities include the lighting of the Kinara, the giving of cards, gifts, and joining together with friends and family.

Celebrating your heritage and the heritage of others through Kwanzaa greeting cards is a way to show unity and respect. By sending cards to your friends who celebrate Kwanzaa, you are able to share in the celebration of cultural diversity that Kwanzaa represents.

Kwanzaa is derived from the Swahili phrase, “matunda ya kwanza” that means “first fruits”. Kwanzaa became an official holiday in America in 1966 while the first fruits celebration dates back to ancient Egypt.

Happy Kwanzaa	Happy Kwanzaa	Kwanzaa

With just over a week left until Thanksgiving is upon us, you still have time to order a box of Thanksgiving cards to be delivered to your house, so you may hand every Thanksgiving guest who arrives, a personal, handwritten card!

This time of year is built on giving thanks for our loved ones and being thankful for what we have. There is no greater way to express your gratitude then by writing out a personal, handwritten greeting card. Whether you want to hand the cards to your guests on Thanksgiving, or send a card to friends and family you aren’t able to be with this year, GreetingCardUniverse.com has just the card!

With over 400,000 cards created by our team of over 10,000 artists, you are sure to find just the right card, to express that special message to those you care about most. With Christmas just around the corner and holiday cheer in the air, now is the time to send your messages of gratitude and holiday cheer! We’re even sweetening the deal now, by offering you a discount if you purchase 10 or more cards! Instead of our retail price of $2.79 per card, you can buy your last minute thanksgiving cards for only $2.29 each when you enter the promotional code NOV2292010 on the View Cart screen, before checking out.

May your holidays be blessed with friends, family and loved ones!

Happy Thanksgiving Card	Turkey In Trouble	Thanksgiving Wishes