It can be horrible moment when you realize that you forgot to send someone a Christmas card- and suddenly they have turned up in your busy day! The free printable Christamas cards below should provide a quick fix.

I make no apologies for all the snow. I like snow at Christmas, even is there is tropical heat outside the door! For other tastes, I've included a batch of useful links to alternative sites that offer free to print cards below.

How to Print

Click on the images below. Save the big image that comes up. Print and fold. It is as easy as that! Windows 'Picture and Fax Viewer' is a handy way of viewing and printing off the cards,

Traditional Xmas Illustration

The Night before Christmas is one of the most popular of all kids story themes for the holiday season. The card above comes from a classic illustrated edition of a tale by Clement C. Moore published in Boston in 1912.

An extract from the verse:

'The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,'

You can read the whole tale here and look at many more illustrations.

www.gutenberg.org/files/

Child with a Wooden Sled

Are children still as cute as the one below? Well sometimes they are. You would still go a long way to find a more beautiful winter picture than this one, which is over a hundred years old.

A Christmas Carol

I have a feeling that the card above is not going to be too popular. Why did I include it? Well I like the snowy scene but mainly it is because it comes from an illustrated version of  A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It is my favorite Christmas story and any number of movies have been made of the novel.

'Happy Christmas to One and All' are the words that Scrooge finally brings himself to say when he takes the Christmas goose to Bob Cratchet's house. Tiny Tim is saved from a hungry Christmas and, every time I see any of the movies, I have to wipe away a tear.

The Snow Queen

For me, the Snow Queen was one of the scariest stories from Hans Christian Anderson when I was a kid. I mean kidnapped children, a frozen, beautiful and cold-hearted Queen, icicles through the eye- what were these writers thinking about? 

At the same time it is story full of beauty and the illustration above is unforgettable.

Activity Village

There are a dozen or so cards for kids here. The style is simple and kind to your printer ink. The cards can be printed on paper and folded

activityvillage

There are a good selection of free printable christmas cards here, ranging from the cute to the tasteful to the slightly strange. Not many Armadillo Xmas cards are available on other sites for instance and I think the meercat card to the right has to be unique.

http://www.homelifeweekly.com/christmas/printable-christmas-cards/

Magical Kingdom have a dozen or so cards on religious themes using images from great art works of the past. The site is easy to use and has many other kinds of free printable cards on offer.

http://www.magicalkingdom.co.uk/cards/religions/xmas6.htm