What I Do with Christmas Cards

... And... with the first red envelope in my mailbox this morning, my favorite season of the year is here.

It's Christmas card season.


There's been this trend lately of people just not doing Christmas cards.

I get it. I do. Christmas cards can be expensive, time consuming, and with everyone and their grandmother on social media, it seems a lot easier to put up a Facebook picture and be done with the whole thing.

But I just can't help myself. I love Christmas cards.

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First of all, getting mail is pretty much awesome. As long as it's not another offer for a student loan (aaaah never again!), seeing envelopes in my mailbox fills me with glee. Seriously. Just ask my husband.

My family growing up had a tradition of putting up all the Christmas cards we receive. The doorway in our kitchen was covered with cards, and then when we moved to Iowa, the two kitchen windows were full of greetings and pictures from family and friends.

As an adult myself,  I still display all my cards. And I love it.

But what to do with all the cards when the holidays are over?

Great question.

I do have friends who keep the cards up all year round. I like the idea, but with the amount of clutter already in my life, I feel like it might get too busy for me. And also, I like that the cards out and up make me feel like Christmas is coming.

Some people toss all the cards after New Years. Also an option.

But I fall somewhere in the middle.

Here's what I do.

At the end of the season, I carefully take down all the cards, trying not to rip any while I remove the tape.

Then I stack them all up, and line up my little pile. Then I put our Christmas card for the year on top, and write the year across it somewhere if I don't have it already printed on the card.

Using a single hole punch, I punch holes into the corner of each card, and then connect them with a metal ring clip to make my cards into a little booklet.

This way, all the cards are visible and together, but aren't overwhelming.

What do I do with these little booklets?

Around Christmas, I display them using a little stand (like this one).

Cute, right?

And then, added bonus, when it's not Christmas, I use my little booklets to pray for friends and family. I flip to a new card, and pray for the people who sent it. I tend to be an out of sight, out of mind kind of person-- and this helps me to keep the people I care about in sight and in mind.


What do you do with your Christmas cards?

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