Every year, I have an internal battle as the Christmas season draws to a close. What should I do with the Christmas cards? Do I keep them? Do I throw them out? If I keep them,what am I going to do with them? Even if I want to keep them, where am I going to keep them? Will I realistically look at them?
A few weeks ago, I was listening to the Jen Fulwiler radio show (podcast version since we don’t have Sirius.) She was talking about how she loves to make Christmas cards and mentioned that one of my favorite Catholic bloggers and super mama, Kathryn Whitaker at Team Whitaker, likes to keep her Christmas cards in a basket. Then, her family picks a card out of the basket each night and offers a prayer for that family.
What a great idea!
I love the thought of bringing all of those loved ones to prayer on a regular basis as a family. I didn’t love the idea of the basket, though.
- Little hands would rip the cards to smithereens within weeks.
- Where would I store it? Would it get dusty?
I came up with an alternative that worked for our family: a Christmas card binder.
Supplies:
- Your Christmas cards (I included our own on the last page)
- 1″ D-ring binder with clear cover for inserts if you’d like to put a cover page on it
- Cover page and spine title (See bottom of post)
- Cardstock (I chose black)
- Sheet protectors
- Double-sided tape (Tip: Buy the tape that you can put directly on your tape dispenser. I bought a 2-pack for the same price as one of those disposable dispensers. Working with your desktop dispenser will save you time, too.)
- Scissors for any trimming you need to do to get the cards to fit on the page
Then, simply tape the Christmas cards to your pages of cardstock, insert them into the sheet protectors, and you’ve got yourself a central hub for your loved one’s cards!
After putting all of the cards in to the binder, I whipped up a cover page. Here’s the JPEG file if you’d like to print it off for your binder, too:
I printed off the cover art and taped it to some green card stock. If I had been fancy, I would have used a larger sheet to fill the whole insert area but, meh.
I typed up a coordinating title for the binder spine in a red. Here’s the Google doc with that if you’d like it.
Then, I put the binder in its home in our little oratory. I put the binder here since it will be part of our family’s prayer life. In addition to pulling the binder out at family prayer time, I want any of us to be able to pull it off the shelf and flip through the pages whenever we’d like. As you can see, books are very, uh, loved in this house. I thought the binder would be a sturdier choice for this crew than a basket with loose cards!
Harry found the binder almost immediately. It was so sweet to watch him flip through the pages and light up as he saw all of the familiar faces. (Don’t mind his unzipped jammies. He thinks the keyhole look is the latest fashion.)
What do you do with all of the Christmas cards that you receive? I’d love to hear your ideas!
What a great idea with little kids! I have always kept them in a basket on the kitchen table to pray with at dinner time, but usually a few months into the year they are destroyed by those little hands! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Nicole! Hopefully the binder will survive to February. 😉
Like Nicole, mine are in a basket on the dinner table as well. There they will sit until …. I don’t know, Advent 2015?! I have no idea what to do with them. Your idea is sweet. I don’t think it’s do-able for me, but it’s still a great idea!
Here’s a question …
Last year a friend mentioned to us they thought it is an interesting phenomenon to send just photo cards of the family at Christmas rather than a card with an image of Jesus. So we combined both this year – Jesus card with a family “year-in-review” letter tucked in the inside (as you know).
At any rate, a friend of mine told me she couldn’t put us up on her “prayer wall” because I didn’t have a nice little photo card for her to hang alongside all the others. Then I felt all bad and lonely and sad that people aren’t going to pray for me (joking here), so I said, “Well Jesus, I tried to decrease so that you could increase, but I need the prayers right now so … PHOTO CARD OF ME next year!”
Anyway, what I really want to know is …. did I make your prayer book without a photo card?! lol 🙂
Lisa, it is so funny you should ask because I ended up doing something totally unique for your page. I decided to put your year in review newsletter that was double-sided in its own sheet protector, and I tucked your beautiful religious card into the sheet with it. That way, I can read the text on both sides and remove the actual card when I’d like. For other cards that open, I cut them in half, and taped them so that the cover and inside text faced outward. Does that make sense? Your family’s page is the only one that didn’t get taped to card stock. If anything, you saved me a step, so thanks! I’ve been meaning to tell you how much I loved your year in review and was so impressed with the way it looked. So very beautiful and professional! It was memorable because it was different. I love the photo cards, but I really liked how you made it your own with a very thoughtful, personal touch.
I did (/am doing, still working on it) something similar — although maybe simplified a bit, but we don’t have little hands flipping through these (yet). I got a half-page size binder and just hole-punched the cards, so we can read the messages on the back or inside. I also hole-punched an envelope and put any letters that came with the cards in that. I’m actually gift-wrapping the binder as a cute cover (/way to use up that small scrap of wrapping paper I have left that I don’t want to store on a roll anymore) and then we’ll put it (and all of our future books) in with our Christmas stuff to pull out each year and flip through and reminisce and compare pictures from year to year, since we cover the prayer aspect with a little daily/weekly calendar from the $1 bin at Target (so our prayer journal has an antique Minnie Mouse on the cover…who cares) that we write people/things into every day, and an attribute of God to ponder that week in the “weekly notes” section.
Just another take on it for non-mommies!
Very cool, Kiley! (Sorry for the delay. I somehow didn’t get a notification about your comment.) Per usual, you already have a great way of doing something I’m sharing on the blog. Sounds like a cute binder! I love all of your simple solutions that you share. Hope I’ll keep seeing you in the comments. 🙂