When you’re a writer and you’re married to a writer, avoiding the holiday newsletter is not an option. It goes against your very nature.

It can be a challenge to keep costs down on your holiday newsletter – especially if you also like to include photos.  And you have to remember there are postage costs, too!

With this collection of free resources for holiday newsletters, you should be able to get your message across on a budget.

Holiday Newsletter Tips

In order to save on holiday newsletter costs, I recommend using a free holiday newsletter template to design them, printing one color copy of your newsletter, and then finding a place that makes inexpensive color copies.  You’ll save a lot of time having someone else print them, and the cost of color copies is cheaper than buying your own printer ink and paper.

Another alternative for those of you who like to do photos and newsletters is to include a simple snapshot (or create a 4×6 photo collage) with a newsletter that is printed in black and white.  Printing in black and white will also save money, and you can print 4×6 photo prints quite cheaply (or even free if you’re a new member to an online photo company).

You can also send postcards instead of cards or newsletters, which will save a lot of time and money for postage.  We have friends that have used the photo postcards to direct family and friends to their family website.  It works well!

And of course, there is the greenest option:  Send an e-newsletter!  You can send cards or newsletters via e-mail for free, and it’s good for the environment, too.

Here are a few resources for holiday newsletters.  There are good holiday newsletter tips and freebies here:

Free Resources for Printed Holiday Newsletters

Microsoft Office – the ol’ industry standard for all things letter-like –  has its own collection of free holiday newsletter templates.

Google Docs also has a variety of free designs for newsletters to download.

Epson’s Creative Zone also has a collection of free templates to download for your holiday letter.

WordDraw.com has some attractive free Christmas newsletter templates and mailing labels you can create with Microsoft Word.

Avery has some fun and free holiday graphics you can use for your newsletters.  And if you buy Avery products, you can customize them easily with their free template designer.

Free Resources for Holiday e-Newsletters

One of the simplest ways to send a holiday e-newsletter, is to use the templates above and save your e-newsletter either as a Word Doc or as a PDF.  Then attach it to an e-mail and send it out to your friends.  You could also upload the document to Google Drive and then invite your friends and family to view the document online.

If you’re looking for something a little more interesting, you can try a few other services:

Just Wink. This site has a beautiful collection of free e-greeting cards for a variety of occasions.

Punchbowl.com.  This site lets you create attractive paper-like holiday e-cards for free.

Smilebox.  Create holiday e-cards with music or even Christmas slideshows of your favorite photographs.  There are a lot of free options to choose from, or you can pay to upgrade.

Lego.com.  Are you a LEGO-loving family?  Create free LEGO Minifigure holiday postcards.

Canva is a free graphic design tool that offers templates for cards and greetings.  You can send them electronically or print and send.

The holiday newsletter is a fun way to share all that there is to celebrate over the past year.  There’s no reason why it has to take a lot of time or money to put it all together.

Do you send a holiday newsletter? How do you save money on your newsletter?