Desktop: Cutting out the cards

Thanks to Pencake, an e-card Facebook application, I can save on Hanukka greeting cards.

By DAVID SHAMAH
hanukkah mall 298.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
hanukkah mall 298.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
What Hanukka means to me (besides candles, miracles, etc.): Spending money on outings, spending money on gifts, spending money on days at the mall. What Hanukka means to the kids: Writing cards to their grandparents. Notice a theme here? We love holidays, but they can be expensive - and who's got money to spare this year? The kids are wonderful, and we want them to have a good time. But with the way reality is biting these days, it pays to be prudent. So, we're looking to cut costs wherever we can. And thanks to Pencake (http://www.pencake.com/), a fabulous e-card application for Facebook, greeting cards is one more expense I can save on. At holiday time - especially Hanukka - it's the kids' job to write Hanukka greeting cards to grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives. But those cards don't just pop out of thin air; they cost money to buy and more to mail, and with paper and postage costs climbing relentlessly, greeting card obligations can mount up quickly. And in truth, it's not like the majority of cards you see in stores are that great anyway; many have silly sentiments and depressing drawings - or text/graphics that are entirely inappropriate for the sensibilities of the senders and/or recipients. You know what I mean. There are many e-card sites on-line where you can select a ready-made card, add your own text, and e-mail it to whomever you want. But if anything, most on-line greeting e-card sites provide an even worse selection than you can get in your local bookstore. There's absolutely no excuse for that, considering that the only limitation for an e-card is creativity. That's why Pencake is better; you get on-line tools for constructing your own card, which you can send to anyone in your Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) list (your kids are already on FB, and if they are, you should be too). You design what you want, the way you want, and send it on. The recipient gets to see all the steps you took to build the card in an animation - the lines that you drew to make your hanukkia, how you colored it, etc. It's just the thing for kvelling bubbes and zaydes - "you see how talented my grandkids are?" Now that's what I call Hanukka nachas! www.newzgeek.com