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Mail holiday cards in envelopes as letters, not postcards, and weigh the heaviest card in the batch before buying postage. Square cards, thick photo prints, and glittery or lumpy embellishments need extra postage or a nonmachinable surcharge. Write addresses cleanly, seal flaps fully, and mail early in December so cards arrive before the holiday rush peaks.
The quick version:
Letter postage. The postcard rate exists for a specific thing: a single bare card, no envelope, within strict size limits. The moment your card goes inside an envelope, it is a letter and needs full letter postage. This trips people up every December because greeting cards feel like postcards. They aren't, in postal terms.
A standard folded card in a rectangular envelope is an ordinary letter as long as it stays flexible and within size limits. Photo cards printed on heavy stock are where weight sneaks up: a thick 5x7 photo card plus envelope can weigh noticeably more than a plain folded card, so weigh the heaviest card you are sending and buy postage for that. One stamp design for the whole batch keeps this simple; mixing postage across cards is how underpaid ones slip through.
| Card type | What to watch |
|---|---|
| Standard folded card | Usually fine with basic letter postage if it stays flexible |
| Square card | Square envelopes draw the nonmachinable surcharge in the US |
| Thick photo card | Weigh it; heavy stock can push the piece into the next weight band |
| Card with embellishments | Glitter, gems, or raised decorations make it lumpy and nonmachinable |
| Card plus extras | A photo, newsletter, and gift card together add weight fast |
Square cards are the most common surprise. They look like ordinary cards, but square envelopes tumble in sorting machines instead of sliding through, so they get hand-sorted for a surcharge. Embellishments are the second surprise: anything glued on that creates a lump, from rhinestones to chunky glitter, can make the piece nonmachinable. If you designed the cards yourself, keep them rectangular, flexible, and flat, and you will avoid the surcharge entirely.
In Canada, the same principles apply through Canada Post's size and shape categories. An oddly shaped or rigid card can fall outside standard lettermail. When in doubt, take one finished card to the counter and ask; the staff will tell you the right postage in seconds, which beats guessing and having cards returned in January.
Seal the flap completely. A half-sealed envelope can catch on sorting equipment and tear, which is how cards arrive with the corner ripped off. If the adhesive is weak, a glue stick beats tape: tape over the flap is fine, but keep it off the address and the stamp. Write or print addresses cleanly, with the full ZIP or postal code; December is when sloppy addressing hurts most, because forwarding and returns take longer in the holiday backlog.
For cards you care about, ask the post office to hand-cancel them. Machine cancellation sprays the postmark wherever it lands, sometimes across the photo; hand canceling keeps the envelope clean. It is a request rather than a guarantee, but clerks are used to hearing it in December. And mail early: the first two weeks of December are far kinder to your cards than the week before the holiday, when every processing plant is running at capacity.
One more thing worth knowing: LetterAgent can't mail greeting cards for you, since it prints standard letters only. But if your holiday message is a letter rather than a card, a family update or a long note to someone far away, you can have LetterAgent print and mail it to any US or Canadian address while you handle the cards yourself.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is printed and mailed.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
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