My 2012 Christmas Card

Brainstorming, designing, and creating my Christmas card each year always ends up being the most time-consuming and labor intensive part of the holiday season for me. Without fail, I generally slam down my supplies each year and scream "Why can't I just buy my cards?" (It happened at 5:18 p.m. on December 15, 2012 this year. If you are keeping track at home.)  

But the answer to that question is pretty simple. Because I do actually enjoy the process. And I almost always love the end product. So in the end, it's worth it. Every year, I try to come up with a totally different concept just as a challenge to myself and my creativity. 

This year's idea was inspired by the Are You At A Hipster Wedding infographic by Refinery29. After I saw that and had a good laugh about it, I started thinking about how that flow chart concept would be fun in a Christmas card.  (Related, at what point did flowcharts become known as "infographics"?) And I spent much of November brainstorming how exactly this would work. The hardest part was coming up with a layout of one that would work in card form. Unlike a poster format infographic, mine needed a bit of paper engineering to work.

In the end, I went with a long rectangle card with a pull-out.  I created a card folder with the bottom open. On the front of the card is the first set of questions.

Because of the layout (and atypical of most flow charts), the questions all lead to a single action on the front which is, Pull Here.

Which opens up to reveal the bulk of the flow chart. But first, I need people to keep pulling and hopefully not insult their intelligence.

Once done, the rest of the flow chart was revealed.  

And then I asked people "Are you in the Christmas Spirit?" For the actual content of the flowchart, I came up with a series of questions that I thought were pretty entertaining, at least by my sense of humor.  

 

(And for all of you flowchart/inforgraphic experts out there, there are probably rules being broken and inconsistencies and typos in the above. I know! I also don't really care. I have no aspirations to be a flowchart designer beyond this card.) 

(Also, my birthday is on Christmas so I am allowed to joke about Merry Birthday gifts.)

And that friends, was my Christmas card this year. I loved it quite a bit.

But next year, I swear I am doing a photo card of my bamboo plant. Maybe I will take it to see Santa. If I can remember to water it and keep it alive.