Recycle Christmas Cards as Gift Box Decor

Decorate this year’s gifts with last year’s cards.

My mother was the ultimate recycler before it was trendy. She knew when to hold onto something for just long enough that you’d use it again. She’d also know how to hold onto something for so long, ahem, that you’d think it was new again.

It helps to have an attic.

Of course, if you have a studio in San Francsico, it’s going to make it more difficult to keep those Just In Case items that someday might just work for that craft project. But maybe if they’re just cards, they won’t take up too much room. Also, maybe they have some sentimental value or came from someone you’d like to remember anyway. Or maybe it came from a time when people had beautifully designed cards (that didn’t come from a giant online printer) and they were miniature works of art. Multiple layers of paper worked intricately to portray a winter scene of trees and Santa and his sleigh.

If you’re not careful, you might reuse cards again and again so that they become known, recognizable, and even expected. Even anticipated. My mom used to wallpaper boxes (from Bullocks) that we’d keep for years and years. Oh wait, we still have them. The wallpaper was so thick that it preserved the boxes. Maybe something for box manufacturers to keep in mind if they wanted to create boxes that lasted longer than … your first dog.

Looking forward to the boxes, wrapping, and cards glued to packages this year to see which years past we’ll relive again.