The 3R's for Christmas Cards

This year I ordered some adorable new christmas cards, but when I opened up my christmas box I noticed I have all these cards that people sent me last year (and some from further back than that). I don't want to just throw them out, so one morning I sat down with my cards and some scissors. Long story short - my new cards will have to wait until next year and I'll never need to buy another gift tag.

Before I go into the details let me add that I'm not a cheapo. I just try to make sure I spend my money on what's most important... and with a few exceptions - the christmas card is not it. Plus, I like to be as "green" as possible because I hug trees. Cards are nice to receive, but I'm sure the trees don't appreciate having died for something that some people open over the trash can, read, and immediately throw away.

Little bags full of gift tags I made last week.

The 3Rs for christmas cards:

Reduce who you send cards to. 

Let's face it, some people you only exchange cards with because neither of you has stopped reciprocating out of obligation. This year my policy is that I'm only sending cards to people that I'm not sending a gift to. That ended up being like five people.

To further reduce waste you could send christmas postcards (they exist) which use maybe 1/4 of the paper of traditional cards in envelopes. Bonus: standard sized postcards are cheaper to mail.

If you want to go all out on this plan - you can just send E-Cards and spend no money and create no waste.

Reuse old cards.

Even if you make the switch to E-Cards, you're bound to have other people send a card for you to deal with. Luckily there are tons of ideas for reusing cards. You can make them into decor, gift tags, bookmarks, coasters, and more.

The front of your card can even be cut off and made into a new card or postcard. It's what I did this year that saved my new cards for another year.

Recycle the leftovers.

You may even be able to compost your cards - depending on what they're made of.

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If you're all for it, but don't want to do the work yourself - send your cards to a card recycling program or a crafty friend.