My preferences for the Christmas cards I buy are fairly simple, these days. I send cards to people who are not Christian, so I don't send religious cards. I don't like anything overly comedic or cutesy. I try to stick to winter themes or purely secular Christmas. Beyond that, I just want to find something I like, that resonates with me, so my friends can look at the card and say "Oh, that's from Steph," without having to read my handwriting or keep it in the envelope.

A good choice for this is anything to do with penguins, obviously. Last year in particular must have been the Year of the Penguin. I had several to choose from that I really loved.

This year: no penguin cards at CVS. No penguin cards at several grocery stores. No penguin cards anywhere else I went in the last two weeks. Tonight, at Hallmark, I found one penguin card. It had very twee cartoon penguins on a lime green background, and a Bible verse in the inside text.

I'll be going with something else, thanks.