recycling Christmas cards

[cknmom]

When my kids were little, I couldn't afford to get any advent calendars, so I came up with my own idea. I took old Christmas cards and cut the fronts off, trimmed around the picture. Cut large 'cards' out of paper bags, folded them and stapled the pictures inside. I drew numbers on the fronts and tied string to close it. I hung them all over the house. Each morning one of the kids would try to guess what the picture for that day was(the others would guess also) they would open it to see if they were right. Then they would reach into a paper bag and pull out a little gift. A Christmas mug, Christmas coloring book, small bag of chips, a little toy, etc. They would take turns.
They looked forward to that every year. Each year, I would change the pictures around and use some new ones.

We also used to cut pictures from the cards to make tags for presents.

Monica

 

[countrymama]

Neat idea! I have fond memories of the advent calendar when I was a child. I have not done one with my own children yet, maybe this year! Thanks for the great idea.

 

[dacjohns]

Cut the pictures out and use them for homemade cards.

Some cards are suitable for framing. Get the inexpensive picture frames and frame the picture from the card. They make good inexpensive gifts for kids.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Oh I like your idea! I might do that for mine this year. I think I have a snowman advent calendar somewhere, but your idea includes the kids and I am sure they will love counting down the days to Christmas!

OH and I could make this an art project for the kids!!!
We homeschool, so I'm always looking for new craft like projects to use for art class with them.

Look at that, you got Scrooge excited for Christmas now LOLOL

 

[cknmom]

It got to be quite a kick while they were guessing. At first it was,'a snowman', a christmas tree', ' present'. Then it ended up ,'a christmas tree, with presents, outside, with animals and bird all around'! They wanted sooo much to guess right , that they would go on and on so they could guess at least one thing right!

I would always try to fool them in different ways. They knew that there were some cards I always used, so they would be expecting it. But I also was always adding new ones. I mixed them up good each year. If they were caught peeking so they could guess right, they lost thier turn.

Monica

 

[FarmerChick]

Monica that is a wonderful idea
So creative!

I will be doing that with Nicole this Christmas. Just a fun little game and you know the kids love it! COOL

 

[RTRChick]

Thats an awesome idea! Sounds like a lot of fun if and when I have kids I want to try this. I never heard of an advent calendar though? is it kind of like... i dunno... I'll have to go read up on it.

 

[Okiemommy]

Great idea!

When I was growing up, my grandma also used to use Christmas cards that she had received as gift tags. Great memories. She spent a lot of time on some of them to cut out some really intricate designs, and on others just a few snips.


edited for bad grammer...and I still think it's wrong. Time for bed now *_*

 

[RTRChick]

My mom did that too!!! I loved it. Like cutting out a reindeer or something.. I used to help her!

 

[Okiemommy]

That's really cool. It's really neat to hear the different family traditions at Christmas time. I was never directly involved in making the cards into gift tags, b/c those were the tags that my parents and grand parents used on the gifts that Santa brought. And since they were so special I knew they MUST be from Santa. ^_^