Christmas is just around the corner and holiday cards will start showing up in less than a month! If you’re like me, you likely still have a pile of Chrsitmas cards hanging out in a Christmas decoration box in the garage. It’s so hard to just throw away my friends and families cute faces. I did a little research and made up a few fun things you can do with all of your holiday cards!
Trying to figure out what to do with old Christmas cards?
I’ve got 10 clever ideas! My favorite ways to repurpose old cards are number 1 and 3 on this list. For cards without photos, there are lots of ideas to get crafty. I asked the wonderful world of C.R.A.F.T. facebook what they do with their Christmas cards, and got a lot of fun responses, so be sure and check out that list too.
1. Use holiday card pictures as contact photos
Snap a picture of the Christmas card and use it as that person’s contact photo in your phone! You can take a picture of the entire card or just a picture of the main image. I chose to use the main image. That way when they call you get to see their pretty faces!
2. Turn cards into gift tags
Holiday cards typically come on nice thick card stock, so up cycle the cute critters on the holiday cards and turn them into gift tags. Attach the gift tag with ribbon or raffia for a festive look. Or if you find a card you really like, use scissors and turn old greeting cards into bookmarks for yourself!
I made 3 gift tags out of one card. If the back of the gift tags are not plain, simple cut our a peice of white card stock and glue it the back of the gift tag. Voila!
3. Make holiday card books
I love making holiday card books with all of the Christmas cards sent to us that year. Punch a hole in every card and then tie the cards together with twine or a 2 inch loose leaf binder ring. I use key tags and markers to add the year. I display the holiday books on our coffee table every December.
4. Make a garland
Cut the old holiday cards into 5 x 5 squares, punch 2 holes in each square and string together with bakers twine! Hang the card garland up above a mirror or in your kids room for a festive holiday update.
5. Donate cards to charity
Make sure there is no writing on the back side of the front of the card. Fair to note, St. Jude’s Ranch can not except Hallmark, Disney, or American Greeting cards due to copyright laws.
6. Use as scrapbook material
Cut out words and images on the cards to use in a Chrsitmas scrapbook. My daughter loves making collages, so I let her cut up magazines and cards too.
7. Make ornaments for next year
These adorable DIY ornaments can be made with any kind of patterned paper, but I love hte idea of recycling holiday cards from prior years.
8. Frame holiday cards
I love to frame a few of my favorite holiday cards to pull out year after year. The one in the frame below is from 2019.
9. Turn cards into puzzles
Cut cards into a few pieces and place in a zip lock bag. They make perfect little busy bag activities for younger kids!
10. Make a Chrsitmas tree decoration
Lori used old holiday cards and festive scrapbook paper to make a Christmas tree.
What do you do with old Christmas cards? If you’re looking for more Christmas craft ideas, don’t miss:
Comments & Reviews
I cut mine up and use them to make cards to give next year mostly. I’ve also made little tiny gift boxes from them.
You’ve found some great ideas, I’m always happy to find some new things to save them from the bin.
FINALLY. Something I can do with all of the pretty cards I get. I hate throwing them away.
These are fantastic ideas! I love sending postcards. What a great direct swap these would make for a postcard group.
I’ve never done a post card group, but that sounds super fun!
This is an older post, but I like to make boxes from old greeting cards, too: http://squeezeyourcreativejuice.blogspot.com/2010/12/recycle-christmas-cards-how-to-make.html
My husband tossed all of ours when I was out one day. Boo! These are such clever ways to reuse them, thanks for sharing (: XO
Very fun ideas! I’ll have to save some of these for next year. They would work for Valentines too!
Such adorable ideas – I’ll have to bookmark this for next year!