Christmas Cards (oh, sorry, Holiday Cards)

[SW MI Planner]

I always make sure to send out Holiday cards each year, mainly because I love getting mail myself. We send out about 100, and get about that many each year.

Now what do I do with them?? I feel bad throwing them away, so I just packed them with my decorations. What about the pictures you get enclosed with the cards? I really enjoy getting them, but don't know what to do with them. There are to many to put up around the house, but I feel really bad throwing them away.

Do you guys send out cards? What do you do with the ones you get? Do you like getting pictures of babies, kids, families, etc.?

[giff57]

I didn't get any sent out this year. I generally keep the pictures and toss the cards some time in January.

[JNA]

Our Solid Waste Management District collects the covers for reuse by a skills development workshop (how is that for being P.C.).

[SkeLeton]

Christmas cards like, regular paper cards? I just send them with the gifts to our extended family. Beyond that, no; and besides I avoid going to the Post Office, which always is a time waster and they're too damn slow.
I mostly send email holiday cards to friends.

[Zoning Goddess]

I used to save old cards for my son to do craft projects, make cards for family members the next year, etc., but now I toss them after the holiday (most pictures, too).

When we get cards, I put them on the X-mas tree so we get to enjoy them for several weeks.

[Maister]

I enjoy getting Christmas cards (I would say holiday cards but it seems all the cards I get are related specifically to Christmas...) and I think it's one of the best parts of the season. I particulary enjoy cards featuring winter scenes with cardinals or Rockwellian Santas.

The practice of exchanging cards this time of the year does seem to have dropped off in recent years. Hmmmm......what could that mean?

[kms]

I can't throw away the cards, either. I have begun throwing away the photos, and I don't send photos in my cards. I should label the cards with the year they were received; maybe my kids will enjoy reading through them someday.

I didn't feel like mailing cards this Christmas, so I waited until Dec. 27 to do that.

[michaelskis]

For the past few years I have sent out as many as 60... but I only get about 10 back.

I am going to save those that I got from people this year and they plus any new people I meet this year will be the only ones to get cards.

[Jen]

You could reuse the cards as a To and From tag.

I think I could be orthodox, as we just got our tree up a few days before Christmas and my holiday cards are always postmarked after the New Year.

[Miles Ignatius]

I used to but then in the post-divorce world I got away from it. I do individual letters for a dozen or so close friends but my card days are kaput.

However my insurance, real estate, and stockbroker contacts are still churning them out, so I suppose they're making up for my deficit

[Richmond Jake]

I sent a card to my eldest son this year, that was it. I received one, thanks to my sister.

[Michele Zone]

You could reuse the cards as a To and From tag.

And if Mom grew up in a war zone and Dad grew up in The Great Depression, it is prefectly acceptable to recycle cards by sending them to someone else (within the family), it is a curtesy to NOT sign the card so it is blank and more easily recycled to people outside the family , and envelopes get recycled by putting large address labels over the previous address.

We were environmentally friendly when it was just called "cheap".

[Cardinal]

I send out about twenty cards to family and friends, and about a half-dozen boxes of cookies in those years when I have time to bake. As for the cards I get, I usually hang onto them until a week or so after Christmas, then recycle them.

[donk]

And if Mom grew up in a war zone and Dad grew up in The Great Depression, it is prefectly acceptable to recycle cards by sending them to someone else (within the family), it is a curtesy to NOT sign the card so it is blank and more easily recycled to people outside the family , and envelopes get recycled by putting large address labels over the previous address.

We were environmentally friendly when it was just called "cheap".

My family just signs them in pencil.

[Michele Zone]

My family just signs them in pencil.

No can do. <shiver> Pencils give me a creepy feeling and I have several other family members who only sign stuff in ink. My kids think pencils are great for building elaborate designs on the floor. They had a large collection of pens and pencils used solely for that purpose until recently, when we threw them all out in the big purge we are doing.

But it's a great idea for non-psycho types who arent' creeped out by pencils.

[Downtown]

We send out about 130 - I love christmas cards. And I love doing our family christmas card, which is all produced at home on our computer with pictures of the family and an amusingly horrible multi stanzaed poem about our happenings.

I keep all the photo cards that we get and put them in a scapbook - its fun to watch families change from year to year.

The store bought cards I give to our secretary. Her sunday school classes make crafts with them.

You might want to contact a nursery school or local church sunday school program to see if they might want them.

[Queen B]

I sent cards out this year.
It did increase the number that I got back.
I only get a few photos and they usually make it to my fridge although I really hate crap on my fridge somehow people think that is mandatory.

(In a prior life, I saved all cards and letters and such but having to go thought that truck of emotion during that break up made me not even want to give cards for a while.)

No one seems the least bit interested in me keeping them any more. I always tear off the return and slip it in my address box. I will pitch them this year once I make sure I have responded to those people that sent one that we didn't.

[Maister]

Yep, the cards are 60% done.

[Planit]

cards are signed & stamped, but I'm waiting on the labels to be printed (yes I'm lazy that way)

[dandy_warhol]

The cards have been purchased, as have the stamps. I'm just trying to find some time to write'em. Maybe tonight?

[Dan]

Japanese Christmas cards ...

[cch]

Got my cards sent out yesterday. I only send out about a dozen. Since getting divorced my card-count decreased significantly. He had a bigger extended family.

My parents never sent cards, and never displayed the cards we'd receive. I never understood it. Seemed rude to me. It isn't like my mom was just too busy to get to it. It was like she purposely made a point to not participate in that part of the holidays.

When my brother's girlfriend sent her a xmas card, my mom went out and bought just one, to return the gesture.

[natski]

I lino printed cards for my mum to send out on the weekend. After that effort i am not sure if i will be sending some out. We display all our cards up on string around the home.