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For as long as I can remember I have ordered my Christmas cards thru Walter Drake. I get their catalogs in the mail every so often and thumb thru them. I find all sort of neato stuff, but I seldom ever order except my Christmas cards. No time, no money. You know how that goes.

Well, this year Christmas snuck up on me. My husband has been out to sea since June and I didn't really think about the holidays. I was to busy chasing our now 4 year old son (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ZACKY! YOU'RE 4 TODAY!) and handling the every day stuff. Well, next thing I know it's late November. No chance or snail mailing the order in and getting them on time. I grabbed my catalog and found the website URL and went to see what I could find.

The first thing that slapped me in the face was the BRIGHT blue background, and then the rest of the pictures and text filled in afterward. The homepage is fairly busy, but you should be able to find what you're looking for without too much trouble.

Across the top, toward the right, there are four tabs to help you navigate the site. There is Home, Product Search, My Account, and Cart/Check-Out. For this search you can put in a keyword and it will bring up anything with that word in it, like any other search.

However, in a yellow box on the left, going down the side, there is a place for Quick Order. This is nice if you already have a catalog and want to order online to receive it faster. Just place the item number and how many you want and hit "Buy Now". Or just under, you can type in the product number and the site will bring up the product page so you can get a better look at the item and description.

Under the Quick Order box is another menu going down the side. This will help navigate if you don't have a catalog or are new to the site and want to browse. They have:

~In The Kitchen
~At Home
~Labels and Stationary
~Outdoor & Garden
~Personal Care
~Personalized Items
~As Seen On TV
~Seasonal Specials
~Christmas Cards

And then on little banners below they also have:

~Customer Favorites
~Clearance Sale
~Send a Free Historical Birthday Greeting

In the center of the page, they have some of their Weekly feature items and Great Value items. Something you might not be looking for when you come in, but would want after you see them.

At the very bottom, center of the page is another menu of sorts. There are links to help you with the site if you need help or have a question. There are links for:

~How to Order
~Customer Service
~Contact Us
~FAQs
~Free Catalog
~Privacy Policy
~Send this Site to a Friend
~Become and Affiliate
~Legal Stuff

Even though I had a Christmas card catalog (they have this in addition to their regular catalogs), I wasn't sure what I wanted, so I clicked the "Christmas Cards" button from the above mentioned menu and went to see what I could find. This page was also broken up into sections to make what you're wanting easier to find. They had:

~Values Under $10
~Deluxe Embossed
~Religious
~Holiday Favorites
~Gift Cards
~Non-Personalized Value Cards
~Unique Personalization
~Great for Business
~Fun Shapes & Pop-Ups

I already knew I wanted the personalized type. Why? Frankly, I'm lazy. I HATE buying cards from Wal-Mart because with all of that blank space, I feel obligated to write a personal message in every card, which when you have 70 cards to mail out takes a lot of time. I wanted the same type I have send every year. The kind I get with our names already on them and a sparkly, colored paper so that there is no place to write anything. :) I also wanted fairly inexpensive. We're running, as is everyone else we know, a little short on money this year.

I found the ones I wanted after a few minutes of searching. For the most part, their cards are sold in packs of 25, with a little bit of a break for multiples of the same card. At the bottom of the page I put in the personalization that I wanted. There is a place under that to personalize the envelopes with our return address for only $2.99. Did I? You betcha! I told you, I'm lazy. :) I clicked the box for yes and added the personalization for those, as well. Then I clicked on the number I wanted. I ordered 75. I figured that would be roughly how many I needed and could afford. If I ran short I could always pick up a box of cards at Wal-Mart or something for emergency use. Then I clicked add to cart. Since this was all I needed, I clicked the "Items in Cart" button at the top (the "Cart/Check-Out" button).

The next screen showed me my order and asked if I wanted to Update anything or Checkout. Since I was done and everything looked ok, I clicked "Check-Out". When I did a small window popped up asking if I had a source code from a catalog or no. I clicked continue, even though I had one. Why? The catalog wasn't mine. It came to the people that lived here before us. One of those "or current resident" deals.

The next screen is for your billing information. If you have ordered from them before online, which I hadn't, you can just log in. I had to fill out the right hand side of the screen with my name and address. You also have to pick your delivery method. There is standard delivery (7-10 business days), Express (2nd Day Air), and Priority Mail (4-7 Business Days). These shipping times are from the time they're SHIPPED, not from when the order is placed. Personalized items take time to print and this is NOT included in this time frame. Since I had a little spare time I went ahead and chose standard.

You can also choose to have the items sent to another address, say if you were ordering a gift. I have not done this at all, thru the catalog or via the site. They have a box (checked, of course) to receive newsletters. If you don't want them make sure you uncheck this. Make up a password, then click "Continue".

The final screen is there you double check your order and give your credit card information. They accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. After you submit this info, it will bring up a "Thank you for your order" screen that you can print. I recommend printing this as it has a temporary order number to refer to in case you need help. They also send an email confirmation to the email address you provide.

I was rather surprised that my order showed up roughly 2 weeks later. They shipped in a box and it was in my mailbox when we came home from therapy. I brought it in and the cards were even prettier than they were on the site. The personalization was all correct, and even Zack's name was spelled right. People keep sticking a "H" in there instead of a "K". Bugs me.

Anyway, we received our cards a lot faster than I figured on. They must have processed them immediately and the post office, for once, must have been on the ball. I was able to get them folded (they ship flat and you fold them in half and in half again to fit in the envelopes - there are slight creases where you fold) and stuff so all I needed to do was write the recipient's address on them. Our return address was on the back of the envelope, on the little flap.

With their Christmas cards, you will usually get a couple more than you ordered, but NOT less than the amount, same with envelopes. I usually end up with 3-4 leftover cards and 2-3 leftover envelopes. Because they're personalized they always run extras so that in case the first or last couple of cards ran off were goofed up they had extras to replace them.

Have I ever had problems? Well, yes, but not with this order. I ordered some Christmas cards about five years ago and there was an error in printing. I had mailed the order in and someone either typo-ed or read my writing wrong. When I got the order I called their 800 number and they immediately shipped out a new order, rushed and express, for free. I had my cards within a week. Granted this has been some time ago, and had nothing to do with an online order, but I am sure their customer service is the same way now. I hadn't had to call them since that one time.

I have yet, in my limited time surfing the site, to come across a page that won't load or has errors. My order went thru quickly and was received in the allotted time. Would I order thru them again? You bet! This was much easier than filling out the little form in the catalog. And maybe one of these days I'll get around to ordering something else from them.