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The holidays can come quicker than expected, often leaving us with the need to scramble for last-minute holiday gifts. The good news is you don’t have to battle the crowds while you’re shopping. In fact, you don’t have to leave the couch at all! You can instead head to your computer or smartphone and pick out one of these magnificent last-minute holiday gifts you can buy online.

Subscriptions

This category encompasses a whole slew of incredible last-minute gift ideas that go far beyond traditional magazines. Consider gift subscriptions to:

• Gourmet baskets or goodies that come every month for the savvy gourmand
• Monthly boxes containing dog toys and treats for the dedicated dog owner
• Museum memberships for the art and history buffs
• Premium or paid versions of their favorite apps or services, such as Spotify for music lovers, Netflix for movie and TV fans, or Amazon Prime for savvy shoppers.

Charitable Donations

Charitable donations made in your recipient’s name are the perfect choice for your philatrophic friends. Your choice of organization is as wide as your imagination. Go for a global fund dedicated to wildlife or nature preservation for your big-hearted outdoorsy pals. Choose a local shelter at which your mindful friends may already volunteer.

Audiobooks and E-books

The gift of reading never goes out of style, and you can provide it in a snap by choosing an audiobook or e-book that your recipient would love. From enticing fiction to self-help and spiritual betterment, your selection of topics is enormous. Most books these days offer at least an e-book option, while many are also available in audiobook format. The latter can be particularly perfect for friends with long commutes to work.

When the books are delivered electronically, some sellers even let you pick the date your gift will show up in your recipient’s inbox.

Gift Cards

Even if it seems like all other last-minute holiday gifts are doomed to fail for a specific recipient, gift cards rarely do. All you need to know is where your recipient likes to shop or the types of items they regularly buy, then head over to the website and purchase a gift card. Many companies offer an online gift card purchase option, and you can always ask smaller businesses if they’re open to accommodating one if the option is not listed on their site.

Of course, these gifts are best presented when they’re enclosed in customized greeting cards, which you can also purchase online. Head to PaperDirect for a dazzling selection of holiday greeting cards and labels that can add a spectacular finishing touch to your last-minute holiday gifts.

No matter where you work, you likely know the value of a boss who works hard and always looks out for their team. If you’re fortunate enough to have a leader that you’re proud to work with, then why not celebrate how awesome they are with one of these holiday gifts for your boss?

Whether you’re looking for a small token to show your gratitude or a larger gift to say thanks, you’ll find the perfect holiday gift for your boss below!

A Gift Certificate to a Local Lunch Place

Even a great boss has to pick up some lunch, so get him or her a gift certificate to a local hotspot.

A Customized Pen

Get your boss a great pen with a customized logo and color – personalize it with their name or the name of your company.

A Simple Thank You Note

You would utterly amazed how much your manager will appreciate a sincere thank you note. Convey how much their work means to you, and you can’t go wrong.

A Certificate of Achievement

Let your boss know that you appreciate their effort with a framed “World’s Best Boss” certificate that they can hang on their wall.

Custom Post-It Notes

Let your boss leave his or her mark all over the office with a collection of sticky notes that have been crafted specifically for them.

A Trophy

Oh sure, it might be a little silly, but an engraved trophy for their efforts can be a fun way to express your appreciation of a great manager.

A Clever Lapel Pin

Got a boss with a flair for fashion? Check out PaperDirect’s assortment of clever lapel pins and let them wear your compliment in style.

A Box of Chocolates

Say thank you with chocolates. It’s hard to go wrong with an assorted pack of truffles or an artisanal bar of chocolate – your boss will love a chocolate snack as an afternoon pick-me-up!

No matter your boss’ style, you’ll find the tons of options to show them your thanks over the holidays on PaperDirect.com. Shop our range of holiday gift options today!

Holiday cheer quickly fades when you’re bumping elbows with tense shoppers at understaffed stores, creating dinner party plans to meet five different dietary needs, and finishing up travel plans on a small budget.

Fortunately, holiday stress doesn’t have to ruin the season. You can avoid holiday stress by keeping a positive mindset, taking a few shortcuts, and having a little fun when tackling the tasks on your seasonal to-do list. Here’s how you can get it all done, without an Ebenezer Scrooge attitude.

Shopping for Gifts

If you haven’t already adopted online shopping, do it now. Browsing gift ideas from a laptop in your pajamas is less stressful than wading through a sea of people at overcrowded shopping malls. As a bonus, presents show up at your door in shipping boxes that make them easier to wrap.

Planning Holiday Meals

Nobody expects you to make every dish from scratch using your great grandma’s recipes. Instead, focus on one over-the-top homemade dessert or unique family-favorite side dish. Then, cater the rest or pick up a pre-packaged meal from your local grocery store. You could also host a potluck meal and ask your guests to bring their favorite family recipe to share. Spend your extra time sipping a holiday libation!

Creating Travel Plans

Tis’ the season for deals and travel companies want your business. Take a few minutes to look at coupon sites online to find the cheapest flights, hotels, and rental cars to alleviate financial stress. Pro tip: If you can book all three at once, you’ll usually get a lower price overall or bonus loyalty program points, making your next travel package cheaper!

Writing Christmas Cards

Streamline your holiday card writing process. Start a database with names and addresses, then update it each year. Use this to print address labels from your computer. Keep your greetings short and sweet! If you have a lot to say and share similar news with everyone on your card list, type up a letter, print it on holiday-themed paper, and tuck it inside each holiday card. Add some well wishes and a signature, and your cards are ready for stamps and mailing!

Are you ready to stock up on holiday cards, festive papers, and seasonal address labels? Let us send it to your front door! Browse Paper Direct’s Christmas store online today.

Are you struggling to find holiday greeting cards for everyone in your life? When shopping for holiday cards for family, friends, coworkers, or valued customers, you want to send them a card that suits their personality. Your grandma may not appreciate a card with whimsical cartoons like your best friend would, and you wouldn’t want to send a card wishing “Merry Christmas” to a coworker who doesn’t celebrate the holiday.

Fortunately, picking out an amazing holiday greeting card for everyone in your life doesn’t have to be stressful. We’ve put together a simple flowchart to help you find the best holiday card for everyone in your life, no matter their tastes. Discover the perfect holiday greeting card below!

As most kids who grew up in the 90s know, school supply shopping wasn’t just throwing random supplies into a cart and calling it a day. Instead, choosing supplies was a feat that required finding the coolest binders, the best pens and pencils, and all the latest gadgets to show off your style.

To pay tribute to those bygone days and all those neon supplies, here are some of the world’s best school supplies from the 1990s.

A Pencil Grip

Because those patented number two pencils were just too squirrely to handle with your bare hands, the 1990s saw the invention of the ergonomic pencil grip, a totally-not-useless addition to every 90s kid’s backpack. Hip kids had a plethora of colors to choose from for appropriate coordination with their outfit or binders.

A Trapper Keeper

No matter where you lived, at school the coolest accessory to own, hands down, was the Trapper Keeper. It wasn’t just a binder; it was a personal expression of your individuality. From the pattern you picked to the stickers you plastered across the front and back, the Trapper Keeper was a scholastic necessity.

Standalone Erasers

When you needed to get rid of those obnoxious pencil marks, but you preferred to just smear low-grade rubber across the page instead of erasing them, you reached for one of your decorative erasers. Of course, you never actually used your favorites, just kept them in your pencil bag to show off your style!

Push-Up Pens

Using two different writing utensils was something your boring old parents did. In the 1990s, it was all about using cigar-sized pens that had five or six different colors right inside of them. Who cares that they never worked longer than five minutes? They were must-have items.

Five Star Notebooks

If Trapper Keepers were for the kids, then Five Star notebooks were for the serious academics. Equally important was having a notebook in every color of the rainbow to distinguish between your subjects.

Recapture Some Childhood With PaperDirect

Just because you’re spending at an office desk instead of a tiny, fiberboard desk doesn’t mean you have to go through life without a touch of whimsy. With a little help from PaperDirect and our complete line of business stationery, you can make sure that you’ve got the right paper products for every mood, even if your Trapper Keeper days are behind you.

Since the beginning of time, mankind has struggled to find the perfect way to express himself. Once spoken language was mastered, the struggle to put those words on something permanent began.

Artisans throughout history used everything from clay and papyrus to wood and slate in the search for a permanent, but portable means of communicating through the written word. Then, in 105 AD, paper was invented, and the world would never be the same again.

Let’s take quick look at the life of paper from its humble beginnings to the prominent product we know and love, today!

Paper Was Invented by Cai Lun. A court official during the Han Dynasty, Cai Lun constructed the first paper using leftover rags.

The Chinese Perfected Paper First. Building upon the lessons learned by Cai Lun, the Chinese became the first civilization to produce specifically sized, coated, and dyed paper.

The Japanese and Koreans Gave Paper Its Signature Look. In 610, paper made its way to Korea and Japan. There, craftsman developed a process using heavily beaten and treated fibers from the mulberry tree to create the high quality and characteristic look.

Arab Communities Created Thin Sheets of Paper. Without mulberry trees, Arabian men and women extracted pulp from the ground and then strained it through screens made of reeds. The product was the thin paper we know today.

Italian Papermakers Turned Paper into a Business. In the 14th century, Italian businessmen implemented innovative machinery like a stamping mill, wire mesh molds, a technique for drying paper on ropes, and more to make paper more common and less expensive.

Johannes Gutenberg Invented the Printing Press in 1440. In the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg created the printing press and ignited a period of feverish learning that kicked off some of the most important discoveries in history. And he couldn’t have done it without paper.

Paper Mills Were Commonplace By the 16th Century. Paper had become so integral to daily life by the 1500s that jobs provided by paper mills formed the backbone of some communities. Germany, for example, was home to 190 paper mills alone.

Trust PaperDirect for Your Future Paper Needs

In today’s increasingly digital world, it can be easy to forget how important a simple roll of paper was (and still is) to society. No matter how many screens you look at on a day-to-day basis, there’s a magic to paper that will never really become obsolete.

When you want to say something, say it with a keyboard. When you want to say something memorable, say it with paper. For all your memorable moments, visit PaperDirect and let us show you the real beauty of great paper.

Just because the school year has ended doesn’t mean you have to lose touch with your buddies. You can stay in touch with your in-person friends by transforming them into penpal friends.  While pen pals aren’t as common as they once were, they remain a terrific way to maintain a strong and solid connection through the art of letter writing.

Check out some tips on how to stay in touch, topics to discuss, and how to find a new pen pal if needed.

How to Stay in Touch

Setting up an agreement with your penpal friends can help keep the letters flowing and the relationship strong. Writing one letter per month to each other is a totally do-able schedule, although you can certainly agree to write as many letters to each other as you wish.

Figure out how you’ll kick off the connection, either with one person writing the first letter and the other person responding, or both agreeing to send out a letter by a certain date. Make sure you exchange addresses before you part for the summer so you’re both prepared to get the ball rolling.

Make the letter writing even more fun by stocking up on creative letter-writing supplies. These can include:

• Paper: Plain white paper can be so bland, especially when PaperDirect has so many colored paper options just waiting to brighten the day for both of you.
• Envelopes: Colorful envelopes are another cool option, and you can jazz them up even further with self-inking stamps or stickers.
• Postage stamps: Get a batch of festive postage stamps that will last all summer.
• Pens: Stock up on a few fabulous pens and markers to help your letters stand out even more.

What to Talk About

So what should you guys write about? You have tons of fresh and exciting options that go far beyond the same old stuff you chat about during the school year. You can talk about:

• Summer vacations – where you’re going, where you’ve been in the past, your best and worst vacations.
• Summer activities – your all-time favorites, least favorites, and what’s in store this year.
• How you spend your days – real-life versus what you wish you could be doing instead.
• Plans and goals for the upcoming school year.
• Lessons you’re learning, either by choice or through mistakes (oops!).
• The highlight and lowlight of each month, week or day, and why each item was a highlight or lowlight.
• Your favorite and least favorite – movies, summer fashions, places to go, TV shows, music, summer memories, school year memories, or anything else that strikes your fancy. You can even include a “Top 5” and “Worst 5” list in each of your letters, picking a different subject each time around.

Keep the conversation alive by asking your penpal friends to respond with the same type of information you shared, and it’s highly unlikely you’ll run out of things to discuss.

How to Find New Penpal Friends

Sometimes even the best letter-writing intentions can fizzle out, and you may find you want or need a new pen pal. Finding new penpal friends isn’t all that tough, as long as you know where to look.

• Relatives or friends of friends, especially those that live in different states or countries.
• People you meet on vacations.
• Connections from people in groups you belong to, like your soccer team, your art club, or your writers group.
• Facebook Groups, with a search for “pen pal kids” to find groups that connect penpal friends.
• Websites that help with pen pal connections, such as StudentsOfTheWorld.

Whether your summer is spent deepening your relationship with your school year friends or getting to know new ones, being a pen pal is a great way to do it and PaperDirect is here to help.

Some people collect shoes. Others collect statues. And then there’s a special breed of folks who can’t help but collect stationery. We are the letter writers. The poets. The romantics. The people who preserve the art of hand-written correspondence. We are, indeed, the stationery lovers. If you happen to fall into the stationery lovers category, then you certainly know how a brand new pack of stationery is an absolutely festival of delight for our senses.

Sight

The sight captures us first. Fresh, clean, and wholly pristine, our brand new stationery awaits. We are as giddy on children on Christmas as we make a gentle incision in the stationery packaging to slowly, carefully extract a crisp, new piece of paper. We gaze at the color. Visually embrace the design. Wonder what color ink will look best as we fantasize about penning our very first letter.

Smell

The aroma hits us next. Fresh, new paper. It smells of hope. It smells of promise. It smells of connections and friends, aspirations and dreams. It even smells better than a new car. We actually once saw an incense aroma billed as “new car smell.” Wonder if anyone has yet to come up with the same for new stationery?

Touch

Whether we’re fans of smooth-as-silk paper or prefer stationery with a fibrous texture, nothing beats the feel of the pen gliding effortlessly across the page. Our fingers glide as gracefully as the pen. We smooth out the page with our palm. We pick up the paper, feel its generous weight, then put it back down to write some more.

When we’re ready to fold the paper for the envelope, we do so with an engineer’s precision. We make the crease sharp, accurate, and perfectly straight so the missive slips seamlessly into the awaiting envelope.

We lay the remaining paper neatly in our drawer, or as neatly as it can get on top of several other packages of stationery for every mood, purpose and occasion. The drawer feels as if it weighs 1,000 pounds as we gently, slowly slither it shut. We use our knee to help push the drawer as we press down on the top pack of paper so the drawer will actually close.

Opening our drawers full of stationery is done just as precisely, careful not to catch or bend the bulging stacks, our mountains of marvelous stationery. Even those who tease us about our mounds of magnificent paper are always thrilled to receive one of our hand-written, heartfelt letters. And even those who say we have more than enough stationery to last us several lifetimes still purchase us new sets as gifts.

Just like oxygen, love or pizza, you can never have enough stationery. No matter how much we amass, there’s always one more package or one more design, just waiting for us to enjoy. And stationery lovers will find plenty to enjoy with the selection at PaperDirect.

It’s time to recognize your employees with PaperDirect’s Recognition Giveaway! Head over to our Facebook page where you can enter our most recent giveaway and earn $200 in product plus $25 in design services.

It’s finally time to start a recognition program at your place of work. We’re making it easy!

Enter here

Giveaway Details

Prizes– Two winners will receive one prize of $200 in PaperDirect products and up to $25 in design services from our experienced team.

Dates– Giveaway will run from January 18, 2017 to February 28, 2017. We will choose and contact a winner by mid-March.

Enter here