The Best Holiday Photo Cards
I love a good Christmas card, which means as a reviewer, I had one question heading into the holiday season: Who prints the best holiday photo cards?
Like many people, I gravitate toward photo designs to share a photo of my family with my loved ones. It's especially handy since I don't post my son's face to social media, so for some family members, it's a rare way to see what my son looks like now. (He's so cute, but you still won't see his face in this story.) While some may claim holiday cards are on the out, Canva says that holiday card searches are up 90 percent this year compared to 2024, so if there ever were a year to try it, this seems to be the one.
Along with trying different designs that caught our eye at seven different holiday photo card sites, we uploaded our own designs to companies that offered the option, like Mixbook and Shutterfly. Also, we tried the premium line at Truly Engaging and designed our own card from scratch on Canva, in addition to using a premade design from the site.
I had my friends and family look at the cards, pick the best photo quality, and choose which cards they liked best overall, and I also took into account price-to-value, print speed, and photo and paper quality. With all those variables in mind, the clear winner for my friends, family, and me was Mixbook. Mixbook offers the best combination of design tools and photo quality among the cards I've tested. Next up is Vistaprint, which has less design customization, but impressive photo and print quality for the price.
Read on to discover the details, and don't miss the Honorable Mentions for some fun designs like this one from Shutterfly, which my testers loved, even if it didn't make for a top pick. If you're looking for more holiday ideas, don't miss our guides to the Best Artificial Christmas Trees, Best Smart Christmas Lights, Best Advent Calendars, Best White Elephant Gifts, and Best Permanent Outdoor Lights.
Best Holiday Cards
Mixbook’s holiday cards ended up my all-around winner for the design tools and photo quality combined with the price point. Mixbook has a nice range of holiday card layouts and customizability that makes it feel like editing software instead of just a printing tool, and the photo quality was nice and bright. You could see the green in my green-and-black patterned dress, which didn't show up in all prints, and the other colors in my neighborhood's chaparral golden-hour view were beautifully represented.
I was most impressed by the editing tools, though. After choosing a design, I had a lot of freedom to move around text boxes, edit the font, you name it. Most sites will only let you adjust certain copy lines and won't let you move things around, so this was really fun to find. There was this weird AI tool that wanted to write descriptions for me when I edited copy, but I just ignored it and typed what I wanted. For this design, I just typed my family name in the spot for it, and I chose the Holiday Arched Frame ($50 for 20), which had a nice blue-green shade that complemented my family photo well. It comes in other colors, and overall I really liked Mixbook's design options. My friends also like the rounded edges many of Mixbook's designs use as a default (it does cost a little extra, though). I liked that I could order a specific number of cards instead of being stuck with preset amounts like 20 and 30. You'll also get free envelopes.
Design Abilities You can customize almost the entire layout of a card. Envelopes Blank envelopes are included for free; pay extra to get them pre-addressed. Shipping Starts at $10, with a rush option that arrives in seven days (tested with Southern California address). Best for the Price
You've probably heard of Vistaprint. It makes a wide range of customized printed goods, from cups and sweaters to business cards and holiday cards. I didn't expect to be overly impressed, but after looking at 11 different cards, both my friends and I were impressed by Vistaprint's quality. While the design I chose ($30 for 20) had a smaller photo than others I tested, the colors still came through clearly and beautifully. There's a foil feature too on the card (which added an extra $10 to my 20 cards) in the shape of a ribbon that looked like melted gold, but it stayed scratch-free during my tests.
I chose the Premium Matte paper, which still had a slight sheen but felt like a nice balance between matte and glossy. I also really liked that when you choose the card, you can adjust the greeting to be Christmas themed or general holiday, though for my design this did change it from a horizontal to a vertical design. You'll get blank envelopes for free, but you'll have to scroll through the customized options to find the free version and manually select them.
Design Abilities You can adjust default text field and add text fields. Lots of design options you can add on for back of card. Envelopes Blank envelopes are included for free, but you'll have to scroll through upgrade options to find them. Shipping Starts at $8, with an express option that arrives in five days (tested with Southern California address).
Best for Custom Designs
If you want to design your own card, there's no better option than Canva. Canva is primarily a design tool that feels like a web-centric version of Photoshop, but with tons of design layouts for everything from holiday cards to slideshows, social media posts, videos, and so much more. It's a great tool, though you'll get the most options with a Canva Pro membership ($15 a month) since it'll grant you access to every design feature and element on the site. Otherwise, you'll hit some roadblocks.
I printed two cards on Canva: one preexisting design, and one I created from scratch. I had the most flexibility to do whatever I wanted design-wise when using Canva, and it was also an affordable price point. The cards are smaller, though, coming in at 4 x 6 inches by default instead of the 5 x 7 you'll find with most cards, but this isn't necessarily a downside: A friend of mine pointed out that small cards get pinned to the front of her garland of cards, while larger ones end up in the back. The photos looked a little darker, but the print quality was smooth, and the photos still had a nice color range to them—a surprising number of my friends rated it highly, even with the smaller size.
Design Abilities Complete freedom with design customization. Envelopes Add-on for $2. Shipping Economy is free, with express option to arrive in one to two business days (tested with a Southern California address).
Comparing Our Favorite Holiday Cards
| Brand | Design Abilities | Envelopes Included? | Shipping Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mixbook | You can customize almost the entire layout of a card. | Blank envelopes are included for free; you can pay extra to get them pre-addressed. | Starts at $10, with a rush option that arrives in seven days. |
| Vistaprint | You can adjust default text field and add in extra text fields. Lots of design options you can add on for back of card. | Yes, but you have to scroll through upgrade options to find them. | Starts at $8, with an express option that arrives in five days. |
| Canva | Complete freedom with design customization. | Add on for $2. | Economy is free; you can express order to arrive in one to two business days. |
Honorable Mentions
Artifact Uprising: I really liked these designs, but they're much more minimalist. If that's your style, you'll be happy with these. One of the testers also commented that the paper quality on these cards is really nice. The photo was a little darker than the main picks, though. I also wish there were more color options for the designs, though I did like the winter blue variation I chose of the Movie Poster holiday card.
Minted: Minted’s photo prints were among the best we tested, but also one of the most expensive; my order of 25 cards had an $81 price tag. But it's another one with really stylish and high-end designs, with a lot more fun, colorful designs. I really liked the Festive Stripes design I chose to test.
Shutterfly: Shutterfly's Vintage Bow design was a big favorite among my testers, but I only found it because I'd seen it on a social media post. Shutterfly's main designs didn't seem that fun and cute at my initial glance, but there are great card options—you just have to look harder. I did really like that there was a cute background design included, and Shutterfly allowed me to upload my own design too and print it, which turned out well also.
Truly Engaging: Truly Engaging has a nice range of cards, including a base line and a nicer premium line with foil features. I really liked the design options, but when I received the cards the cut job was messy and left a lot of strings on the side of the premium cards and paper dust on the cheaper set. If you're willing to do a little cleanup, though, the designs are really nice; I especially loved the chic look of the So Merry design.
FAQs
What Are Some Design Features to Keep in Mind for Your Cards?
The biggest variable you'll juggle in choosing a holiday card design is the photo itself. I had picked out several photos I was interested in printing, but I found again and again that some card designs didn't complement the arrangement or colors in my photo the way they did with the sample pictures. Take your picture first and use that to decide everything else.
If you want your card to really stand out, I printed a few cards with gold foil and a few with a rounded edge, and both of these features got compliments. They're both upgrade add-ons, but they usually only add $10 or less to your total.
Size is also something to consider. A friend of mine pointed out that since she gets so many cards, she usually has to layer pictures on top of each other on her garland, and it's the smallest ones that end up unobstructed in the front. My mom does something similar with a clothesline she hangs in her dining room. If you want to make sure your card ends up front and center, a smaller design might be the way to go.
When Should You Order Your Holiday Cards?
I've ordered holiday cards as far in advance as the end of October, and as late as a few days before Christmas. The closer you are to Christmas, the more you run the risk of your delivery not coming in time if your cards are distinctly Christmas-themed. If you're doing more of a general Happy Holidays card or a Happy New Year Card, you could mail them out later, though I personally don't recommend mailing anything besides a New Year's card after Christmas Day.
We'll update this guide with cutoff dates for ordering your cards and getting them in time for Christmas as those dates become available.
How Does WIRED Test Holiday Cards?
I test holiday cards for WIRED by first testing the design process on each website we chose, using the same photo for each site and design. I then tracked things like design options, shipping options, shipping timeline, print quality, and overall price, to decide which ones I thought were worth the price. I also showed the cards to family and friends to have them vote which designs, photos, and paper they liked best.
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