5 Ways to Recycle your Holiday Cards, and an Ingenious Card Trick

You're probably in the throes of putting your Christmas cards up all over the house. Ours have taken over our dining room table as I decide how exactly I'd like to display them. This of course brought recycling to my mind. What will I do with all these cards when the season is no longer jolly?

5 ideas include:

1. Tear off the fronts of the cards and use them as postcards. Teach your children about the postal system, and the dying art of letter writing via "snail" mail, and have them send these cards to their grandparents and others who would be thrilled to hear from them.
2. Cut the cards into small shapes, circles, squares, triangles, and use them as ornaments the following year.
3. Let your children use the cards as scrap paper for testing crayons and markers, or as the canvases for "drawings" while at church or in other places they may need to sit still and not make a peep.
4. Use the cards yourself in lieu of post-it notes. Make them your reminder cards and keep a stack at your desk where you often jot down to-dos or things to buy at the grocery store.
5. Cut up the cards into small rectangles and use them as gift tags on presents next year.

And now for that ingenious card trick! Check out what Danny Seo of "Simply Green" does with HIS holiday cards here. Finally, a house of cards that won't topple over! This is a really great, fun idea and a way to wile away an afternoon with the little ones. If you decide to do this out of season, have your children color the cards different colors and display their "house" or village at different times of the year.