Christmas Card Book

It's no secret that I loathe putting away Christmas. It's not the actual act of tidying up and boxing it away (that's rather cathartic) but the absence of the lights, decorations and memories from years past that makes me a bit melancholy. We actually just boxed up the last of Christmas last week.

The last item to get put away every year are our cards. People spend time, money and energy to send these to us. I refuse to display them for a week and then be rid of them. (Plus cards trickle in until the second week in January and I don't want to put them away until they all arrive!)

This was definitely the year of the photo card. We got more photo cards this year than ever before, and you know what? I love them! Problem though. Flat photo cards do not stand up on your mantle or entry table very well... With incredibly fortuitous timing, I visited a friend in early December who was taping her collection to the front door. That made perfect sense! (We rarely use our front door but we see it all the time.) What a great way to display those wonderful cards my friends spent so much effort on. (Having made photo cards twice now, I tip my hat to those families that manage it every year. The coordination alone is an incredible feat! Match children, decorate pet, take photos, get decent photo, edit photos, find template, find coupons, address, remember to post! The list is endless. :D

No way am I throwing all that loveliness away. 

So what do I do with all those cards come mid-January? One year I put them in shoebox, the next year I cut them into pieces and decorated cardboard boxes with them, but the past few years I've made a kind of simple book out of them.

Get a couple of these things. Book rings. I picked mine up at Staples.
About $4 for a bag of 16.

It looks like you can get a bag of 50 for closer to $13 on amazonsupply.com I used a double hole punch for the cards. It worked really nicely with the smaller cards. Then just organize by size, pick a favourite for the cover and you're done! I suppose I could have made a cover that said Christmas 2013 on it... perhaps next year.