Should companies send physical holiday cards in the mail? Are they worth the time and effort? We at Heights Venture would answer with an emphatic “YES”!
Since the early 1990s, our firm has built a reputation for sending fun, creative, endearing holiday cards to our clients, consultants, and colleagues who eagerly await them each year. This tradition started with the original sole proprietor of the firm and continues with the current partnership. So, let’s take a trip down memory lane and review the variety of collector-worthy cards that have been masterfully curated and delivered.
The traditional company holiday card including a professional photograph of the staff was a staple for many years early in the firm’s history. This idea took a fun turn in the 90s with some original concepts. One was a card featuring baby pictures of the staff.
Another was a generic vintage photograph with staff faces superimposed onto it. This was a hilarious hit and remains one of our all-time favorites. It was also a tradition for the staff to sign each card. This exercise was typically completed by gathering the staff in the conference room and making a party of it while getting through a few hundred cards! Why not?
At one time, during the late 1990s and early 2000s, the firm had a graphic design division called Venture Design Group (VDG). This inventive team was the brains and manpower behind several unique holiday cards. The challenge each year was to create and send a card that was memorable and one-of-a-kind. It was also important to include the staff….somehow. Challenge accepted! There was a card that had a punch-out Christmas tree ornament. How about a card that included gingerbread cookie employees…along with a CD with the staff’s favorite Christmas songs! We did that. One year, our card included 3D images of the staff, so the card naturally included a pair of 3D glasses. The entire staff as Southpark characters? Did that too!
The Heights Venture employee base has always been a diverse group, so one year we created a paper desk-model Christmas tree that had a base with “Merry Christmas” written in the various languages related to our staff. If you look at the picture closely enough, you’ll see that the outside edge profile of the tree is the face profile of our group. Fun fact: This concept was popular enough that it was the only holiday card sent out two different years!
Our overly creative juices were on display in a collage of themed Christmas trees on three different occasions. One year, Christmas trees were re-imaged (from our perspective) by famous artists. Another year, the trees were re-imagined as architectural styles. Yet another year, we sent this fold-out card concept featuring the ‘Trees of Texas’ as Christmas trees. All done using in-house artistry.
Utilizing staff capabilities and talents has been a consistent exercise for our holiday cards. One year, a team member hand-drafted a custom image as a parody of an ADA-accessible chimney. Years ago, when we discovered that one of our staff was a caricature artist, we used that talent for a card that resulted in a scroll sent out in a tube. The candy-cane bookended scroll included a cartoon version of every employee masterfully integrated into an original re-telling of a famous Christmas poem that we titled “Twas the Night Before Bidding”. Currently, we have a talented and experienced graphic artist on staff who has been the force behind many of our more recent cards.
A challenge we posed to ourselves in later years was to create a holiday card concept that could potentially stay in the possession of the recipients beyond the inevitable post-Christmas purge (like the music CD or ornament). 2012 was the year that the Mayans had (supposedly) predicted that the world would end. We jumped on this idea and created a holiday card that was a desk calendar, Mayan style, complete with a fold-out stand. It had three turning wheels that can still be used today. If you still have this, let us know.
In the past several years, calendars have been a popular and fun concept. A calendar has the potential to stay on someone’s desk all year around and, according to our die-hard holiday card fans, it does! This trend started with a holiday card calendar that featured original artwork by our staff and their family. Succeeding years featured calendar themes such as world travel (country selections and photos provided by the staff), food (including QR codes for recipes provided by the staff), and Texas (including places to see and things to do that were recommended by our staff). The bonus entertaining component of the calendars is the inclusion of obscure national and international holidays that our firm has referenced many times over the years in monthly office celebrations.
That brings us to the 2024 holiday card. The process of creating these unique holiday expressions typically starts in the first quarter of the year when our design, business development, and marketing personnel brainstorm to determine the theme of the card. For the 2024 card, we elected to continue the calendar format and decided that the theme would be ‘Pop Culture.’ During the second quarter, the calendar is laid out with background designs and major holidays so a mock-up can be presented to the executive team for approval and input. The really fun part is during the middle of the year when the research into pop culture events, toys, fads, celebrities, and of course, architecture, takes place. There were some tough choices to make because we can only include so much each month. The other entertaining ritual for the calendars is selecting the obscure holidays. Who knew there were so many to choose from? So much so that we have very few duplicates from year to year. It’s always fun to see what a weird holiday is on your birthday! Speaking of birthdays, we also make special versions of the calendars for our team that include employee birthdays. The complete design package is reviewed and ready before Thanksgiving, ready for the mailing list, and then off to the printer.
We rest our case that physical holiday cards can still be fun and relevant…and more than just a card! We hope you enjoy the new Heights Venture holiday calendar. If you’re not on our mailing list, let us know so we can add you! Also, stay tuned for monthly social media posts regarding our calendar or come back here to download this month's spread.
Have a happy and prosperous 2025!
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