October 27, 2022 — “Wishing you pleasures great and small,” is how the inside of this card reads, before closing with Happy Birthday. Being a relatively small company, Cardthartic leaves Halloween cards to the big guys but, because this would have made such a fun one, we show it to wish you a good one!

It tickles me that — of all the stories we share here throughout the year — Cardies often reference this one. The story is that my late mother never let her kids go trick-or-treating. Nope, not once was I allowed to don a costume and hit the streets. Year after year I tried cajoling, whining, reasoning … all to no avail. “If we want candy, we’ll buy candy,” she’d say, “but no child of mine is going door-to-door crying, ‘Gimme!’”

Ay yi yi. Every year I’d plead and she’d give the same infuriating, thoroughly un-American answer, even when I tried, “What if I just dress up, refuse all candy, and accept only donations for UNICEF?” One raised eyebrow said it all. “What if we stay in and read,” was always Mom’s Halloween Plan for me.

I was in my 20s when I spotted The Perfect Card with my mom written all over it. :) On the cover it read, “For your front door this Halloween.” Inside was a die-cut, ready-to-hang sign that said, “Welcome, Children. The Next History of Halloween Lecture Begins in Approximately 15 Minutes. Please Sit and Wait Quietly.”

Hahahahaha. I had one of those moments that all true Cardies know well — when a card expresses your sentiments so exactly that your irrepressible laughter rings out from the card aisle, making everyone else in the store crack a knowing smile.

I sent that card to my mother every other year for the next 20 and, every other year, Mom sent it back to me. It was this, The Cardthartic Experience, through-and-through as it conveyed, “I see you, I get you, I forgive you, I love you,” all in its clever card way.

After reading this story last Halloween, Contributing Cardie Nancy McGinn left the message, “I can relate! I was never allowed to go trick-or-treating for candy, either, but could dress up and go around for UNICEF. I always wanted a store-bought costume but, alas, I always had to go as a ghost with an old sheet thrown over my head with two holes cut out for my eyes. Because I could never get the sheet arranged quite right, I wasn’t able to see very well, and once stumbled on a porch and into a shallow bucket of eggs the family had gathered from their hen house that day. Happy ending: the following year, my mom got me my one-and-only store-bought costume.”

Contributing Cardie Candy Clausell left the comment, “I will think of your wonderful mom when I don my dog mask to answer the door on Halloween with scary music playing in the background. With the name Candy, needless to say, Halloween is my favorite holiday :)”

And ha! A few days after we sent this story out in the Cardie Newsletter last year, in my mailbox I found a little care package from Contributing Cardie Gloria Dougherty. She’d sent poor-me a Snickers bar! 🤣❤️

As my mother was known to say, “Gotta keep laughing, Jo!” Indeed.

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative

October 27, 2022 — “Wishing you pleasures great and small,” is how the inside of this card reads, before closing with Happy Birthday. Being a relatively small company, Cardthartic leaves Halloween cards to the big guys but, because this would have made such a fun one, we show it to wish you a good one!

It tickles me that — of all the stories we share here throughout the year — Cardies often reference this one. The story is that my late mother never let her kids go trick-or-treating. Nope, not once was I allowed to don a costume and hit the streets. Year after year I tried cajoling, whining, reasoning … all to no avail. “If we want candy, we’ll buy candy,” she’d say, “but no child of mine is going door-to-door crying, ‘Gimme!’”

Ay yi yi. Every year I’d plead and she’d give the same infuriating, thoroughly un-American answer, even when I tried, “What if I just dress up, refuse all candy, and accept only donations for UNICEF?” One raised eyebrow said it all. “What if we stay in and read,” was always Mom’s Halloween Plan for me.

I was in my 20s when I spotted The Perfect Card with my mom written all over it. :) On the cover it read, “For your front door this Halloween.” Inside was a die-cut, ready-to-hang sign that said, “Welcome, Children. The Next History of Halloween Lecture Begins in Approximately 15 Minutes. Please Sit and Wait Quietly.”

Hahahahaha. I had one of those moments that all true Cardies know well — when a card expresses your sentiments so exactly that your irrepressible laughter rings out from the card aisle, making everyone else in the store crack a knowing smile.

I sent that card to my mother every other year for the next 20 and, every other year, Mom sent it back to me. It was this, The Cardthartic Experience, through-and-through as it conveyed, “I see you, I get you, I forgive you, I love you,” all in its clever card way.

After reading this story last Halloween, Contributing Cardie Nancy McGinn left the message, “I can relate! I was never allowed to go trick-or-treating for candy, either, but could dress up and go around for UNICEF. I always wanted a store-bought costume but, alas, I always had to go as a ghost with an old sheet thrown over my head with two holes cut out for my eyes. Because I could never get the sheet arranged quite right, I wasn’t able to see very well, and once stumbled on a porch and into a shallow bucket of eggs the family had gathered from their hen house that day. Happy ending: the following year, my mom got me my one-and-only store-bought costume.”

Contributing Cardie Candy Clausell left the comment, “I will think of your wonderful mom when I don my dog mask to answer the door on Halloween with scary music playing in the background. With the name Candy, needless to say, Halloween is my favorite holiday :)”

And ha! A few days after we sent this story out in the Cardie Newsletter last year, in my mailbox I found a little care package from Contributing Cardie Gloria Dougherty. She’d sent poor-me a Snickers bar! 🤣❤️

Just for grins, below you’ll see a sampling of our more popular light-hearted cards for you to peruse. Ironically, it was my mother who always lobbied hard for more humor in our line. “Gotta keep laughing, Jo!” Indeed.

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative