The 2nd annual ooprint Holiday Card Design Competition comes to an end on January 15th.  That means you only have 2 days left to buy your favorite designer's holiday card.  After the 15th, the competition designs will no longer be available on the ooprint websites. 

The winners will be announced on the ooprint blog on January 20, 2009.

Remember, great prizes are at stake!  The winner of the Grand Prize (the best-selling card) will receive $1000!

The winner of the Jury Prize (selected by the ooprint artistic team) will receive $500!

All the finalists will receive a $50 gift coupon from ooprint, and the top 20 finalists will receive a tee-shirt from Spreadshirt and a lifetime blog account from Typepad!

See the competition designs here.

Best of luck finalists!

Dear ooprint customers,

The past year at ooprint was full of successful new projects and developments. We made it our priority to enhance our collections to give you a larger selection of products and models. We now proudly offer over 130 greeting cards on ooprint. We have also increased the number of models of birth announcements and wedding invitations, and added original new business card designs.

We have also improved our production process, to ensure that your orders are printed within 24 business hours. We understand how important it is to respect expected deadlines, and we have thus worked with our transporters to offer you the quickest printing and delivery service possible.

The protection of the environment was also a major focus in 2008. We now recycle all paper waste and work only with FSC certified paper suppliers.

2009 has only just begun, but we are already hard at work to reach our new goals. Our team is concentrating on both creative and logistic aspects of our website and products to offer you a more efficient and complete service. We will keep you informed of new designs, new collections of products, and numerous sales and promotions that you may take advantage of.

Please do not hesitate to send us your suggestions. We would love to hear your ideas for improvements, new products, and new designs. Simply send us an email at [email protected].

The entire ooprint team thanks you for your business
and wishes you a very Happy New Year!
See you soon on ooprint.com!

Sincerely,

Vincent Huguet
Business Director

PS: We have created a group on facebook to keep you informed of all our news and promotions, please join us!

From all of us at ooprint, we wish you a very Happy New Year!!

Start 2009 off in a spirit of friendship by sending 2009 Holiday Greeting Cards to your friends, family, and professional contacts.  We have a collection of cards designed specifically to send your wishes for a happy new year.

And don't forget, our Holiday Card Design Competition comes to an end on January 15th.  You have until the 15th to place an order for the card by your designer of choice.  The designer with the most sales will earn a prize of $1000!  See the competition designs here.

Origins of the Christmas Card

The tradition of sending Christmas or holiday cards is very much engrained in our culture, but the custom is not as old as one might imagine!  The idea of sending Christmas greetings first began in England in the 1840's with the invention of the Penny Post, which greatly simplified the sending of mail.  Soon after, the development of lithography printing popularized the sending of colorful, decorative Christmas cards.  Despite the ease of communication thanks to the telephone and email, the tradition of sending Holiday Cards to one's family and friends during the advent season has continued to today.

The first commercial Christmas card, commissioned by Henry Cole, designed by John C. Horsley in 1843.

Image credit: http://postalheritage.org.uk/exhibitions/onlineexhibitions/christmas/firstcard

Content of a Holiday Card

The first cards sent in England brought wishes for a joyous Christmas.  Today, the sending of holiday cards is a tradition that has expanded across the world, and is also practiced by non-Christians.  Thus, the holiday card no longer simply contains the message "Merry Christmas" but also offers wishes for a Happy New Year or Season's Greetings.  Some holiday cards continue to center on the Christmas theme, featuring the image of a nativity scene or a Bible verse, but others are entirely secular and can show other holiday characters such as Santa Claus, holly and ivy, or snowy landscapes.

Special Holiday Cards

Official holiday cards were first sent by Queen Victoria of England in the 1840's.  The first Christmas message from a President was written by President Calvin Coolidgne in 1927 and was published in newspapers across America.  Then in 1953, Presdient Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the first official holiday card to a list of 1,300 recipients including American ambassadors, members of the Cabinet and Congress, and foreign heads of state. Today, Presidential holiday cards typically depict White House scenes rendered by famous American artists.

White House Christmas cards sent by Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Image credit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/holiday/2002/cards.html 

Commercial holiday cards are sent by many companies to their customers and clients as a gesture of amity.  These cards are almost always secular in nature.  

Charity holiday cards are used by organizations as a fundraising tool. One such well-known program is the UNICEF Christmas card program, which is a partner of ooprint France.

You may personalize your own Holiday Card with your texts, photos, and logo!  Take advantage of our elegant designs, high quality paper, digressive prices, and quick shipping on ooprint.com.

Changes are happening at ooprint!  We are excited to show off the new and improved ooprint.com!

We have redesigned our website to include more products, new information pages about our products and services, and to give the site a cleaner look.  You'll find the new site just as easy to navigate as before, but with more important information about our products, our papers, prices, shipping, and environmental policies.

Check out the "new" ooprint.com now and take advantage of our current promotions:

-20% off Holiday Greeting Cards (until November 30th)

-40% off Birth Announcements

-20% off Wedding Announcements

The Holiday Cards designed by the finalists of the ooprint Holiday Card Design Competition are now available for purchase on ooprint.com!

Choose your favorite card from among the finalists' 39 designs, and order now!  You can take advantage of our promotion of 20% off Holiday Cards (valid until November 30th), and you will be helping the designer to win the Competition!

The best-selling card will be awarded the Grand Prize of $1000!

You can order the finalists' Holiday Cards until January 15, 2009.  The winners will be announced on January 20th.

Good luck, finalists!