What Do YOU Do with Christmas Cards after Christmas is Over?

This blog will be short and sweet...I just have one question: (Ok, I may have a few more than just ONE question...)

What do YOU do with your Christmas cards that you received for Christmas after Christmas is over and packed away?  Do you:

• Throw them away?
• Put them away for safe-keeping?
• Use them in a craft project?
• Save them until next year so you are sure to send cards to those people?
• Be sure to write down their address in your address book for next year?

And, IF you save them....for how long do you save them? 

• Do you ever look at them again?
• Do you have a special box, file, drawer where you keep them for year after year?
• Do you catalog them by name, date, year?

And, IF you save them,

• Do you ever ask yourself WHY you saved them?
• Do you actually ever DO what you thought you'd do with them?
• Do you finally decide to throw them away some day?

I know you are probably saying, "What's the big deal about Christmas cards, or birthday cards, or get well cards, or anniversary cards, or congratulation cards...JUST THROW THEM AWAY!"

Well, I have an issue with this...I inherited this tendency to keep things for "posterity", or for a "future plan to do something with them", or, to just plain look at them again someday and say,

• "Oh, I wonder how that person is now", or,
• "I wonder WHERE that person is now," or,
• "I wonder if that person is still living...",   or,
• "Oh, that person is no longer living, so I need to keep this card...", or,
• I really LOVED this card and I just hate to throw it away," or,
• "I really LOVED this person, and I can't bear to throw this card away..."

Ok, friends, help me out here... I have this little stack of cards that I have re-read to make sure I didn't miss something important in their notes, etc.

(Thank you, those of you who took the time to actually write us a note and tell us about your lives...I actually DO enjoy reading those and look forward to hearing from you year after year)

 I've pulled out the pictures of family and friends and put them in a safe place...thank you for sending those pictures of your kids and grandkids and yourselves...it's fun to see how we ALL are changing through the years...

And, I've noticed that we didn't really get nearly as many cards this past Christmas as in years before...but that's probably because so many of us are now communicating on Facebook regularly and didn't feel the need to send cards too...and because we are conserving money on postage and on the price of cards that seem to go higher and higher each year...

And, I've noticed that I know I sent out many more cards than I received this year, so I may also be trimming my Christmas Card list for next year...and pretty soon none of us will have this dilemma of what to do with our cards when the season is well over and we are trying to clean up and make room for, yes, you guessed it: VALENTINE CARDS!!!   Not to mention, my husband's birthday is coming up right after that, and so on and so on...

Thank you for your helpful suggestions...feel free to respond either here or on facebook....I'd really LOVE to hear from you...you may even send me a card! I do still LOVE to get mail...don't you? And I KNOW the Hallmark people really appreciate it as well.

Have a nice day...and why not send someone a card today and let them know you are thinking about them?  Maybe they will save it in a scrapbook or drawer for posterity and to look at over and over again when they are feeling blue and missing you.

Bye for now...