One of the most popular holiday traditions is to send out greeting cards. They help adorn not only at home, but at the workplace as well. Once the holidays are over, most people no longer have any use for them and throw them away. The following year, people will rush out to buy new ones only to begin the cycle again.

Instead of throwing away Christmas cards, recycle them instead. Recycling Christmas cards is easy. There are many different ways to recycle cards and help make a positive impact on the environment. For starters, if there is no wording on the back of the front of the card, cut off the front part of the card and turn it into a holiday postcard next year.

If you scrapbook or know someone who does, Christmas cards can be used when scrapbooking for the holidays. Not only does this cut down on paper usage, it can also help save money by cutting down on the amount of scrapbooking supplies needed.

Another way to recycle Christmas cards is to cut them up and use them as gift tags. Once again, not only does this help save paper, it\’s also a way to get free holiday gift tags. In addition, depending on the design of the card, some cards can be made into Christmas ornaments.

Recycling Christmas cards into ornaments is easy and can be a fun family project. If you have any holiday cookie cutters, use them to make patterns on the front part of the greeting cards. Otherwise, feel free to make your own patterns. Cut out the patterns and use a hole punch at the top of the ornament. Take a four inch piece of yarn, run it through the hole punch area and tie it up. The ornament is now ready to be hung on the tree.

Know anyone who likes jigsaw puzzles? The front cover of a greeting card can be cut into jigsaw pieces to make a homemade jigsaw puzzle. If done correctly, these can make for fun homemade Christmas gifts that can be given out next year.

If there are young children in the household, recycle cards by turning them into a type of matching game. Take several cards and cut them into quarters. Mix them up, then line them up in rows. Have the kids find the matching card pieces and put them together to create whole cards.

For children who are little bit older, place the card pieces facedown and let them turn them over two at a time to look for matches. Each time they find two pieces of the same card, they get to keep them and take another turn. The idea is to get all four pieces for a match. The person with the most matches at the end of the game wins. This is a variation of the game Concentration.

It\’s easy to turn greeting cards into recycled Christmas cards simply by finding another use for them. Recycling Christmas cards not only helps to save paper, but can also be fun and creative. Do you have a favorite way to recycle Christmas cards? If so, please fill free to share!