So I received our first Christmas card of the season today! It is a delightful picture card from our niece (on NerdDad’s side) of her 2 cute little kids. But that brings up a time honored quandary. What do you do with all these cards? Of course you display them for the month and then what? Well, here is my multi step process that is very simple. The key is taking them fro the display and fully dealing with them.

The first thing you must, and I mean MUST, do is make sure you have the address of the sender in whatever permanent address book you have (be it day planner, outlook, or database) and then toss the envelope. One less piece to hold onto.

After Christmas I toss all plain cards into the recycling. Take all the letters and make any notes you need from the information (new baby birthdays, anniversaries, upcoming graduations, etc) in your planner. Then toss!

Now on to all those great pictures. Now this is a new area for me. You can toss, if you want but I am a girl so I am immediately invested;). First make sure that all the pertinent information is ON it some where. Now not on the face of the picture but the back, bottom etc. Make sure the year is on there also. Then we are onto a collection vessel. You can use a shoe box or photo box and put dividers in by year. The other option (the one I am going to use) is a scrapbook. You can get them cheap at any craft store and it doesn’t have to be fancy. Then just slap them in an write all the information next to them. You can go further if you want but I am just not that good.

That is it! All of the cards, their information and all their mess is dealt with! One less thing to worry about. Go and enjoy your cards.