I don't put my business card in.  If you have been following up with them or closed a deal with them they should know you.  I work with my clients and find that most of them become friends of mine.  I'm sure other agents will have a different opinion but this has worked for me. Gary, this is a really good question.  

I am going to send my Christmas cards from Bethelehem, Ga this year and they put the mark Bethlehem on the envelope.  Trying something fun and new.  

I don't put my business card in my Christmas cards or any other greeting card. My friends, family, prospects and clients know who I am and what I do for a living. My greeting is a wish for a happy holiday and to let them know I am thinking of them. It is not a business promotion.

Interesting.  I was going to put mine in as I have just changed companies and write a note in each.  So this is tacky? Uh-oh.. Won't it look a little weird if I mail them a card and they get a new announcement notice the same week?  Nevermind a little pricier...

I sincerely think Brian Buffini might agree with me.. No??

Can anyone tear themselves away from their eggnog to answer?  LOL! I did not think I had a dilema 5 minutes ago.

In my opinion, if you only send holiday cards to contacts who have become your friends and do not ask or expect to receive referrals from them, it is probably ok to not include your business card.  However, if you are sending holiday cards to other contacts who are merely past, current or future clients, I'm thinking you should definitely include your business card.  In fact, you could include 2 - one for them and one to pass along.  I think it's appropriate to hand sign the card at the very least, if not write a little personal note.

A personal note in a pretty non-preprinted card and a few business cards. Thank them in the note for their referrals (many should have or will refer you if you did a good job). Are you a secret agent? I've been doing this for years and send close to 200 cards every year - spending hours and enjoy writing them to catch up and slow down a little.  Clients, friends, family actually mention later in the year many times thanking me for replenishing their stock of cards and telling me of who they spoke to.  For promotion, many past clients get a very nice calendar too around Thanksgiving. You want to know they are happy and wish them well, that means a lot. Word of mouth is the backbone of your business - give them something nice to talk about during these gatherings. It's just good PR. Show how thankful you are to do what you do and bring joy too.  My tax man, insurance man, car man and others that send me greetings get good words from me by doing the same. Color for Real Estate (www.cfre.com) sells great bookmarks too if you are more comfortable giving them something other than a card or a fridge magnet works well too. Know them, love them, thank them during the season that they see all of those they admire most.  You are a business person, how can that ever be seen as inappropriate?

A personal note in a pretty non-preprinted card and a few business cards. Thank them in the note for their referrals (many should have or will refer you if you did a good job). Are you a secret agent? I've been doing this for years and send close to 200 cards every year - spending hours and enjoy writing them to catch up and slow down a little.  Clients, friends, family actually mention later in the year many times thanking me for replenishing their stock of cards and telling me of who they spoke to.  For promotion, many past clients get a very nice calendar too around Thanksgiving. You want to know they are happy and wish them well, that means a lot. Word of mouth is the backbone of your business - give them something nice to talk about during these gatherings. It's just good PR. Show how thankful you are to do what you do and bring joy too.  My tax man, insurance man, car man and others that send me greetings get good words from me by doing the same. Color for Real Estate (www.cfre.com) sells great bookmarks too if you are more comfortable giving them something other than a card or a fridge magnet works well too. Know them, love them, thank them during the season that they see all of those they admire most.  You are a business person, how can that ever be seen as inappropriate?

Everything I mail out or send to family, friends, past and current clients, as well as prospective ones in my pipeline has a business card or some type of business contact. You can call it tacky or whatever, but that is how i do my business. Even my mom and dad get my business card everytime they get things from me. My main goal is to always have people go to my website, and this is one more avenue i use. I am sure many others will disagree, and that is fine, just one more opinion on it from snowy upstate NY.

I don't put a business card in my Christmas cards, but that's just personal. I see nothing wrong with including your card (or 2 like Belinda wrote). If I had just changed companies I would include 2 cards. When I do send business cards to past clients and contacts, they are laminated. It's very inexpensive. When I first started laminating cards, I was surprised how much it impressed people. In the past I have included the next year's calendar magnets with Christmas cards.

ooh, I never thought of that!  Laminate the cards.  Great idea, thank you.

It depends on who I'm sending the card to..if it's someone I'm presently working with or just worked with I don't send a card.  If it's someone of the past or future, a card goes in.... actually, I do the magnet business card.  

We send cards to all our past clients and all agents, mortgage brokers and lawyers whom we have had deals with in the past year.  They all get business cards and this year we are including our newsletters in our past clients cards.  I don't see anything wrong with it.  We get alot of business from referrals so we hope they pass them on to friends and family.

Sorry..we don't include business cards in the cards to agents!  

Yes, Christmas cards. This is coming early (really early) so that you can include an important address on your list.

Want to have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD this year.

As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, CHRISTIAN card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world.

Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it.

Here's the address, just don't be rude or crude. (It's not the Christian way, you know ;)

ACLU

125 Broad Street

18th Floor

New York, NY 10004

Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn't know if any were regular mail containing contributions.

So spend 41 cents and tell the ACLU to lea ve Christmas alone. Also tell them that there is no such thing as a " Holiday Tree". . .

It's always been called a CHRISTMAS TREE!

And pass this on to your email lists. We really want to communicate with the ACLU! They really DESERVE us!!

For those of you who aren't aware of them, the ACLU, (the American Civil Liberties Union) is the one suing the U.S. Government to take God, Christmas or anything Christian away from us. They represent the atheists and others in this war. Help put Christ back in Christmas!

Gary, are you promoting something other than Real Estate on Relib?  Uh Oh!!!

Anyway, I do send a business card.  I want folks to know they can contact me if they need to for any reason.  Last year we gave our clients (for that year) a $10 gift card to Starbucks, and you get those cute little felt holders to put them in.  We put the starbucks card in there and our business card, both went into the Xmas card, and Viola!!  

this year they are getting a gift certificate to the local light show.  Each carload is $10...  but we can get them for $7 from my sons PTA.

just an idea, if you have a cool light show in your town.

Shelly

Shelly I am only trying to advance the American dream, which includes owning a home. So, yes, maybe a round about way, but our founders had the  idea and I am only extending it with the extension I feel it deserves to spread the word to those thqt have missed the boat of Christmas joy.

Gary, Heaven knows I love ya!!  but wasn't the founding fathers american dream something to do with religious freedom?  I don't remember their dream having anything to do with home ownership.  In fact, home ownership at the time of our founding fathers was something only for the truly wealthy!!

shelly

Actually Shelly you may be wrong in a certain way. Our founders were of a belief that said we are one nation under God. They never stepped away from stating their belief in a God. They want the Government to not interfere with their ability to worship as they chose. They never wanted God to be removed from the language. So, I believe that they had a desire to keep the message alive but not promote it. That message is one that proclaims the right of each and every one of us to live the American dream. That dream for as long as I can remember, was the home, family, and the white picket fence. So it may be a metaphor, but it is still what I look at and believe when I see the American dream. Above all it doesn't take Christ out of Christmas and it doesn't take the word God out of everything it has been in since the Fathers signed the document.

Perhaps this is not politically correct, nor in keeping with the people that all of a sudden what us to be so pure that we talk in sentences that don't reference the real world. However, I for one have never been one to shy away from the norm. I believe God belongs on our Money, in our halls and in any place we want him/her. If the ACLU doesn't like it, Bite me!

Sorry, it doesn't say one nation under Christ.  God comes with many names and only one set of beliefs includes Christ (ok, 2 if you count Jews for Christ).

I don't care what it's called so long as we have the right to celebrate or not celebrate however WE want to.

Agreed Bee.  And Gary, here is my thought process, as wacked as it may be.  when I am sending a greeting during the holidays, it isn't for me, but for the recipient.  So I do want to wish them a happy whatever that makes them happy.  Again, my wishes are for them, not me.  therefore, I choose to wish you a Merry Christmas because that is your belief and I want you to really, really have a merry christmas.  But for someone else, that is Jewish maybe, I want to wish them Happy Hannakuh, because I really, really want them to be happy.  And if I am sending a message of good tidings to someone that I am usure of their affliation I say Happy Holidays.  Holidays is actually Holy Days.. so we haven't taken religion out of the picture, we just haven't imposed our religion on someone who is perfectly happy with their own.  Again, it is about them, not me : )  

Shelly

Shelly I can't agree with you more. I also agree with Bee. God doesn't mean my God, It means any God you choose. If you choose none than ignore it. But the founders were Judaeo Christian Believers and that is what, take it or leave it, our countries principals and declaration was based on. The great thing is that it fits almost all religious beliefs. Be kind, fair, respect family, be honest, treat your fellow man as you would like to be treated and so on....So, what I would like to see happen is that the ACLU get 10,000,000 cards from people saying we love Christmas as it is! That is all!

Gary- some of us atheists celebrate Christmas and don't want the Christ taken out of Christmas. There was a pretty good argument going on in another real estate forum about this same topic. So I'm agreeing with you totally, but don't lump all atheists together. For me, Christmas is an American tradition, a time to give, and a time to remember how we should behave the rest of the year.

I send Christmas cards to my clients. Nobody has ever objected or taken offense. But the majority of my clients are Christian. Some atheists and agnostics, but they like Christmas, too. :)

Not all our founding fathers were Christians, but our country WAS founded on Christian principals. And actually home ownership was important even way back then. Some soldiers were given land for serving in the military. And a LOT of title issues after both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War.

Shelly- Great idea about the Starbucks cards. I may pilfer your idea.

Thanks

Jackie