For day 4 I thought I'd write about how to green up a not very eco-conscious holiday tradition: Christmas cards. I love them--getting and receiving--and have a tradition of my own where I always include the word "peace" in some form or fashion. Before we moved from Florida, we also always featured photos of Nature Kidz at the beach. But I never really thought much about earth friendly approaches to the tradition. So here are a few I've gathered:
- Send online cards via email. This is not my favorite because I adore getting something--anything--in the mail that isn't a) junk or b) bills. But it certainly cuts down on tree killing--you can include photos, holiday clip art, and the Christmas letter if you do those.
- Send postcards instead of folding cards in envelopes. This is what we are doing this year. Because we ran low on time and creativity, I used an online template from Vista Print. They offer traditional Christmas cards but I went to their marketing materials section and found an oversized postcard with a holiday theme, added my own photo and sentiments, and ordered them. You can even have them mail the cards for you! I ordered exactly as many as I need and will have no envelopes, so I am thinking I'm cutting back on tree killing.
- Reuse last year's cards. In an article by Jane Paige in the Carolina Parent magazine, one green idea is to make new cards from old by crafting your own cards on your own recycled paper, then gluing the paper to the old cards--giving you a sturdy foundation for your new card. You can also cut up elements you like from old cards to make ornaments, gift tags, and more!
- Create a traditional card, but instead of printing out the annual Christmas letter, write the letter online and include a link to the site in your cards. That way you save paper and printer ink, and can also upload photos and such onto your website. There are lots of free blogging sites (like Blogger and Wordpress) that work great for this purpose.
- Get the kidz involved--buy some plain notecards and envelopes made from recycled paper (try Paperworks online if you don't have a local source) and have the kidz make their own cards. You can have some photos printed up; set up a large table with magazines, old christmas cards, tags, colored papers, crayons, markers and even glitter and paint. Kidz can glue the photos down and decorate the cards how they want. If you have a sticker maker, kidz can cut out holiday images from magazines and turn them into stickers to put on the cards. What fun!
Whatever you decide to do, and I'm sure most people have already gotten their cards in the mail (guilty sigh), have fun!
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To recycle Christmas cards for a cause: I just read about St. Jude's Ranch for Children in the Dec. Issue of 'Taste of Home' Magazine, p11. "Reclycle holiday cards by sending the fronts to St. Jude's Rancho for Children. The kids at St. Jude's create new cards out of the old art to resell."
http://stjudesranch.org/help_card.php
St. Jude’s Ranch for Children rescues abused, abandoned and neglected children of all races and faiths from the vicious cycle of child abuse.
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