Giving new life to old Christmas cards

An Englishman, Sir Henry Cole, is credited with the idea of the first commercial Christmas card. In 1843 he commissioned London artist John Calcott Horsley to work on the design. The end result was a card that portrayed a party of adults and children drinking and making merry. The card read: “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.”

The British Temperance Movement criticized the card and thought the holiday revelers featured on the card were making a little too merry. However, a tradition was born and now cards around the world convey “Merry Christmas” in many ways. If you are Dutch the card would read: “Vrolijk Kerstfeest.” In Sicily the cards would be printed with: “Bon Natali,” and if you are one of the few Aleuts left, your card would read: “Kamgan Ukudigaa.”

So, you’ve read your cards and then hung them on a string, or taped them to your door, or placed them in a decorated basket. After Christmas, what do you do with them, besides tying them with pretty ribbon and hiding them in a box or tossing the unwanted into a blue recycle bin?

In the early 1980s the ladies of the Bellflower Presbyterian Church (in Bellflower, CA) taught me a thing or two about recycling Christmas cards. My grandmother, Mary Bristol, and her friends would meet about once a week to work on all kinds of “crafty” projects. One of those projects involved giving their Christmas cards new life as boxes and little houses. They would sit around a long table, drink coffee and visit while making their Christmas card works of art. The main tools were scissors, a small single hole punch, a ball of yarn (preferably red or green) and a table full of Christmas cards. The cards would be cut in half, and the decorative side punched evenly around the edges and then sewn together to make boxes. (The confetti created by punching the holes was used on New Year’s Eve!) Even the lid to the box, which was only attached on one side, was trimmed with yarn on all sides. The Christmas card houses were the same design except the roof was made with two cards converging at the top. Triangles made from cards were then sewn at either end.

Other Christmas card recycling ideas:

• Cut off the decorative side and use as a postcard.

• Glue cards to shoeboxes and use for ornament storage.

• Make gift tags by cutting card into small rectangles. Punch a hole on one end and use recycled Christmas ribbon as a tie.

• Decoupage cards to a coffee tin or wooden box and fill with homemade candy or cookies.

• Purchase a papier-mché deer or other holiday figure, cut or tear Christmas cards in small pieces, glue to make a mosaic covering and then varnish.