Fun Holiday Stuff + Rejected Holiday Greeting Card and More
December 4, 2022
In This Issue:
Rejected Card Idea
Fortunes!
Holiday Fun For You
News & Top Cartoons
Rejected Card Idea
I've been submitting greeting card ideas to Recycled Paper Greetings for more than 20 years. Some ideas make it to the shelf, and most do not. Here's a (rough draft) holiday card idea I submitted a few years ago that got rejected.
Looking at this with fresh eyes, I see that the card starts off on a bit of a negative note...
... and careens downhill from there.
Typically, when people send holiday cards, they like to focus on uplifting, celebratory things. This image seems... not so celebratory.
But while I agree that the opossum and fire would be problematic tree toppers, I'm less pessimistic about the nemesis. Maybe it would be good to have your nemesis as a tree-topper? You could use that forced time together as a chance to repair past wrongs and find a new way forward, together.
But more likely, it would unfold like this:
You know what? Don't use your nemesis as a tree topper.
Fortunes!
OK, I have something offbeat that you can use as a gift or for entertaining: It's a collection of fortunes.
All you have to do is print the document below, then cut out the fortunes.
How to use it as a gift: Put all the fortunes in a jar, then the gift recipient can pull one out each day.
How to use it for entertaining: Put one at each place setting if you’re hosting dinner. Or hand them out during a party. Or just read them and provide entertainment to yourself, then don't do anything else with them.
IMPORTANT NOTE: These fortunes are quite strange, so they’ll work best with people who have a sense of humor. As you'll see, I titled them "Totally Ridiculous Fortunes."
Where did I get them? I made them up! As some of you have noticed, there’s a fortune at the very bottom of every newsletter. So I went back and gathered ALL the fortunes since the very first newsletter. Then I read through them and removed the really weird ones.
That’s right: The ones you'll see below are the normal ones of the bunch. (Scary thought.)
I thought maybe they would be fun for you in some way, so I wanted to provide them here! Just click on the file to download it.
Holiday Stuff
Buckle up, because I have several holiday things for you!
Let's start with a couple more gift ideas (see for my full gift guide).
Games and Getting Cozy
Ousi
Pronounced "we-see," this game is for ages 4 and up. It's all about visually connecting patterns, shapes and colors. Very cool!
Fun Employed
The idea is that you're interviewing for a job. You pull cards that assign you random and funny characteristics, and you have to work those into your interview. I've played it and it's really funny! This is for older teens and adults (some of the cards are edgy).
Silicon Valley Start-Ups
You pull cards to determine your start-up's name, industry and target user, and you pitch your idea to an investor. Things get quite funny. The combinations can be random and ridiculous. This one is also for older teens and adults.
The Comfy
A blanket that you can wear? YES, PLEASE. I own one and love it. In fact, I am wearing mine right now as I work on this newsletter!
Gift Tags
Every year I like to create a new gift tag for you. This year I'm featuring the skating baby from my Bowl Game series of cartoons! Here's what the gift tag looks like:
I formatted it so there are eight gift tags on the page. Click on the image below to download the document.
And if you want tags from previous years, just click on the images here and download those too!
Holiday Treats
Do you like to make holiday treats for yourself or as gifts for others? Well, here are some great recipes.
I include the toffee recipe every year (it’s THAT good), but this year I’m also including recipes for Banana Bread and S’mores Rice Krispie Treats. I’ve tried both, and I assure you, they are delicious.
Click on the recipes to download them...
Shout out to my friend Krista for introducing me to the toffee one and Rice Krispie one.
Oh, and if you're going to give treats as gifts, you may want to pair them with my "How to Eat Holiday Treats" card, available here on my online store. It comes in packs of 3, 5 and 10.
Gift Coupons
Finally, don’t forget you can print and use these gift certificates! The perfect customizable present. Click on the images to download the full-resolution files.
In Case You Missed It...
You may have noticed that when I posted the “It’s November” cartoon, I added a Spanish version. Then people suggested some more languages, so “It’s December” was translated eight different ways!
I asked people if they wanted more languages for January and, spoiler alert, they did. As the replies were coming in, I decided to do a little Googling.
What have I gotten myself into? I don't know, but I'm really happy that people are responding. So far, I'll be doing around 35 languages for January. But I can't keep that up every month, so I'll probably do translated versions once per quarter.
In other news, I’m trying something different with the Bowl Game this month. As you may have noticed, I’m posting the words and inviting anyone to play! (I'm running this on Instagram only, so I can better manage it. I might expand it to Facebook in the future.)
So the words right now are "Dramatic reindeer opening gifts." I’m working on my drawing now and will post it next week. You can post anytime this month. I already heard from a teacher who said her fifth grade class will be doing it, which is SO cool!
Speaking of the Bowl Game, the Toast Story came to a close this past month. If you need to catch up or want to see any part of that, check out my website. We'll be seeing more of those characters going forward.
Top Cartoons
Let's close things out by looking at the most popular cartoons since the last newsletter.
First, we have this reminder about cooking turkeys. It was popular, so I can only hope it helped people in the U.S. remember to defrost their turkeys ahead of time!
This one was also popular. Remember dialing phone numbers??
And finally, this cartoon. Have you ever forgotten how to spell an easy word? Or maybe you've written or said a word so many times that it loses all meaning? It's such a weird feeling! It happened to my daughter Claire recently...
Seriously, though, that word should be spelled "uv."
OK, that's it for this time. Thank you for subscribing and reading. I appreciate you all so much, and I hope you have a great December!
Let's all gather here next month. A brand new year! And more funny moments to laugh about. Until then... take care uv yourself!
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