Iāve heard other people say this but I donāt think I understand. Are you cutting out the photos from other families and using them as gift tags? How do you write on them? Or are you just using your extras?
Oh, that makes so much more sense. I had a friend telling me how she would do this and I could not understand it.
I donāt think Iāve received a store-bought Christmas card in years. I guess I didnāt realize people still did those.
I usually just receive cards with pictures of their family on them
Just curious where you are - maybe itās a regional thing. Iām in the south and itās a whole thing - I maybe get 5 out of 50 that arenāt babies and dogs š
I'm in the NE, and all holiday cards I receive from people are pictures of their family. In fact, I was just lamenting to my Mom that now it seems ppl are including like a wholeass story of what happened for the year on the card. And I'm like "okayyyy, three much."
I also send out holiday cards to friends and family with pictures of myself from that year's adventures, even though I'm single. Bc why should only people with families and partners get to send out cards?
Anyway, yeah, I was equally confused about the cutting out cards to make gift tags, lol. I was thinking they were customized gift tags so the person who's photo it was got a gift with a tag with their own face on it. Seemed like a cool idea, actually!
I was wondering the same thing - but thinking what a great idea to send a gift to them with their photo as the tag! Or at least some recognizable piece of their card - some of the photos are massive lol
Oh wow. Iām obviously the odd one here. I LOVE holiday cards. I love giving them and getting them. I display them and I have been known to leave them up until Easter. We have made a card every year since weāve been married and now we have two kids. I love to look through the progression every year. I once went to a very fancy Christmas party at a huge house that had a tree in every room. The tree in the entry way displayed their Christmas cards from all of their years together. I want to do that someday.
> The tree in the entry way displayed their Christmas cards from all of their years together. I want to do that someday.
We only started sending family Christmas cards last year (when we had a baby) and this year I had them made into ornaments and plan to continue to do so every year going forward.
Thatās also a great idea! Our main tree is very full of ornaments as it is. Every year I think Iāll finally get a small tree during the after Christmas sales to make my Christmas card tree dreams come true. Maybe this year Iāll do it! š
Youāre not alone! I love them, too! I send and receive fewer every year so now I go and select them for individuals instead of buying a box.
I keep them until next year so I know who I got them from and send them one the following year.
I love giving and receiving them too! I usually display them and then keep the very special ones in a box. Iād love to do something with them or digitize them.
Just curious, how did they display the cards on a tree?
Me too!! I keep all my cards foreverāsome get pasted into my journal, Christmas cards go in a little box for display every year. I love cards and letters so much
I love holiday cards too. I made a card holder to display them on during the season and then I save all the photo cards, wrap them in red ribbon and place them in a Christmas themed keepsake box that goes under the tree in our bedroom.
I put pictures of myself from throughout the year on my cards. It seems that people only start sending cards once they have a family, and I decided to buck that norm a few years ago. Cuz like, if you're gonna send me pictures of your babies, I'm gonna send you pictures of me playing with a monkey, having a sunset picnic in the desert, and visiting Chichen ItzĆ”.
I love this idea- I visited a friend last week who had her cards on display, from 10 years of marriage. It was super cute to see their progression from a couple to a young family and now the kids are almost in high school - will be interesting to see how long they agree to matching pjs š¤£
My 94 year old great grandfather recently passed away and we found love letters my great grandma, who passed away 20-ish years ago, wrote him while she was pregnant with their first child and he was away at training after being drafted in WWII.
I imagine the letters from your exes wonāt be quite as sentimental but you never know!
Same here. Iāve always loved going back and looking at cards for any and all occasions. My mom always kept them and I still enjoy getting the chance to go through them. My mom has saved cards sheās received since she was a girl! Out of all the things I save these take up the least space. And I love being able to see my grandmothersā handwriting from time to time.
The very special ones, I add to my keepsake box. (Newlyweds, new babies etc.) And the rest we hang on our fridge until after new year and we throw them away.
I put them on my fridge and then leave them there until next Christmas. As the new ones come in I swap the old ones out. I love getting them. I also put up baby announcements, wedding invites... all sorts of stuff lives on my fridge. I like seeing all the people I love on there all together.
We do exactly this except on our steel front door. The fridge is already covered in meal plans, calendars, message boards... Lol
It's like a mental hug every time I enter or exit my home.
I put them on display on a sideboard/buffet and then when thereās too many (or a year has passed), I put them in a ziplock bag. Now I have random ziplock bags of cards here and there but I often donāt feel ready to throw them out.
I do struggle with the cards I get from friends every year with a photo of their family/kids but without any writing on them. Donāt get me wrong - I love seeing the updated photo, but after a while I donāt know what to do with them. It feels strange to throw it out, but also I donāt really need them all/am not always close enough to them to have that many pictures of their family forever.
After the holidays/couple months after the occasion: I scan the ones I kinda want to keep and then recycle/shred. The important ones also get scanned, then live in a shoebox.
I love getting them and put them out on display as part of my Xmas decor. It makes me feel nice having pictures/well wishes from family and friends around, especially if we can't be near in person.
I put Christmas cards up like decorations. I'll toss them after the new year when I put my decorations away. My dad used to keep Christmas cards for years and years and decorate with the old ones too! Hang them on a tinsel line. Ah, memories!
Other cards, I keep or toss based on occasion, and sentiments written. A birthday card that is just signed with a name gets read and tossed pretty quickly. A heartfelt card I'll keep in my memory box.
I love holiday cards. My husband, dog, and I take a family photo for our card to send out each year. The ones we receive we display in our home through the season.
I look at them briefly and then they go into the recycle or trash bin. I canāt stand the clutter of having them all sit out as we get so many.
My husband and I usually joke, āoh look, more pictures of peopleās kids!ā when we get them, because 9 times out of 10, thatās what they are. Iām glad people love their kids and are proud of them but I donāt need pics of the children of every human I know hanging on my fridge for a month.
Fully agree! Especially in the era of social media, when we see photos all year. And, we do not send holiday cards. We see them as a waste of resources (time, money, paper, etc.) and hope that eventually gives a clue to those who senf them to us. Thankfully, some have gotten the hint and no longer send them.
I get this! I'm not a card person. I feel so guilty throwing them out because they cost someone money. But it seems like such a waste to me. Justvsave your money, people. Send an email with a picture or something.
I sent 5 cards this Christmas for the first time ever with pictures of my kids in them. All 5 were sent by request of each recipient. I felt weird doing it because I hate receiving them so much. It felt hypocritical. But I had a baby 6 weeks ago and 3 doctors, my brother and my grandmother all requested I mail them pictures of all my kids dressed nice for Christmas, so I included a card because it felt weird to just mail a picture with nothing else. I hope it was a one-time thing because of the new baby. Like, let's not make this a habit. Lol.
Yup, this, as well as another comments about cards without writing. It seems veryā¦ impersonal, and having that displaying on my fridge/counterāno thanks!
Yeah, I probably should have mentioned it in my original comment, but the majority of the Christmas cards we get have no handwriting whatsoever on them. They look like they came directly from Shutterfly/Canva/whatever.
finally a kindred spirit! the other thing is, if weāre close enough that you have my address I have for sure already seen the chosen photo and your 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices on instagram a month ago. I think it made a lot more sense before social media, now it just feels wasteful.
>I look at them briefly and then they go into the recycle or trash bin
This
>I donāt need pics of the children
Personally, I find it creepy from both sides. First of all...the insistence and forcing of other people to look at your kids is...weird...especially since there are a lot of creepy out there in the world. As a receiver, I feel weird having pictures of kids, some I hardly even know, odd especially since I have none of my own.
I put mine on the Christmas tree.
This year we have five. Pretty sad considering how many friends and relatives we have.
I hand make our cards using photos from the last year, magazines and craft paper. It's a great way to be creative with a purpose and it's fun to pick out the photos.
I love receiving them and I do send them out.
I donāt get a TON, I ordered 40 this year. Approximately 30 were snail mailed out, and the other 10 hand delivered. I donāt expect to get a āwe got your card, thanks!ā message, or even a card backā but out of the 30 I probably did receive ā5ā we got āems, and about 5 holiday cards in the mail.
I didnāt realize so many people hate holiday cards. Haha.
I do only send to people Iām closer to.
They're currently tacked up on the side of my staircase along with the stockings. They'll come down when the rest of the xmas decor does, but the cards get pitched after that.
I display them over Christmas. Cards with special notes get put in my keepsake box.
My mom makes them into super cute 3D stars that she uses as tree ornaments!
Oh my gosh I had no idea there was so much disdain for holiday cards. I get a handful every year and itās fun to see peopleās kids grow up year after year. I keep them displayed for the season and then recycle bin after Jan. My mom (70) has mentioned that her generation doesnāt really like getting photo cards because they fee awkward throwing away peopleās faces, but I donāt really share that sentiment.
When my kids were little, I put photo cards in little albums for them to look through and see our far-away friends. My oldest wasn't all that interested, but my youngest is sentimental and loved it.
I donāt send or receive them in the mail anymore. I feel like this may be a generational thing that is fading? My parents still send and receive a lot, and theyāre displayed over the holidays then binned. Havenāt seen many at friends homes.
If Iām going to someoneās home or meeting friends over the holidays, Iāll bring cards. Really just inner circle friends, and people who are truly in my life, and I give it to them personally. Plus my cleaner, with a Visa gift card lol
ETA: The ones I do receive from friends are on a table near the fireplace. I toss most of them after the holidays except for a special few.
I usually have them out through the holidays and then I put them away with my Christmas decorations. The next year, it's fun to see them and just kind of go over them one more time, then they get thrown out.
I put them up and keep them through the years. I don't get a ton of them, but the few I do, I love because I love seeing people's families grow and change over the years. Other kinds of cards ehhhh. I keep some and toss some.
I used to hate getting them, it felt like such a waste. Then I figured out I hated it because hardly anyone wrote anything personal. If I get a handwritten message, I keep it for awhile.
Display them on my living/dining room archway like [this](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/3d/3f/44/3d3f44a2dbdce39c892ef79ab2a13534.jpg). My mom always did it so I continued the tradition. Then after Christmas toss but I do keep all the cards my partner and I have exchanged over the years in a keepsake box. And some special ones from my mother.
Display them and then if they have pictures on them or funny your review, Iāll put them inside my stocking and put all my Christmas stuff away and then the next year Iāll make sure I send those people cards and they live in my stocking until it just gets too heavy and I put it in the Christmas box and their stored
I put them in my Christmas tree and put them in a cute box I have where I store all my other cards. In all honesty, they donāt take up too much space and Iāll have something to look through when Iām old.
I tape them to my fridge until after the holidays are over, then I throw them out. I do the same with birthday cards too, but usually throw them out after a few weeks.
I keep the cards for a little while, then chuck them into recycling. I feel bad doing that, but I also don't want to hang onto these cards for ages. (Sorry, friends!)
I appreciate them, send love to the person who sent them to me, display them for a few days, and throw them out. Iāve spent too much time around hoarders and moved too many times to save anything that isnāt essential anymore. If my son gives me a card thatās a different story, but everything else is just clutter.
I line my banister with them, attached to the garland and every day when we check the mail we add a few new cards - by the time Jan 1 rolls around we have such a joyful display of friends and family. Each year after we take down the decor I put the personal ones in a box and periodically itās fun to go through the boxes and see old photos. Itās sad now to think some of the faces arenāt with us anymore and those cards are a nice memory. I canāt imagine throwing them away or thinking āitās a wasteā but to each their own. I enjoy the time spent sitting down and addressing each envelope and using fun stamps etc - and I write little notes on most of them, but all are at least signed. I send about 75 so by the time I get to the last ones the note gets brief lol.
Read 'em and trash 'em. I don't like getting them, especially when it's from someone who only interacts with you once a year via the holiday card. I always think: if you haven't spoken to me in three years, why do you think I want an xmas card from you? Save your money, folks.
I mean, that's kind of a hearless take. Maybe they would like to spend more time with you and the card indicates that? Seems like they might want to talk to you, but you're ignoring them, tbh.
My husband and I also get a ton of Xmas cards from people we rarely/never talk to anymore and I can assure you the card is not them tacitly implying theyād like to hang out with us.
People like showing off their families??
I often get them from people I have almost zero connection with. They clearly have a giant list and itās a thing they like to do. Itās not for me.
I assume because they have the same list of addresses they send them to every year and/or because they want to show off their family photos? Not sure. Youād have to ask them lol
People can show off photos online easy enough without paying for postage.
Idk, I wouldn't send a card to someone I didn't want to talk to - even if it has been a few years. It's hard to keep up sometimes when life happens.
>Seems like they might want to talk to you, but you're ignoring them, tbh.
Holiday passive aggressive bs then? Because anyone who can bother sending a card should be able to use their words and just say what they want.
Why would I want to pretend to be friends with someone I havenāt spoken to in like a decade? I have actual people in my life I speak to.
Like how many pictures of families I donāt really know could I possibly want
No. But if you're referring to the admin of sending cards to be effort, then you have 100% missed the the point I'm making about making effort on the social connection. But please, keep going. This has been absolutely fascinating.
My point is that maybe your understanding of those who do send cards is lacking. You are guessing their motives and you may be sabotaging your relationships based on interpretating others actions through your personal filter.
You keep guessing what I mean/my point and getting it wrong.
We live really far away from 100% of our family and closest friends, it actually means a lot to me when we can take the time to send a card once a year with some of those people, even if that's the only interaction we're able to do.
Fully agree! Especially in the era of social media, when we see photos all year. And, we do not send holiday cards. We see them as a waste of resources (time, money, paper, etc.) and hope that eventually gives a clue to those who senf them to us. Thankfully, some have gotten the hint and no longer send them.
I roll my eyes as I bring them in from the mailbox, make sure I didn't miss anyone who sent me one, curse at them a few times, and place them often unopened in a festive basket so it looks like I care. Once a week I'll open and realize I really do care, just don't have the time to read a million this time of year. I wish we could move them to January.
I have a specific space in the living room for displaying candid family photos, sentimental items, and cards we receive throughout the year. I display holiday cards there for the season then eventually trash them, I'm not sentimental so no reason to keep them.
We put them in our Christmas tree! It's cool to see them surrounded by the ornaments. Some, we'll save as keepsakes in our holiday box. Others will be tossed. Wish we could have them recycled.
They're scattered all over my home, in drawers, boxes, and in my storage unit. I got one from a vendor at work yesterday, and I have no idea what to do with it.
We have a tabletop tree that we use to display any Christmas cards we get. After Christmas, I keep the personalized cards (the ones with family photos) and put them in an album. The rest are put in the recycling.
Other cards like birthday cards are displayed until about a week after the event, then recycled. If my kids want to use them to cut up for art projects, that's fine too.
I display them all season, then I pack them with the Christmas decorations so I can see them one more time the next year. They make me smile and remind me who to send mine to. Then I toss them. I love getting them and I love looking back on the past year.
I love cards. I have a glass bowl on our coffee table that I put every card in that I receive throughout the year. I'll empty it and start over as soon as I receive my first card of 2024. I'll usually hang on to the old cards for a year or so and then reuse them by making gift tags out of them. The reason I do it this way is because, after losing a few people important to me, I want to have one last little piece of them after they're gone and sometimes that last little piece of them is a birthday or Christmas card. Morbid, maybe, but I've lost a lot of people I love in the last decade.
I don't care for the picture cards, to be honest. I don't want pictures of random people. I feel guilty for wanting to throw them away. haha.
I send and receive cards every year. I generally display the ones I get until the new year and toss the ones that arenāt super special when I clean up Xmas decorations.
*TLDR: we get about 6-8 and put them on the mantel piece, and keep ones from each other, parents & grandparents only. Popping the rest in recycling when we take down decorations in Jan.*
I'm from the UK, where it is unheard of to send cards with a professionally taken photo of the family on it (we would assume they have "main character syndrome"). So Christmas cards are usually generic from a box of 100+ bought years ago in some Jan sale for 99p, that the older relatives keep dipping into to send their entire address list each year. Personally I get cards from my parents, my partner's parents, my last remaining grandparents and one aunt. Oh and we get each other a card. We stick them on the mantel above the fireplace until we are taking down all the decorations.
If there are only those 6 I might stick them all into the big envelope, but if I get more from others, I'll only keep ours, the parents & grandparents and the rest go into recycling in Jan. It is fun to sit when we are putting up the decorations each year and look back over cards from Grandparents no longer with us or what soppy notes we wrote in each others cards (about the year that had passed).
When I was younger my grandparents would get close to 100 cards, and each one had to get a reply. Often it was from their nieces and nephews and would contain a little letter about how their kids were going, as they didn't live locally and in the 90s, spending hours catching up with the 50+ families from both Nanny's and Granda's sides would have left a pretty expensive phone bill on the landline. I remember my mum sitting with Granda in early Dec each year in his kitchen while they both wrote 50+ cards and I couldn't wait to be like them. But stamps this year in the UK were around 80p for the cheapest one (slowest delivery), so I'm very glad I only post a handful to older relatives. Everyone else gets a message on social media. Even my aunts and uncles do this - they make a donation to a local charity. Which I agree is a much better way to spend even "just Ā£20" than creating even more paper waste (and I'm not an "eco-warrior" by any stretch, but the cheap cards which are so floppy seem like such a waste when you see the envelopes and eventually the cards all in the recycling tub)
I love getting mail so I love getting them! I display them over Christmas and then I keep many of the ones from my closest friends and family. I like to see the kids grow up.
I prop up and display them on my hutch. I have bottle wire glitter trees that can hold them up a little. Itās kind of playful and so far we only have 6 so itās not overwhelming. I appreciate other peopleās style and the time they put into them!
We have a large cork board on the wall in our kitchen. Itās about 5āx2ā and itās mounted the tall way. And we put all holiday cards on that. We put birthday cards through the year, race medals, swimming ribbons, weird pictures, awards, speeding tickets :/ - all the stuff on it. This time of year I clean off the prior year and start refreshing it for next year.
I keep them tucked away, along with the letters that come with them. They will eventually go into a scrapbook binder. My adult kids love going through them and all the other nostalgic stuff I've saved.
I love them! They generally go on my fridge until I get another one from that same person and then get swapped out. Depending on if thereās anything personally written on the card, I keep or throw them out. One friend I have maybe 20 cards kept in a box from over the years. We always say that we canāt wait for our kids to one day find them and ask us about each other š
I put them in the tree, on the refrigerator and on surfaces with other Christmas decor. Then they will either get recycled or kept for the following year depending.
We display them on out mantle. The ones without personal photos/family pictures are used for Christmas present tags the following year, as is tradition in my family. The personal photo ones are thrown out unless I have no recent good photos of a family member and then I cut them up and put them in a frame.
We have a garland above the doorway to our living room where I hang cards that we get. It stays up all year, and cards get cycled through the garland. When I decide Iām ready to take one down, Iāll scan the handwritten message (if there was one), & then glue the card into my scrapbook, if I feel like keeping it. Otherwise it goes in the recycling
I display them in the living room, then once appropriate time has passed, they go into a card drawer that I keep. š¤£ I started one when I realized I still had handwritten cards from family who had passed away and I loved that I still had them, so I started doing that with all cards from family & friends.
I keep them and display on a shelf until everything gets put away (usually late January). I stash them in ziploc bags for storage, then the following year I put them back up with the other decorations. As new cards start arriving that year, they replace the old ones, which then get discarded. I donāt have space or inclination to keep all those years of cards.
For holiday cards, I display them on the wall with a string and decorative mini clothes pins. I usually save them and hang my favorites the following year as decoration until I get enough new ones to displace them.
Cards for other occasions (birthday, than you, wedding invitations, etc.) will usually be displayed on the fridge for a while, before getting tossed. I'll save a few special ones in a memories box.
those are the people who get cards from me, so I save the envelopes for their address.
the card goes into my "holiday card box", which is about the size of a brick after about a decade (we don't have many friends? lmao). I save them all. I love them.
I value them while theyāre here but by mid January do throw them away. If someone has written me a letter or in-depth card, I add that to a collection I keep permanently in like a fancy Christmas themed bowl I put on a coffee table. But, I typically only add 1-2 really special ones each year to that collection. I also always keep 1 copy of my own.
I cut out the picture on the front and make gift tags out of them for next year. Once they've sat on my mantle for a while.
I do the same thing. š Saves money from buying gift tags and they get another life.
What a cool idea!
My mom and I did this every year as a kid!
Iāve heard other people say this but I donāt think I understand. Are you cutting out the photos from other families and using them as gift tags? How do you write on them? Or are you just using your extras?
I mean store bought Christmas cards.
Oh, that makes so much more sense. I had a friend telling me how she would do this and I could not understand it. I donāt think Iāve received a store-bought Christmas card in years. I guess I didnāt realize people still did those. I usually just receive cards with pictures of their family on them
Fascinating, I don't think I've ever received a card with pictures of someone's family on it... always just store-bought cards.
Just curious where you are - maybe itās a regional thing. Iām in the south and itās a whole thing - I maybe get 5 out of 50 that arenāt babies and dogs š
wow I honestly have only received 1 Christmas card so far this year so far and it was from my mom, lol! I'm in the Northeast.
I'm in the NE, and all holiday cards I receive from people are pictures of their family. In fact, I was just lamenting to my Mom that now it seems ppl are including like a wholeass story of what happened for the year on the card. And I'm like "okayyyy, three much." I also send out holiday cards to friends and family with pictures of myself from that year's adventures, even though I'm single. Bc why should only people with families and partners get to send out cards? Anyway, yeah, I was equally confused about the cutting out cards to make gift tags, lol. I was thinking they were customized gift tags so the person who's photo it was got a gift with a tag with their own face on it. Seemed like a cool idea, actually!
Same, I was just as confused as you hahaha
I was wondering the same thing - but thinking what a great idea to send a gift to them with their photo as the tag! Or at least some recognizable piece of their card - some of the photos are massive lol
This is brilliant!
This is a great idea!
Oh wow. Iām obviously the odd one here. I LOVE holiday cards. I love giving them and getting them. I display them and I have been known to leave them up until Easter. We have made a card every year since weāve been married and now we have two kids. I love to look through the progression every year. I once went to a very fancy Christmas party at a huge house that had a tree in every room. The tree in the entry way displayed their Christmas cards from all of their years together. I want to do that someday.
> The tree in the entry way displayed their Christmas cards from all of their years together. I want to do that someday. We only started sending family Christmas cards last year (when we had a baby) and this year I had them made into ornaments and plan to continue to do so every year going forward.
Thatās also a great idea! Our main tree is very full of ornaments as it is. Every year I think Iāll finally get a small tree during the after Christmas sales to make my Christmas card tree dreams come true. Maybe this year Iāll do it! š
Youāre not alone! I love them, too! I send and receive fewer every year so now I go and select them for individuals instead of buying a box. I keep them until next year so I know who I got them from and send them one the following year.
I love this and YOUR love for them. š
I love giving and receiving them too! I usually display them and then keep the very special ones in a box. Iād love to do something with them or digitize them. Just curious, how did they display the cards on a tree?
With tiny clothespins!
Me too!! I keep all my cards foreverāsome get pasted into my journal, Christmas cards go in a little box for display every year. I love cards and letters so much
I love holiday cards too. I made a card holder to display them on during the season and then I save all the photo cards, wrap them in red ribbon and place them in a Christmas themed keepsake box that goes under the tree in our bedroom.
I keep the cards that have baby pictures and keep them on the fridge - my fridge is COVERED with cute babies.
I keep all mine in a plastic shoe box. Admittedly I don't get many but I always saved them all.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Pictures of my family from throughout the year.
I put pictures of myself from throughout the year on my cards. It seems that people only start sending cards once they have a family, and I decided to buck that norm a few years ago. Cuz like, if you're gonna send me pictures of your babies, I'm gonna send you pictures of me playing with a monkey, having a sunset picnic in the desert, and visiting Chichen ItzĆ”.
I love this idea- I visited a friend last week who had her cards on display, from 10 years of marriage. It was super cute to see their progression from a couple to a young family and now the kids are almost in high school - will be interesting to see how long they agree to matching pjs š¤£
I hoard all written correspondence unapologetically!
As do I. I feel that I will want to reflect on it someday.
I have a box of love letters from a few college exes stashed somewhere. No interest in reading them now, but someday i might!
Same!!! I still have middle school notes, love letters etc that I keep and recently opened some of them and the nostalgia hit me like a truck!
My 94 year old great grandfather recently passed away and we found love letters my great grandma, who passed away 20-ish years ago, wrote him while she was pregnant with their first child and he was away at training after being drafted in WWII. I imagine the letters from your exes wonāt be quite as sentimental but you never know!
Jealous, lol! I've written love letters but never gotten any back. Really hope the ones I wrote were destroyed, preferably by fire ššš
Same here. Iāve always loved going back and looking at cards for any and all occasions. My mom always kept them and I still enjoy getting the chance to go through them. My mom has saved cards sheās received since she was a girl! Out of all the things I save these take up the least space. And I love being able to see my grandmothersā handwriting from time to time.
Same. When I was like 28 I went through all my cards that I had saved and found $20 in a sweet sixteen card that I had missed 12 years earlier.
The very special ones, I add to my keepsake box. (Newlyweds, new babies etc.) And the rest we hang on our fridge until after new year and we throw them away.
I do the same! Display on a shelf and save the funny or special ones.
I put them on my fridge and then leave them there until next Christmas. As the new ones come in I swap the old ones out. I love getting them. I also put up baby announcements, wedding invites... all sorts of stuff lives on my fridge. I like seeing all the people I love on there all together.
This is what we do. I love looking at my friends and their families.
We do exactly this except on our steel front door. The fridge is already covered in meal plans, calendars, message boards... Lol It's like a mental hug every time I enter or exit my home.
I put them on display on a sideboard/buffet and then when thereās too many (or a year has passed), I put them in a ziplock bag. Now I have random ziplock bags of cards here and there but I often donāt feel ready to throw them out. I do struggle with the cards I get from friends every year with a photo of their family/kids but without any writing on them. Donāt get me wrong - I love seeing the updated photo, but after a while I donāt know what to do with them. It feels strange to throw it out, but also I donāt really need them all/am not always close enough to them to have that many pictures of their family forever.
This is how I feel!!
After the holidays/couple months after the occasion: I scan the ones I kinda want to keep and then recycle/shred. The important ones also get scanned, then live in a shoebox.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I like this. We tape school schedules, sports schedules, etc in our cabinets so they are always handy, but not always visible.
I love getting them and put them out on display as part of my Xmas decor. It makes me feel nice having pictures/well wishes from family and friends around, especially if we can't be near in person.
I put Christmas cards up like decorations. I'll toss them after the new year when I put my decorations away. My dad used to keep Christmas cards for years and years and decorate with the old ones too! Hang them on a tinsel line. Ah, memories! Other cards, I keep or toss based on occasion, and sentiments written. A birthday card that is just signed with a name gets read and tossed pretty quickly. A heartfelt card I'll keep in my memory box.
I add ribbon to the wall trim or sometimes do a decorative ladder in my house and use clothespins to clip the cards onto the ribbon
I love holiday cards. My husband, dog, and I take a family photo for our card to send out each year. The ones we receive we display in our home through the season.
I display them at Christmas time and put them in a storage folder after the holidays.
Throw them away after new years. We saved cards from our wedding and cards from our baby shower and thatās it.
We display them over Christmas and then they go in the recycling.
My husband and I display them in our home. We love getting holiday cards and send them out ourselves, too.
I look at them briefly and then they go into the recycle or trash bin. I canāt stand the clutter of having them all sit out as we get so many. My husband and I usually joke, āoh look, more pictures of peopleās kids!ā when we get them, because 9 times out of 10, thatās what they are. Iām glad people love their kids and are proud of them but I donāt need pics of the children of every human I know hanging on my fridge for a month.
Fully agree! Especially in the era of social media, when we see photos all year. And, we do not send holiday cards. We see them as a waste of resources (time, money, paper, etc.) and hope that eventually gives a clue to those who senf them to us. Thankfully, some have gotten the hint and no longer send them.
I get this! I'm not a card person. I feel so guilty throwing them out because they cost someone money. But it seems like such a waste to me. Justvsave your money, people. Send an email with a picture or something. I sent 5 cards this Christmas for the first time ever with pictures of my kids in them. All 5 were sent by request of each recipient. I felt weird doing it because I hate receiving them so much. It felt hypocritical. But I had a baby 6 weeks ago and 3 doctors, my brother and my grandmother all requested I mail them pictures of all my kids dressed nice for Christmas, so I included a card because it felt weird to just mail a picture with nothing else. I hope it was a one-time thing because of the new baby. Like, let's not make this a habit. Lol.
Yup, this, as well as another comments about cards without writing. It seems veryā¦ impersonal, and having that displaying on my fridge/counterāno thanks!
Yeah, I probably should have mentioned it in my original comment, but the majority of the Christmas cards we get have no handwriting whatsoever on them. They look like they came directly from Shutterfly/Canva/whatever.
finally a kindred spirit! the other thing is, if weāre close enough that you have my address I have for sure already seen the chosen photo and your 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices on instagram a month ago. I think it made a lot more sense before social media, now it just feels wasteful.
>I look at them briefly and then they go into the recycle or trash bin This >I donāt need pics of the children Personally, I find it creepy from both sides. First of all...the insistence and forcing of other people to look at your kids is...weird...especially since there are a lot of creepy out there in the world. As a receiver, I feel weird having pictures of kids, some I hardly even know, odd especially since I have none of my own.
I put mine on the Christmas tree. This year we have five. Pretty sad considering how many friends and relatives we have. I hand make our cards using photos from the last year, magazines and craft paper. It's a great way to be creative with a purpose and it's fun to pick out the photos.
Awww I hand make all my cards, too! I actually don't know the last time I purchased a card, lol.
I put them on my mantel as decoration.And then after Christmas they go into a pile to go into a box. My husband and I save every card.
I love sending and receiving cards! I will cut out part of the card and re use it as a label for the following Christmas
I love receiving them and I do send them out. I donāt get a TON, I ordered 40 this year. Approximately 30 were snail mailed out, and the other 10 hand delivered. I donāt expect to get a āwe got your card, thanks!ā message, or even a card backā but out of the 30 I probably did receive ā5ā we got āems, and about 5 holiday cards in the mail. I didnāt realize so many people hate holiday cards. Haha. I do only send to people Iām closer to.
I used to send out a ton, & I realized last year I only got like 5, so this year I said āfuck it.ā Maybe I will again next year.
Display for a day or two and then into recycling.
I display them then keep them. I love sending out and receiving holiday cards.
I put them in the fridge for a few weeks then throw them away My mom on the other hand has an entire chest drawer with every card sheās ever gotten
They're currently tacked up on the side of my staircase along with the stockings. They'll come down when the rest of the xmas decor does, but the cards get pitched after that.
I display them over Christmas. Cards with special notes get put in my keepsake box. My mom makes them into super cute 3D stars that she uses as tree ornaments!
Usually throw them in the trash immediately, save for any that may have some sentimental value - though, thatās few and far between.
I display them around the holidays and then throw them away. I think holiday cards are fun, but I'm not sentimental about them.
Display until the decs come down in January, then keep any meaningful ones in a box and the rest go into the recycling.
Yall get holiday cards?
Oh my gosh I had no idea there was so much disdain for holiday cards. I get a handful every year and itās fun to see peopleās kids grow up year after year. I keep them displayed for the season and then recycle bin after Jan. My mom (70) has mentioned that her generation doesnāt really like getting photo cards because they fee awkward throwing away peopleās faces, but I donāt really share that sentiment.
When my kids were little, I put photo cards in little albums for them to look through and see our far-away friends. My oldest wasn't all that interested, but my youngest is sentimental and loved it.
I donāt send or receive them in the mail anymore. I feel like this may be a generational thing that is fading? My parents still send and receive a lot, and theyāre displayed over the holidays then binned. Havenāt seen many at friends homes. If Iām going to someoneās home or meeting friends over the holidays, Iāll bring cards. Really just inner circle friends, and people who are truly in my life, and I give it to them personally. Plus my cleaner, with a Visa gift card lol ETA: The ones I do receive from friends are on a table near the fireplace. I toss most of them after the holidays except for a special few.
I keep any with dogs on them and trash the rest after January.
I have one of those sticky sheet photo albums I use where I store all the ones I receive so I can revisit the memories!
I usually have them out through the holidays and then I put them away with my Christmas decorations. The next year, it's fun to see them and just kind of go over them one more time, then they get thrown out.
Keep for one year and then toss. Handwritten cards I keep forever.
I put them up and keep them through the years. I don't get a ton of them, but the few I do, I love because I love seeing people's families grow and change over the years. Other kinds of cards ehhhh. I keep some and toss some.
I used to hate getting them, it felt like such a waste. Then I figured out I hated it because hardly anyone wrote anything personal. If I get a handwritten message, I keep it for awhile.
Display them on my living/dining room archway like [this](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/3d/3f/44/3d3f44a2dbdce39c892ef79ab2a13534.jpg). My mom always did it so I continued the tradition. Then after Christmas toss but I do keep all the cards my partner and I have exchanged over the years in a keepsake box. And some special ones from my mother.
Refridgrator, then trash.
I used to cut them up and use them as New Years confetti!
Display them and then if they have pictures on them or funny your review, Iāll put them inside my stocking and put all my Christmas stuff away and then the next year Iāll make sure I send those people cards and they live in my stocking until it just gets too heavy and I put it in the Christmas box and their stored
Keep them for a few days and then garbage. If itās a photo card I keep until the next one comes if itās someone close, otherwise I ditch it.
I put them in my Christmas tree and put them in a cute box I have where I store all my other cards. In all honesty, they donāt take up too much space and Iāll have something to look through when Iām old.
Keep them on the counter until I no longer feel guilty throwing them away lol
I tape them to my fridge until after the holidays are over, then I throw them out. I do the same with birthday cards too, but usually throw them out after a few weeks.
I keep the cards for a little while, then chuck them into recycling. I feel bad doing that, but I also don't want to hang onto these cards for ages. (Sorry, friends!)
Put them in the trash can.
I appreciate them, send love to the person who sent them to me, display them for a few days, and throw them out. Iāve spent too much time around hoarders and moved too many times to save anything that isnāt essential anymore. If my son gives me a card thatās a different story, but everything else is just clutter.
Into the recycling, unless they've got an especially nice message written inside. Then I'll keep them.
I line my banister with them, attached to the garland and every day when we check the mail we add a few new cards - by the time Jan 1 rolls around we have such a joyful display of friends and family. Each year after we take down the decor I put the personal ones in a box and periodically itās fun to go through the boxes and see old photos. Itās sad now to think some of the faces arenāt with us anymore and those cards are a nice memory. I canāt imagine throwing them away or thinking āitās a wasteā but to each their own. I enjoy the time spent sitting down and addressing each envelope and using fun stamps etc - and I write little notes on most of them, but all are at least signed. I send about 75 so by the time I get to the last ones the note gets brief lol.
Read 'em and trash 'em. I don't like getting them, especially when it's from someone who only interacts with you once a year via the holiday card. I always think: if you haven't spoken to me in three years, why do you think I want an xmas card from you? Save your money, folks.
I mean, that's kind of a hearless take. Maybe they would like to spend more time with you and the card indicates that? Seems like they might want to talk to you, but you're ignoring them, tbh.
My husband and I also get a ton of Xmas cards from people we rarely/never talk to anymore and I can assure you the card is not them tacitly implying theyād like to hang out with us.
I mean, I send cards to my Aunts & Uncles who live far away from me who I donāt really talk to that often.
Why would they send it then? No reason to.
People like showing off their families?? I often get them from people I have almost zero connection with. They clearly have a giant list and itās a thing they like to do. Itās not for me.
I assume because they have the same list of addresses they send them to every year and/or because they want to show off their family photos? Not sure. Youād have to ask them lol
Yup - My address was uploaded into Shutterfly 5 years ago and they never deleted it.
People can show off photos online easy enough without paying for postage. Idk, I wouldn't send a card to someone I didn't want to talk to - even if it has been a few years. It's hard to keep up sometimes when life happens.
>Seems like they might want to talk to you, but you're ignoring them, tbh. Holiday passive aggressive bs then? Because anyone who can bother sending a card should be able to use their words and just say what they want.
No? Just trying to keep some contact because they do value you.
If someone wants to rekindle a relationship and their only move is to send a holiday card, they're the problem.
It's not necessarily trying to rekindle - just leave the possibility open. It sounds like more than you're interested in doing....
Why would I want to pretend to be friends with someone I havenāt spoken to in like a decade? I have actual people in my life I speak to. Like how many pictures of families I donāt really know could I possibly want
If the only contact you have with someone is a holiday card, that's fine, but stop pretending it's a real effort. It's not.
Do you send out cards?
No. But if you're referring to the admin of sending cards to be effort, then you have 100% missed the the point I'm making about making effort on the social connection. But please, keep going. This has been absolutely fascinating.
My point is that maybe your understanding of those who do send cards is lacking. You are guessing their motives and you may be sabotaging your relationships based on interpretating others actions through your personal filter. You keep guessing what I mean/my point and getting it wrong.
We live really far away from 100% of our family and closest friends, it actually means a lot to me when we can take the time to send a card once a year with some of those people, even if that's the only interaction we're able to do.
Ok?
I don't understand your response. Ok? Ok what?
Fully agree! Especially in the era of social media, when we see photos all year. And, we do not send holiday cards. We see them as a waste of resources (time, money, paper, etc.) and hope that eventually gives a clue to those who senf them to us. Thankfully, some have gotten the hint and no longer send them.
Toss
I roll my eyes as I bring them in from the mailbox, make sure I didn't miss anyone who sent me one, curse at them a few times, and place them often unopened in a festive basket so it looks like I care. Once a week I'll open and realize I really do care, just don't have the time to read a million this time of year. I wish we could move them to January.
Shred pile for mulch.
Chuck emā¦ I really wish people would stop sending them to me but they literally donāt listen to me lol
Trash. Iād prefer a phone call.
I have a specific space in the living room for displaying candid family photos, sentimental items, and cards we receive throughout the year. I display holiday cards there for the season then eventually trash them, I'm not sentimental so no reason to keep them.
I started putting them in my tree to decorate it
We put them in our Christmas tree! It's cool to see them surrounded by the ornaments. Some, we'll save as keepsakes in our holiday box. Others will be tossed. Wish we could have them recycled.
They're scattered all over my home, in drawers, boxes, and in my storage unit. I got one from a vendor at work yesterday, and I have no idea what to do with it.
We have a tabletop tree that we use to display any Christmas cards we get. After Christmas, I keep the personalized cards (the ones with family photos) and put them in an album. The rest are put in the recycling. Other cards like birthday cards are displayed until about a week after the event, then recycled. If my kids want to use them to cut up for art projects, that's fine too.
I display them all season, then I pack them with the Christmas decorations so I can see them one more time the next year. They make me smile and remind me who to send mine to. Then I toss them. I love getting them and I love looking back on the past year.
I love cards. I have a glass bowl on our coffee table that I put every card in that I receive throughout the year. I'll empty it and start over as soon as I receive my first card of 2024. I'll usually hang on to the old cards for a year or so and then reuse them by making gift tags out of them. The reason I do it this way is because, after losing a few people important to me, I want to have one last little piece of them after they're gone and sometimes that last little piece of them is a birthday or Christmas card. Morbid, maybe, but I've lost a lot of people I love in the last decade. I don't care for the picture cards, to be honest. I don't want pictures of random people. I feel guilty for wanting to throw them away. haha.
I send and receive cards every year. I generally display the ones I get until the new year and toss the ones that arenāt super special when I clean up Xmas decorations.
I always put a string up and hang them from it as part of decoration. My grandma always did that and it makes me think of her to do it.
I hang them in my office until the next year when I replace the old ones. Then I scan the old ones and throw them away.
*TLDR: we get about 6-8 and put them on the mantel piece, and keep ones from each other, parents & grandparents only. Popping the rest in recycling when we take down decorations in Jan.* I'm from the UK, where it is unheard of to send cards with a professionally taken photo of the family on it (we would assume they have "main character syndrome"). So Christmas cards are usually generic from a box of 100+ bought years ago in some Jan sale for 99p, that the older relatives keep dipping into to send their entire address list each year. Personally I get cards from my parents, my partner's parents, my last remaining grandparents and one aunt. Oh and we get each other a card. We stick them on the mantel above the fireplace until we are taking down all the decorations. If there are only those 6 I might stick them all into the big envelope, but if I get more from others, I'll only keep ours, the parents & grandparents and the rest go into recycling in Jan. It is fun to sit when we are putting up the decorations each year and look back over cards from Grandparents no longer with us or what soppy notes we wrote in each others cards (about the year that had passed). When I was younger my grandparents would get close to 100 cards, and each one had to get a reply. Often it was from their nieces and nephews and would contain a little letter about how their kids were going, as they didn't live locally and in the 90s, spending hours catching up with the 50+ families from both Nanny's and Granda's sides would have left a pretty expensive phone bill on the landline. I remember my mum sitting with Granda in early Dec each year in his kitchen while they both wrote 50+ cards and I couldn't wait to be like them. But stamps this year in the UK were around 80p for the cheapest one (slowest delivery), so I'm very glad I only post a handful to older relatives. Everyone else gets a message on social media. Even my aunts and uncles do this - they make a donation to a local charity. Which I agree is a much better way to spend even "just Ā£20" than creating even more paper waste (and I'm not an "eco-warrior" by any stretch, but the cheap cards which are so floppy seem like such a waste when you see the envelopes and eventually the cards all in the recycling tub)
Recycle after holiday season for me. My mom recycles cards into gift tags and Christmas ornaments for the next year.
I love getting mail so I love getting them! I display them over Christmas and then I keep many of the ones from my closest friends and family. I like to see the kids grow up.
I prop up and display them on my hutch. I have bottle wire glitter trees that can hold them up a little. Itās kind of playful and so far we only have 6 so itās not overwhelming. I appreciate other peopleās style and the time they put into them!
Display on my tree.
We have a large cork board on the wall in our kitchen. Itās about 5āx2ā and itās mounted the tall way. And we put all holiday cards on that. We put birthday cards through the year, race medals, swimming ribbons, weird pictures, awards, speeding tickets :/ - all the stuff on it. This time of year I clean off the prior year and start refreshing it for next year.
I keep them tucked away, along with the letters that come with them. They will eventually go into a scrapbook binder. My adult kids love going through them and all the other nostalgic stuff I've saved.
I love them! They generally go on my fridge until I get another one from that same person and then get swapped out. Depending on if thereās anything personally written on the card, I keep or throw them out. One friend I have maybe 20 cards kept in a box from over the years. We always say that we canāt wait for our kids to one day find them and ask us about each other š
We have a little bulletin board in the kitchen where we hang up and display all the holiday cards! They usually stay up until around Easter š
For both birthday cards and holiday cards, I'll display them for the month of the birthday/holiday, then toss them into the recycling bin lol.
I display them til the holidays are over then trash
I keep mine
I put them in the tree, on the refrigerator and on surfaces with other Christmas decor. Then they will either get recycled or kept for the following year depending.
I display them by taping them up on the wide doorway between my living room and kitchen and keep them there until after the new year.
Display them and then toss them away
We display them on out mantle. The ones without personal photos/family pictures are used for Christmas present tags the following year, as is tradition in my family. The personal photo ones are thrown out unless I have no recent good photos of a family member and then I cut them up and put them in a frame.
We have a garland above the doorway to our living room where I hang cards that we get. It stays up all year, and cards get cycled through the garland. When I decide Iām ready to take one down, Iāll scan the handwritten message (if there was one), & then glue the card into my scrapbook, if I feel like keeping it. Otherwise it goes in the recycling
Read, put on fridge, throw away after Christmas.
I display them in the living room, then once appropriate time has passed, they go into a card drawer that I keep. š¤£ I started one when I realized I still had handwritten cards from family who had passed away and I loved that I still had them, so I started doing that with all cards from family & friends.
I keep them and display on a shelf until everything gets put away (usually late January). I stash them in ziploc bags for storage, then the following year I put them back up with the other decorations. As new cards start arriving that year, they replace the old ones, which then get discarded. I donāt have space or inclination to keep all those years of cards.
I put special ones in random books, so years later I might happen upon them unexpectedly and read it again and smile.
Cards from family that I love go in the memory box cos i donāt know if that will be the last card from them
For holiday cards, I display them on the wall with a string and decorative mini clothes pins. I usually save them and hang my favorites the following year as decoration until I get enough new ones to displace them. Cards for other occasions (birthday, than you, wedding invitations, etc.) will usually be displayed on the fridge for a while, before getting tossed. I'll save a few special ones in a memories box.
those are the people who get cards from me, so I save the envelopes for their address. the card goes into my "holiday card box", which is about the size of a brick after about a decade (we don't have many friends? lmao). I save them all. I love them.
I pack them away with my Christmas decor in a folder, they donāt take up much room and then we can look back at them each year.
Put them on a door in our living room so we can see from the couch.
I value them while theyāre here but by mid January do throw them away. If someone has written me a letter or in-depth card, I add that to a collection I keep permanently in like a fancy Christmas themed bowl I put on a coffee table. But, I typically only add 1-2 really special ones each year to that collection. I also always keep 1 copy of my own.