Creative Holiday Greeting Card Uses & Decorations

Make your holiday greetings personal by adding a creative spin to your mailings and turn the greetings you receive into festive decorations.

Keep your friends and family informed on how everyone in your family is doing. Send a group family photo, individual shots, or send the link to your online family photo album. Shutterfly and Snapfish are a few of the online services that allow for downloading and sharing of photos.

Include accomplishments and events from the year in your greetings. Maybe your baby was born in October or you bought a new house in July. Highlight events from each month to give your friends and family a sense of closeness rather than the obligatory "Everyone here had a great year!" People want details!

Be sure to write a short note geared specifically toward your recipient rather than a form letter. The art of snail mail is slowly deteriorating which makes the written word much more sentimental.

Buy some blank cards and ask your kids to add any Christmas-themed art such as a snowflake, tree, reindeer, stocking. You can make copies of their work and glue them into photo-holder cards as well.

Let your kids go art crazy with red and green pens, glitter, glue, Christmas stickers and markers to jazz up the envelopes. Kid art is truly priceless and they enjoy the process as much as we enjoy receiving it!

Turn the greeting cards you receive into festive decoration in your own home.

Hang cards on a thin piece of cotton yard or embroidery thread and weigh it down with a sparkly handmade snowflake. Then put them in window with varying string lengths.

Get some festive ribbon and hang cards to it at measured lengths. This makes a cute wall hanging and will also keep your mantels free.

Wire card stands are cute to keep your holiday cards in. When the holidays are over, use the stands to hold your favorite photos.

The options are endless and the impact is tremendous. Get crafting today!