Happy Holiday Card Day! This special day was set aside as a tribute to the creation of holiday cards, which first showed up way back in 1843.
No matter what end-of-the-year holidays your family celebrates, this is the perfect excuse to get crafty with the kids to send, display, or recycle some holiday greetings! Scroll to see 6 simple ideas that are festive and fun for the whole fam.
Recycled Card Garland
Cut circles (or another simple shape) from the fronts of old holiday cards you’ve saved. Glue or tape pairs of the shapes back to back—so the pretty cover designs show—with twine or string sandwiched between them. Space the shapes several inches apart along the string, and you’ll have a festive garland to hang in your window or drape on your tree.
Fingerprint Wreath Card
Give the gift of greetings AND a keepsake by turning your child’s fingerprints into a wreath! Let them touch their fingertips into green paint or ink, and press them on the front of a card in a circle—repeat as many times as it takes to complete a round wreath design (young kids might find it helpful if you lightly sketch a circle for them to follow).
Once the paint dries, they can embellish their wreath—try gluing on a small bow, dabbing on multicolored dots of paint to look like holiday lights, or adding small circles of red construction paper to represent holly berries.
Gift Tags
To customize some to/from tags, cut tag shapes from the colorful fronts of old holiday cards, or cut plain tags from blank paper and decorate them with shapes your kids cut from the cards.
TIP: These gift tags look especially nice on packages wrapped in plain brown paper—for a free gift wrap alternative, use the kraft paper that comes as padding in many boxes from online purchases. You can also use old newspaper—the black and white looks so nice with the colors and sparkle from the cards!
Snowman Cards
To start this simple design, fold a white piece of heavy paper in half to create a card. Have your child cut a strip of patterned paper, and glue it horizontally all the way across the middle of the card—that’s the snowman’s scarf. Glue a shorter strip of paper on top of that, hanging down at an angle (to look like the end of the scarf dangling down). Using paper or a marker, add 3 black circles in a row below the scarf for “coal buttons,” and add more circles above the scarf for the eyes and mouth. Ask your child to cut a triangle of orange paper for the nose, and you’re done!
DIY Card Display
Do you get a lot of greetings in the mail? Put them on display instead of dropping them in a drawer! Wrap a wide ribbon top-to-bottom around each of your kitchen cabinet doors—you can secure them in the back by tying or pinning the ends together (inside the cabinet). Then use clothespins or paper clips to attach your favorite holiday cards.
If you don’t have wide ribbon, you can use a wide strip of thick paper instead—or try wrapping thinner ribbon or twine round the door 5-10 times to give yourself a sturdy base to clip the cards to.
Remix New Cards
Give old cards a second chance to spread cheer—just cut shapes or short words (think Joy, Peace, or Love) from the fronts of last year’s cards and glue them to the fronts of new blank cards. Your friends and family will love receiving your upcycled season’s greetings—send them in the mail, or package several together to create a set of cards that makes a great gift!
