Are you thinking this year that you will not be able to show up at the in-laws’ to usher in the New Year? With travel budgets getting tighter and with the inconveniences of traveling with children, more and more people are choosing to stay at home and welcome the New Year in their own quiet way.

Celebrating quietly, however, does not have to mean that you will miss out on sharing beast wishes for the new year with friends and family. The next best thing to being physically present is to send off a New Year greeting card with a photo of yourself or your family. For your loved ones, that’s almost as good as being "on the spot" when the clock strikes midnight and 2009 arrives.

With advances in photo technology, your greeting cards for the holidays can be customized with your own words and photos, creating the perfect way to send a highly personal greeting card.

Photo Greeting Cards: Many Uses

There are a few ways to take advantage of photo greeting cards:

1. When you have a brand new baby, you can have a photo taken of you, your husband or wife and the baby, and have it printed on a dozen or so cards to send off to close friends and relatives. If you prefer, just have the baby’s photo on the card.

2. If you can’t make it to your niece’s New Year’s celebration in London, you can send her a greeting card with one of her graduation pictures which you took last summer. This can be your way of telling her that your hopes for her as the New Year comes rolling in are that she’s happy, healthy and looking forward to her first job.

3. Have you found a soulmate online and trust him or her enough to send him a picture of yourself? Select your favorite photo and put it in a whacky greeting card. You can scribble some lines saying, "since we have been exchanging e-mails for six months now, I figure it’s time for you to get an idea of how I look."

4. Are you working in some remote, exotic land and can’t make it home? Send a greeting card with a photo of a spot in that foreign country (with or without you) to tell friends and family that while your new assignment is exciting, there’s no place you’d rather be than around the dinner table with them, staring at a beautiful, home-made juicy New Year turkey!

5. Do you and your brother want to do something special for mom and dad who will be celebrating their 50th anniversary on New Year’s Day? Go into the attic and dig up their first wedding picture and have it reproduced into a great greeting card with a cutomized saying.

Photo Greeting Cards: Styles

You can go green or you can go retro. It’s up to you! Card styles come in a wide variety of formats, colors, sizes, dimensions and special spaces to tuck in that special photo you have been saving. Square, round, rectangle or triangle, your photos can be made to fit.

Some popular styles include:

1. Choose the traditional colors of red, white or green to complement your photos – one type of horizontal greeting card with a folding measurement of 7-7/8 x 5-5/8 can accommodate as many as three photos. Use the holiday colors for your paper and ink. Make your own verse or choose from pre-written verses. Sets of 25 cards and 25 white envelopes are available.

2. Select a seasonal snowflake theme. You can personalize the verse or select from any of the verses specially written for the holidays. All you need to do is upload one or more photos from your computer and indicate specs: size, colors, shape, verse, ink and paper, and quantity.

3. Photo greeting cards also have a variety of backgrounds to suit your mood and personality, or that of your recipients. Themes include zebra, peppermint stripes, snowbirds, silent night, winter wonderland or landscapes photo cards.

Your Photo, or…

You don’t have to limit yourself to family or individual photos. If you’ve got some beautiful photos of your pet, art work, book cover, or clip art that you personally designed, you can also use these for your New Year greeting cards. Remember that just because the majority of greeters send their family photos does not mean you have to do the same. Your favorite photo can be a busy street café or your cat curled up in the couch, whatever you decide, make sure it reflects you 100%!

You can order your New Year greeting photo cards with either the classic fold photo card, accordion fold photo card, or other fold options. You can decide on either a photo note card format or personalized stationary cards with matching envelopes.

Ordering your Photo Greeting Cards

Numerous web sites can take your orders online, thanks to easy payment methods. Make sure you tell the store if you’re sending a negative, slide, paper photo or digital image file (for digital images, the retailer will specify what formats they accept; for example jpeg, png or gif). Also, make certain you check your message for typing errors before you send it with your order!