What do you guys do with old Christmas cards? The ones you receive from others, whether they are the photo kind of kids or families, or just plain Christmas card greeting cards. Do you save them? Throw them out? Scrapbook them? Do something else with them?
I have been saving them, but I have a pretty big collection of them. I have several years worth in a couple of photo boxes. I am afraid I’m equally as bad with birthday cards, I tend to save those as well. I chalk it up to two things 1) I’m sentimental and 2) I’m a packrat. I think both stem from the fact that my mom was neither. She threw everything out. And I mean everything. Drawings I made for her as a child. Ornaments I made for her in Sunday School. Birthday and Christmas cards. Everything. She even threw out or gave away some old handmade quilts that were made by her mom and aunt. What I wouldn’t give to have those quilts!
Anyway, I’m trying to decide about tossing Christmas cards from years past, but apparently I’m looking for affirmation or back-up here, LOL! What do you do with your old cards you receive from others?
Thanks, and have a wonderful day!
I’m somewhere in the middle. If it’s a photo card, it goes into my photo box. If it’s a card that I find especially pretty or unique or contains a special note, it goes into a separate “memory box.” The rest are placed in a bag which I tuck into one of my Christmas decorations box til next Christmas at which point I flip through them one more time, selecting any from a loved one who might have passed away that year, thus making this the final card I would receive from them, and add those (if any at all) to the memory box. The rest usually get recycled. My Gram used to cut them apart, using the images she liked best as her Christmas tags.
omg, almost spewed my coffee because it’s amazing right now that i actually have any of the christmas cards i received this year still around. oops, no, i was wrong, pitched them already! Except – every year mike and i exchange cards and i keep all of those in the box wiith our christmas decorations and it’s part of our ritual when I decorate the tree, we leaf through those old cards (and we always write the year and silly notes on the back).
i’m afraid i’m like your mom – pitch is my middle name. i am shamefully unsentimental about most things wiith the exception of stuff that belonged to my gram.
i’ll be interested to see if i should consider doing anything with my cards in the future!
We pitched them this year. I tend to be a packrat too but I have way too much stuff to declutter around here. I do keep all the cards from my husband and I have the “last” Christmas card my mom wrote us saved.
My mindset now is to answer this question about a lot of stuff I consider saving, “Will my sons find this of any value when I die? Or will they curse me that they have to go through it all when I am gone?” LOL That question makes it easier to get going on tossing stuff.
Any pictures I keep. I have a ziplock for pics of family members, and one for friends’ pics. I don’t throw pictures away!
For plain cards, I have this rule. If it’s someone who actually wrote a personal message in the card–not just “merry Christmas”–but actually wrote a personal note in it, I save it. Because then it’s like a letter, with something to look back on and re-read in the future. If it just got signed with a name or a typical holiday greetinig, but no personal message, I toss it. That has helped me to keep the number of saved cards to a minimum, because usually only a small handful of people bother with a personal note.
I scrapbook them… there’s no way I could keep 50+ cards every year, but I can definitely keep a couple pieces of paper in a scrapbook. I’m sure you’ve seen how I punch them and scrap the squares. It’s kind of like making a Christmas card quilt!
I’m the same way about cards. I hate throwing them out but I do it for a lack of room. I will admit I keep all cards given to Andrew (he has his own card scrapbook, which is a whole other subject because it’s REALLY hard these days to find scrapbooks where you can keep cards) and I keep cards given between Kyle and I in a box. I also keep birth announcements and wedding invitations/favors.
I keep Christmas letters and pictures. What I do with the regular cards – use them as gift tags the next year! Either keep the whole front or just cut out a part that will look good. The ones that are not suitable for that I just put them in the recyling.
Eileen
“apparently I’m looking for affirmation or back-up here”
OH MY, I guess me and you need to learn to do without that affirmation thing! Would our lives/stuff be easier then?!!!
I have tons of old picture Christmas cards, just stuck in drawers and can’t seem to throw them out either!
I usually keep them until the following year and then throw them out, but now that makes me wonder why I even keep them for a whole year. Weird LOL
Hey Stace, I’ve been desperately trying to catch up on blogs!!
I’m glad you had a great Christmas!
Hope you found your glasses!!
My take on cards: I keep homemade ones and toss the rest. I hereby give you permission to toss!! LOL I am a little bit of a packrat. I would have gone nuts if my mom threw out old quilts!! My mom keeps a small box of handmade cards from me and my brothers when we were little. We get a kick out of going through them every couple of years.
I also keep photo cards. I scrapped a couple of years worth by cropping them down and plastering them on a double layout. I like the way they look in my scrapbook and it reminds me how small the neighborhood kids were. It’s fun to see the difference each year.
Happy New Year!
i read somewhere about picking a card a week and posting it and praying for that family that week!
I keep old cards, and I have done NOTHING with them but hoard them! I need to do something with them like make new cards or gift tags or something, but now that so many people send photo cards (as do I), that’s nearly impossible. I hate to throw out photos, and yet, I don’t scrapbook them like I started to do years ago. Sigh…..still waiting for a clever idea.
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