Making Cards for Soldiers: All You Need to Know!

Making cards for soldiers is a wonderful way to show our servicemen and women we appreciate them! Download these printable Thank you letters to soldiers and send them some love.

The military and my family have had a rather lengthy history. Grandfathers, fathers, uncles, and cousins alike have all dedicated their lives to the protection of our country.

Our servicemen and servicewomen miss holidays, birthdays, births- oftentimes, they miss out on the milestones of the people they care most about. Though surrounded by other people, it’s easy to feel isolated when spouses, children, parents, and friends are so far away.

One of the easiest ways to show them that we care is to send them a simple card or letter.

I think making cards for soldiers would be an amazing and meaningful activity to do at a Christmas in July party or any party really. We made cards for veterans during a couple of Girl Scout meetings and at several church service days.

But sending best wishes to our military doesn’t need to be restricted to the holidays or to a group event. Having your entire family write a sweet note of thanks would be a great monthly tradition. You can even add one of our Veteran’s Day coloring pages to make the card extra special!

There are a lot of great non-profits that will send letters to the troops year-round that I will be talking about today. Plus I even have FREE printable thank you card templates to get you started!

Table of contents

1. 1. How to Write a Message for Soldiers
   2. How to Send Cards to Soldiers
   3. Making Cards for Soldiers with Groups
   4. Free Printable Military Cards

How to Write a Message for Soldiers

There is no real right or wrong way to write letters to soldiers, but I know it can feel that way. You can write a few short encouraging words in a greeting card or write an entire letter.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Tell them how grateful you are for all they do.
2. Tell them how thankful you are for protecting our country and helping you feel safe.
3. If you want, tell them a little bit about yourself. Tell them about your family and where you live. You can tell them about your hobbies or sports you play.
4. If you are spiritual, include a bible verse or two. Tell them you are praying for them. Leave politics out.
5. Start the letter with Dear Hero, Dear Soldier, Dear Brave One, or just start writing without a title.
6. For kids, draw pictures on the front of the card or inside.
7. Write a poem.
8. Check with the specific organizations on how to sign the cards.
9. Include pictures of yourself or your family.

What Not to Do

There are a few rules that you need to be careful to follow to ensure that your card gets delivered to the troops. These rules help the post office and organizations that mail letters to service members.

• Do not date your cards or letters.
• Do NOT put in envelopes. The non-profit that the cards will go through has to sort them, and having them in envelopes makes it harder for them to do.
• NO confetti or glitter.

How to Send Cards to Soldiers

I know you probably would just love an address to send your cards to, but unfortunately, you can’t send cards directly to deployed troops.

But fortunately for all of us, there are many non-profits and organizations that will do the mailing for us. You simply need to mail the cards to them and they will do the rest.

If you have a local VA hospital, you can always call and see if they accept cards for their patients. Or simply call local nursing homes and ask if they have any Veterans. You might be able to go and hand out a veteran thank you card and say Thank You in person.

Here are some of the amazing organizations that support our military with endless hours of their time and love. Make sure to check with each service on their exact rules and dates.

Along with heartfelt letters and thank you cards, all of these organizations accept and are in need of cash donations to keep their loving non-profits going. You can sign up for monthly cash donations along with writing letters.

These organizations love on all types of service members. You can find volunteer teams that send letters to our wounded military members, families of fallen soldiers, caregivers, new recruits and many more.

Making Cards for Soldiers with Groups

To have the greatest impact, making a lot of cards to send to the organizations would greatly benefit them. A few ways to get others involved in this great act of kindness:

• Host a party and have blank cardstock and markers out or some of the printable cards from below.
• Talk to your kid’s teacher about having their class participate in making Christmas cards for soldiers. You can even volunteer to go in and help the teacher with the class project.
• In the summer when your kids set up a lemonade stand, have cards their for customers to fill out while they are waiting.
• Get in touch with a local girl scout or boy scout troop and help them make and send cards. Or talk to your child’s leaders about earning a volunteer badge and have a military card making as the project.
• Talk to your church leaders about having the kids’ ministry make cards during one of the church services. Or host a giving back night and have a table set up for writing letters.
• Start a family and/or friend Cards for Soldiers Project tradition of making cards for our troops on a monthly or maybe every other month basis.
• Get in touch with volunteer clubs at the local schools and talk to them about having a card making day.

Free Printable Military Cards

Now you know how to send Christmas cards to soldiers and what to write in them, so it’s time to get started!

Most kids love to draw pictures, so just give them a folded blank piece of paper or cardstock and have them draw a picture on the front with crayons or markers. Then help them write an encouraging message inside.

Or print out some of the following free greeting cards and write loving words inside of them. There are a few patriotic cards and printable holiday cards in different sizes. Cut down the middle of the smaller cards and fold in half.

Click here to download the zipped file of 6 different cards (2 are on the same page) and print whichever ones you like.

Have fun writing encouraging words that will mean so much to our heroes!

If you’d like to save this tutorial on how to make cards for soliders for later or share you can PIN It now! If you are on a desktop hover over the top left of the image below and if you are on a phone simply tap on the image and a PIN It button will pop up to click on!

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!