50% off Holiday Cards with Vista Print

The front of our holiday card this year from Vista Print.  Photo by Kristin Callahan of Adelaide Photography.

If you have kids and send out holiday cards, it's likely you may want to feature their photo on or inside yours.  It's a great way to keep loved ones and old friends up to date on your kids' beauty and growth.  I'm not knocking cards with baby Jesus, Mary, dreidels, menorahs, Kwanzaa flags, peaceful doves, Santa or snowflakes, and we appreciate those that we receive very much.  But my family and I love receiving photo cards of growing families and smiling kids during the holidays, and those are the kind we send out too.  

Last year I reviewed several different holiday photo card companies, based soley upon my experience ordering and purchasing photo cards out of pocket from from Pictage, Snapfish, Shutterfly and Vista Print over the years since having kids.  (Here's that exhaustive review of the pros, cons and price differences.  Prices have undoubtedly changed since last year.)  I also priced out options at from Tiny Prints.  At the end of my review I concluded that Vista Print had the lowest price for great design options and that's who showed up on my American Express bill.

This year, Vista Print contacted me with a special discount for readers of APISS:  50% off the published prices of holiday cards!

The Vista Print peeps found me when I linked to them last year.  Guess corporations like it when you, unbidden, help their marketing plans.  But even though this post sounds like they've paid me to gush about them, I received simply the same discount as you guys above, plus an additional 20 free cards to review/as a thank you (a $15.98 value. Which is fabulous and I am grateful to receive.  But this year we ordered 350 more cards, paid for totally out of pocket.  So there's still a nice Vista Print charge on ye olde AmEx, don't worry.)

But even if they hadn't contacted me, gifted me some cards and given all of us that read APISS 50% off the published price, I would have used Vista Print again.  Their prices are still way cheaper than most holiday cards out there, and there's the cool option of being able to place a second photo and greeting on the backside of your card for a low price (free if you order a small number of cards.)  You can also upload multiple photos to the front or back of your card and you can customize your greeting to wish your recipients whatever type of holiday, wish for peace or corny saying you please...in the font and color you like best. 

The paper quality is great and you can choose glossy or matte finishes.  I also think the photo resolution is outstanding for a company that does not specialize in photography.  If you upload a photo with resolution that will not translate well to the card, their software will tell you. You can order various sizes of cards, flat or folded, and upload multiple photos to the front or back.  You can also turn a design so that it's vertically oriented with your greeting below the photo, or horizontally oriented with your greeting next to your photo.  Vista Print has really expanded and updated the available options for customers to customize their holiday cards.  

This year there are also TONS more patterns and designs new to Vista Print for 2009, and I really think they have improved the chic-ness of their designs to compete with the upscale look of card designs on sites like Tiny Prints. But  instead of $1.25 a card, usually the cheapest option at the haute-y looking sites, Vista Print's cost is a mere .37 per card for a look I think is just as fancy. 

The back of our holiday card from Vista Print.  Photo by Kristin Callahan of Adelaide Photography.  Cute saying was one of the suggestions of the Vista Print software.

Additionally, Vista Print is offering all APISS readers lots of free holiday gift stuff HERE. No joke, totally free stuff! I just ordered myself free sticky notes, a personalized note pad, return address stamp, a photo wall calendar for the grandparents...free family holiday gifts and stocking stuffers!


So, even though they didn't pay me to do it, I've totally been drinking the Vista Print Kool-Aid.  But it's just so tasty...and cheap.  I heartily recommend Vista Print for adorable and reasonable and high quality holiday photo cards, and again, click this link to get 50% off!  

Holiday Photo Card Review - Deals & Differences

Have you started to think about your family photo holiday card yet? Although there's no rush, now's a great time to order them because many sites have discounts if you order in November.

Over the years we have ordered our photo cards from Pictage, Snapfish, Shutterfly and this year, Vista Print. I've also dreamed about ordering them from Tiny Prints and have checked out their samples. Here's my review and low-down on costs and quality across these different photo card sites. Full disclosure: I do not have partnerships with any of these sites for this holiday card review - all information here was learned through my own real life purchasing of photo cards since 2003 and lots of clicking ahead to checkout to get the true prices for you all so that you don't have to. Please note that none of my price calculations below include shipping.

Pictage and other professional photography sites: If you have your children or family's photo taken by a professional, your photographer may host the images on a professional site like Pictage. Just like professional photography, these sites are going to produce great quality cards and images but you are going to pay a premium. The cards we purchased from Pictage had the highest quality photo paper, great resolution, and the hefty price tag of $1-$7 per card. You have the option to design your own wording on several of the card designs.

Pictage prices for a 5 x 7 flat photo card, the least expensive option:
$2.40 per card for 50, $1.61 per card for 100, $1.23 per card for 200
your photographer may give you an additional discount

Tiny Prints: Tiny Prints has the most whimsical, creative and modern designs. The cards look as if you had a graphic designer personally create a modern art holiday card for your family, but you can set it all up at home in your pjs. Tiny Prints gives users plenty of options for personalizing your greeting and text, uploading multiple photos and making the cards wholly your own. And though Tiny Prints is awesome with the coupons and discount codes on the mommy blogs and parenting magazines, you will still pay more than some other sites for the high design look.

Tiny Prints prices for a 5.25 x 5.25 flat photo card with 1-4 photos,
the least expensive option:
$1.34 per card for 50, $1.19 per card for 100, $1.09 per card for 200
Coupon codes for $5 off 50 cards, $10 off 100 cards and $20 off 200 cards
Free shipping on orders over $99

Snapfish: It's hard not to love Snapfish, as one of the first and most popular online photo sharing sites. This is the company that showed us how to use our first digital cameras and converted generations of people used to "turning their film in" to the pharmacy or photo shack in the grocery store parking lot. It's also the way my parents still prefer looking at pics of their grandkids, since they already have their logins memorized and the accounts are very user friendly. The photo quality is hit or miss, and I don't think Snapfish's software or printing centers provide the best resolution possible.

But my biggest complaint is that on the 4x8 cards Snapfish barely allows me enough room to type "Merry Christmas" and all four of our family's names. But this year Snapfish has improved their variety of designs and options, allows for multiple photos on even the 4x8 cards and on the 5x7 cards users have ample room for personal text. Snapfish is also generous with the coupon codes to existing and new users and offers a great discount for the big sender that needs over 240 cards.

Snapfish prices for a 4x8 photo card with 1-4 photos, the least expensive option:
.55 per card for 40-60 cards
.45 per card for 80-160 cards
.39 per card for 180-220 cards
.29 per card for 240+ cards

Coupon for $10 off orders over $25

Shutterfly: I think Shutterfly cards are awesome quality, fabulous price and there are tons of design options. The resolution that translates to the cards is solid, if not as crystal-clear perfect as Pictage's (but that probably has more to do with the person taking the photo.) If you like sending religious Christmas or Hanukkah cards, there are many great choices. You can also do Kwanzaa, New Year's, Winter Solstice, Peace on Earth - whatever greeting fully reflects the message you'd like to send your loved ones. You can also really personalize the text - Shutterfly allowed us the room on our cards for the last two years to add our favorite verses from the Gospel of St. Luke. Uh, that's a lot of room! You can also choose to upload 1-4 photos of your family and their graphic art designs are fabulous.

Shutterfly prices for a 4x8 flat photo card with 1-4 photos,
the least expensive option:
.52 per card for 50 cards, .44 per card for 100 cards, .36 per card for 200 cards
Existing users of Shutterfly can receive $10 off a $50 order (login to your account for your code), new customers can receive a 8x10 collage poster and all users get free shipping for orders over $25 and save 20% off their order and get free address labels.

Vista Print: I've been loving Vista Print for business cards and other personal stationery products, so this year I tried them out for our holiday cards. They turned out great! They are fabulous quality paper and the photos are super clear with pretty resolution and color. You could add as much text as you like, which I love. And the neatest thing? You can include a SECOND small photo on the back of your card with another greeting to be printed in grayscale at no extra charge, and just a $4.99-14.97 charge if you'd like the image on text or the back to be printed in color. (See below for the back of our card.) The white space will be the perfect place to scrawl to friends and family. However, on the 4x8 cards there is not the option to use multiple images on the front of the card.

UPDATE: A commenter below stated that Vista Print might charge customers per month without their explicit authorization. I called Vista Print to check this out and it is not true. They do offer partner deals after the checkout of placing an order, which might incur monthly fees. If this has happened to you accidentally, Vista Print is happy to provide a full refund, just contact customer service. Additionally, Vista Print is offering all APISS readers lots of free stuff HERE with free shipping. No joke, totally free stuff! I just ordered myself free sticky notes, address labels, a photo wall calendar for the grandparents = free family holiday gifts!!

Vista Print prices for a 4x8 flat photo card with 1 large color photo on the front and a grayscale photo on the back - the least expensive option:
.24 per card for 50 cards, .21 per card for 100 cards, .13 per card for 250 cards

My final opinion: Vista Print has the best prices and the free-photo-on-the-back option is cool, Shutterfly has the best variety and photo quality for the price, great coupons right now and has the lowest price if you'd like to use multiple images on the front of the card but do not need more than 200 cards.