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Saturday, December 29, 2012

What to do with Christmas Cards... an idea for lazy people

My Christmas card photo this year
Do you ever look on Pinterest, or on craft websites, and see something, and think: there is no way in hell that I will ever do that?

That's my reaction when I see what some people do with the Christmas cards they receive each year. They make wreaths or ornaments or garlands or coasters or placemats or scrapbooks.

That's all very nice, but I don't have time for that. 

However, just recycling the Christmas cards seems wasteful. And unChristmassy. After all, these are expressions of joy and fellowship from friends and insurance companies. It's a bit cold to toss them in the bin without a second glance.

This is the binder

Many of my friends take the Christmas cards and create a refrigerator collage that they leave up throughout the new year, replacing it when Christmas comes around again and the cards start rolling in. But that just delays the inevitable for another year.

Therefore, I've solved the problem of the lingering Christmas cards with a simple solution that is excellent for lazy people like me. First, I bought a binder. 

Inside the binder.


Then I filled it with sheet protectors. Each family that sends me cards gets its own sheet protector (the insurance company cards DO go in the recycle bin). Then, when it's time to take the Christmas cards off the refrigerator, I just put them in the sheet protector for that family. It's kind of like a scrapbook, but without the gluing and craft paper and effort. Instead, it takes about two minutes of my time.

I like to flip through it, pulling out the cards and seeing how each family has grown over the years. I also put in birth announcements, wedding invites, etc., so I have a family chronicle for each of the families close to me.

What do you do with the Christmas cards you receive?



2 comments:

Amber Mann said...

Your binder is cute. I bet it's lots of fun looking through the old cards. After the holidays (and birthdays), I use a tag-shaped paper punch to make gift tags out of the cards. This lets me avoid feeling unsentimental for throwing the cards in recycling, and I don't ever have to buy gift tags.

Catfish said...

That's a cute idea, Amber! I get mostly photo cards, but it would definitely work with the non-photo cards I get ... although gift tags with pictures of other people's babies could be amusing.