We respect the Small Business Saturday movement. I would like to also offer this thought: Let’s extend this concept to keeping our purchases within Made in USA products. Choosing to buy from folks that sell products within the USA, made from their own creativity and ingenuity, with American materials, keeping Americans employed.
Many companies make their profit at this time of year. The Retro Christmas Card Company is a seasonal business, and the Holiday Season is our only season. We want to warmly invite you to shop with us – this Saturday and right through the entire “Yule Tide”.
We are the definition of “Small Business”. Have you ever wondered where our cards come from, and how we differ from the other companies that sell Holiday Cards? Let me tell you a little story about The Retro Christmas Card Company.
The Retro Christmas Card Company is the creation of a husband & wife team, in Clearwater, Florida, USA. This is a labor of love, a collaboration, a “I-couldn’t-have-done-it-without-you” small, home based business. All of the graphic designs, photographs and illustrations on the Christmas cards and invitations are done right here, “in-house”. The greetings we print on the cards are a collaboration – putting our heads together, sometimes inspired by classic Christmas music, favorite Christmas movies and perhaps a serving or two of eggnog. We strive to create fun and nostalgic cards that we would want to send ourselves.
We start by selecting the best ideas from a list of inspirations that we collect throughout each holiday season. Then the artwork and copy come together in a long process of illustrations, photographs, and collages of memorabilia and ephemera. We select the perfect ecologically responsible paper stock and matching envelopes. We work with a local printer just around the block from our studio in Clearwater, Florida. We stand by the printing press carefully balancing the colors and registration, and making everything is just right for the new seasons’ retro Christmas Card Selections.
The cards arrive at The Studio a few days later and we begin hand counting them out into packs of 8 cards and envelopes and stuffing them into clear bags, ready to ship to you. Hubby is in charge of getting the shipping costs down to the lowest possible fee, I work on reaching out to all of you to tell you all about our cards. We build up the web site with new designs, add to the blog, talk with you all on Facebook, and generally try to spread the word, “Get your red-hot Retro Christmas Cards here!”. If you have a question or need help with an order you will be talking with one of us. Once the ordering begins we give our mailman a work out!
We want most of all to let you know that by doing business with The RetroChristmasCardCompany.com you are doing business with individuals. We are not a multi-national company with hundreds of employees and warehouses and subsidiaries. We are simply two self-employed people trying to build something from nothing – nothing but our true love of Christmas. We are not supported by anyone except you, and each year our sales pay for the next years’ cards. So when you are shopping this Holiday Season and you are tempted to grab a stack of Made in China greeting cards at the “mega mart”… please remember that every small sale we make means a big deal to us.
In the words of Clarence the Angel from “It’s A Wonderful Life”: Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support, your purchases, and sharing our site (and cards) with your friends and family. We wish you the merriest Christmas ever.
