Christmas card confusion

What to do with Christmas cards? I just love getting Christmas cards from friends and relatives. This year we received 89! I recently read a magazine article trashing the yearly Christmas card. I get it. They all tend to be the same rainbows and roses year-in-review, maybe with a bit of sad news at the end, but all wrapped up nicely before signing off. But I do not agree with this author. When many of our friends and relatives are miles away, we just don’t get to hear what’s going on in their lives. This once-a-year update is priceless to me, especially if it comes with a picture or two as well.

The winning picture this year goes to my cousin and her family. She dressed her son up to look like Santa Claus, and the two family dogs received reindeer antlers. “Santa” is sitting on the fireplace ledge holding the reins of the two posing dogs. It’s the cutest thing. Even Hope walks around the house saying, “I love that picture of my friend, Max. It’s so cute.” Okay, so she has the wrong cousin’s child’s name, but I have a lot of cousins and we have a lot of kids so it’s understandable.

But what do you do with all of these cards after the holidays? When I was little we saved all of the cards to make crafts the following year. Placemats made out of used cards were popular for many years. They were fun to make and I believe we gave them to teachers as gifts. Then for a time we made little gift boxes out of the cards and their backs. I think many of these went to the local thrift shop to be sold with jewelry.

But there are all of these lovely photos, too. What to do with them? One year I put all of the cards and photos in a basket and placed it in the middle of our kitchen table. Each night we’d choose a new card and/or photo and we’d pray for that person or family before we ate. Then for a while I took all of the photos and posted them on a bulletin board in our kitchen. It was a fun way to remember them all year long. Several years ago I started posting just a few at a time, with numbers to correspond with the days of the month. We’d focus on praying for whoever was in that photo on the day they were posted. Occasionally I’ll tell someone that he or she was on our prayer calendar that day. Interestingly, there was usually a reason God placed that person on that day.

So I now have my pile of cards and I’m trying to decide what to do with them this year. I can go with one of the past projects or we can do something new. I’m open to any ideas you might have. But hurry up because they're taking up space and the Christmas stuff needs to go away.