This Hack for Reusing Holiday Cards Will Save You Money Next Christmas
Published Jan. 2 2024, 2:15 p.m. ET
The holidays are over, and a new year has started. As you put away your Christmas decorations and clean up all the wrapping paper, boxes, and bows, you’ll also have numerous Christmas cards to deal with.
It seems a shame to just throw them away, not to mention wasteful. But you also may not want to keep them for years and add to the clutter. TikTok creator @thereusablelife offers a creative way to reuse holiday cards as gift tags you can use next Christmas.
You can upcycle holiday cards into gift tags for next Christmas.
Over a million people have viewed @thereusablelife’s TikTok video, where she demonstrated how to make gift tags from the Christmas cards you received or those you may have left over after the holidays.
“We used all of the tags I made last year on this years gifts! I look forward to this as I receive cards,” she wrote in the video caption.
In the video, the OP cut off the front of a Christmas card and then used a Fiskars punch tool on the card to create a perfect gift tag shape; she also used the tool to punch a hole for a ribbon or string.
She made one tag with the part of the card that said “Merry Christmas,” and another with the other half of the card, which featured a poinsettia image.
While the tool comes in handy, you don’t necessarily need it to make the gift tags. Scissors will work just as well, the OP stated. And for the hole, you can just use a hole puncher, or carefully poke a hole.
A commenter to @thereusablelife’s video offered another option to upcycle Christmas cards, suggesting that you repurpose the front of the card as a postcard. Just cut the card in half so you're left with the design on one side and a blank canvas on the other, and use it as a postcard!
Are greeting cards recyclable?
Not all greeting cards are recyclable, so this upcycle trick is a great way to use those greeting cards that would otherwise end up in a landfill and those that can be recycled.
According to the American Forest & Paper Association, most greeting cards made of paper can be recycled. However, those that have a lot of glitter, foil, or plastic coatings need to stay out of the recycling bin.
Also, all those photo holiday cards you get during the holidays also aren’t recyclable (since photo paper is not actually recyclable), but you can probably use part of them to make a gift tag for next year.
Other holiday remnants that can be recycled include gift bags, decorative tissue paper, and certain wrapping paper — as long as those items don’t include any glitter, foil, or plastic.
