Mass email leads without using Campaigns

How can we send a mass email to a few leads (for example, but same applies to contacts etc) using an Email Template with the Leads First Name (for example) embedded in the email template where the number to email does not merit a Campaign, Target List etc.

Currently selecting, say 6 Leads to Email from List View and then selecting Email from the Drop Down arrow results in one email to the 6 recipients. Then drag and drop the email addresses to BCC and obviously Email Template does not use the tokens as it is one email not 6 emails.

Hopefully there is a way to handle these small volume mail outs where Campaigns is overkill.

We know we can send 6 emails individually, but this is cumbersome.

If there is no option - fine - we just want to make sure we are not missing something obvious.

Thanks in advance

Greg Barrass