Phone or Web app to track sending/receiving of holiday cards?

December 13, 2011 11:52 AM

Is there either a Web site or an app for iPhone or iPad that allows you to track the sending and receiving of holiday cards? (If not, there should be!) I see apps that allow you to send e-cards, but I'm sending paper cards. I would love to be able to open my mail, phone in hand, and just type into the phone that I received cards from X, Y and Z so I know to send them cards as well. Not finding anything. I've done this on paper for years, but it seems like someone should have made an electronic easy version by now.
posted by GaelFC to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Response by poster: I should say that obviously I can just type their names into a Note or whatever and keep a basic list, but I'm hoping for some app that has a SENT/RECEIVED indicator for each name, and maybe an easy spot for addresses or whatever.
posted by GaelFC at 11:54 AM on December 13, 2011

Is there a reason you don't want to use any old to-do list app? Just make items called "Bob, Nancy, Sam" as you get cards, check them off as you send them.
posted by Tomorrowful at 11:58 AM on December 13, 2011

If you put this into a spreadsheet, you could easily download the info into some other kind of app.
posted by Madamina at 12:05 PM on December 13, 2011

I don't keep track of receiving, but I use Address Book on my Mac to keep track of sending. I have groups named "HolidaysYEAR" going back nearly 8 years. Each year, I select all of the names from the previous year and copy them to the next year. Then I go through all contacts and drag the names of anyone I want to add, and then I go through the group to remove a few names for whatever reason. When we have our list, we use Address Book to create the Avery mailing labels. That ended up being a huge time saver for us.

To keep track of received cards, simply make a ReceivedYEAR group and either drag or enter names as needed.
posted by Hey, Zeus! at 12:08 PM on December 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I keep track in my Google contacts. I put all of my card people in a Christmas Cards group, and I can print the group out and use that when I address my cards. I use the notes to keep track of which years I sent and receive cards. I like Hey Zeus!'s idea too, because you could just add people to this year's group as needed.
posted by cabingirl at 12:30 PM on December 13, 2011

Send certified mail, and when you get the receipt, check it off your list.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:44 PM on December 13, 2011

Back in the day, paper address books had a field for Christmas cards sent/received, so Contacts does seem like the logical place for this (you can create a custom field for received). Since my contacts sync with address book on my Mac, I use a Christmas card group list like Hey Zeus! does to print envelopes, but I use the dashboard widget Easy Envelopes to do the printing (habit).
posted by bwanabetty at 5:21 PM on December 13, 2011