Holiday cards - post holiday disposition...

Over the past few days, I have been finishing up putting away the holiday things. One area that I have done differently this year is the holiday cards. I love getting them, reading them, sharing them with family and guests, but I never know what to do with them afterwards.

The Mister would be content to open the envelope, remove the card, read it and then throw it away. That is his routine with his birthday cards and any other greeting card that is addressed to him. He does at least share them with me before he throws them away, but he would never dream of keeping them.

In the past, I have saved holiday cards, as I do most personal correspondence. I really never go back to them though, except maybe the letters once in a great while. I have decide that I really don't want to keep them, but I hate throwing them away!

Over the years, I have read tips for turning holiday cards into various incarnations of decor.

Workbasket published an idea to make place mats by cutting out the designs and arranging them into a collage on clear contact paper. (We don't use place mats, so not really something that appeals to me)

I recall a suggestion of framing attractive cards for future holiday decor. (We don't have enough surface area to set all the frames that we would accumulate using this idea)

I believe I even saw instructions some where to make small gift boxes from holiday cards. (This would limit the size of the gifts, dramatically!)

This year, I read an idea that suggested turning holiday cards into gift tags for next year. (I apologise for not giving proper credit, but I really do not remember where I heard the idea, I just know that it is not original with me!)

This is an idea that I thought could work very well for me!

I saved the letters and the one or two cards with notes written on them, but most of the rest became gift tags. I just cut the cards into one or more separate elements, punched a hole and threaded with my left-over dishcloth yarn.

I suppose some folks may receive many more cards than we do, and maybe this wouldn't work for everyone, but I love the way they turned out. I think they will really look nice on the gifts next year!