I know no one wants to think about the holidays yet, but like it or not, they are coming. We need to get those holiday cards and newsletters out on time. Why not make it easy on ourselves and get a few shortcuts from websites? I don’t mean putting a status update on your Facebook page saying “Happy Holidays, everyone!” I mean the real heartfelt holiday cards we get in the mail.

I thought I would share some of my favorite tools to help you make your holiday cards a little brighter.

Microsoft Office Templates – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ – This website has FREE Microsoft Office templates that you can download to your computer and use for your holiday newsletter, mailing labels or clip art to make your letters more festive. Or get some card stock paper and print your own holiday cards with your ink jet printer.

Avery DesignPro Software – http://avery-designpro.en.softonic.com/ – If you have ever worked in an office, you are familiar with Avery Labels. But Avery also has ready to print postcards, badges, brochures or anything else that may be helpful for your office. With that, comes software to print on these products. With over 500 templates with clip art and unique fonts, your holiday correspondence is sure to be the main discussion over dinner.

Find an Address – It’s hard to keep track of the family. The larger the family, the more they move around. Anywho.com is a handy tool for looking up a new address: http://anywho.com.

Go to the website and click White Pages to look up your long-lost relative by name and city. You can even perform a reverse look up if you only have their phone number. The website will give you their contact information if it is listed anywhere on the internet or phone books.

I hope these free online tools will inspire you to start your holiday correspondence. If you absolutely must communication by email, here are a few links to send personalized electronic cards:

http://www.egreetings.com/

http://www.bluemountain.com/

http://www.123greetings.com/