Do you throw out birthday/christmas cards?

[K8Davidson]

I usually recycle mine, but this year I’ve cut out the pictures, which will be re-used as gift tags or to make new cards with them.

What does everyone else do?

Scrooge!

Recycle

Oh that’s a good idea.

I am gobsmacked by the people saying that they just chuck them straight in the bin rather than have their up for a bit

I'd definitely keep the special ones from and to close family.

I'd say don't be too hasty to bin/recycle the ones from parents or grandparents, as they can take on a lot more significance when the person is no longer with you.

I'll probably be called a saddo by most people, but I always write the year (small) in the bottom right corner of the left side of a card to somebody close. If it gets thrown away/doesn't survive, then so be it and nothing lost; but I like to think that, if it does get kept, knowing when it was given and received may just be of some sentimental interest to somebody years or decades from now.

I have all of the birthday and Christmas cards that my now long-gone parents gave me, but apart from early ones with age numbers on the front, the only one I know for sure when it was from is the one that's just signed from my Mum, rather than from both of them, as she lived one year longer than my Dad.

I'd love to be able to look back and match them to memories and photos from that time, to see what we were all doing back then at that snapshot of everyday but glorious family life.

Whether internationally groundbreaking or quotidienne and personal, all history has to be actively made - and preserved - in the first place before you can ever have the opportunity (if desired) to look back on it in the future.

Recycle but I have kept some special ones like my kids' first birthdays.
There are cards with handwriting from deceased family members as well as family members who now have dementia, the cards are reminders of how much they loved my babies.

Most go in the recycling except from ones from immediate family members that I think will be appreciated in years to come. I have one from my dad from my first Christmas which I treasure dearly.

Gift tags and recycle the scraps. We only get a few cards now so will probably finally have to buy some.

I like to read so cut nice ones into strips of card to use for bookmarks.

I keep the special ones ones the DH, DC and DGC send at Christmas and make gift tags out of those I can and recycle the rest. Keep the same for birthday and Mothers Day but don't bother making gift tags - perhaps I should look at those in a different light

I keep all of them for around five years, after that I save some of the special ones. Those are the ones with photos, or special greetings or messages, or very pretty ones.

Keep the milestones ones and a few others. I found it moving seeing a relative’s writing in birthday cards who are no longer with us.

Unsure if parents have their wedding cards or the birth of me cards. Remember seeing scrapbooks (one of each event) a few years back and they are so dated! 1978 and 1981.

DM cuts them up and make into shopping/jobs lists. Plus into smaller strips to write contents of stuff to put in the freezer. For example, a mince mix which she puts into a box into a freezer bag

I keep everything from the offspring.

Gift tags from some Christmas cards. The rest are recycled, though I have been known to stick a particularly pretty one on the wall for a bit.

I remember a thread on here from some time back, where the OP found a shoebox containing cards congratulating her parents on her birth, and her instinct was that they were useless old junk and only fit for recycling. As far as she was concerned, they were given to her parents, so they weren't even hers really.

Entirely up to her, of course, but I found that very sad personally. Of all the junk we accumulate that needs to be briskly got rid of, I would never include something as precious (to me) as cards like that.

Into recycling here too. Birthday/ Anniversary cards stay up a week. Xmas cards come down when we take the decs down before NY.

I make my own gift tags with my Dymo label maker.

The only cards I've kept were from when the DC were born, they are in their baby boxes with a few sentimental things like hospital tag, hat and blanket, cute baby group, cd single that was No1 when they were born.

My mum used to save any with white / cream backs etc for shopping lists.
I look for ways to reuse mine, mostly to create new cards. Plain insides / backs can make great bases. Offcuts go in the recycling.

I always keep ones from my mum and dad. Always.

I’m in my 50’s. I have all birthday and Christmas cards from my mum, am so glad I kept them as she passed away last year. Also, when going through her things, we found that she had kept all birthday, Christmas, Mothers Day and “just because” cards from us. It was hard, but lovely at the same time, to read through the various things we’d written to her at different stages in our lives. And it meant a lot that she’d kept them in a designated storage area, they were obviously important to her.

I keep cards from my sibling and significant occasion cards from a couple of close friends. The rest tend to go in the recycling bin.

I do remember, as kids, sitting at the dining table with pinking shears cutting up Christmas cards to use as tags the following year.

They stay up on the mantlepiece for just a few days here and then they go in the recycling bin.

I don't receive any Xmas cards thank god ..people have got the message. Birthday cards I keep from dd and dh as they are always spot on ie not generic.....rest get binned.

So do I. They're dated, of course they bloody well are, that's the whole point!

I also find it rather offensive that people throw away cards that someone has gone to the trouble of buying, writing and posting with a rather expensive picture of Charles or his mum stuck to the envelope immediately they arrive.

I keep them and now have lots to look back on from my parent who passed young and DH’s nanna

I’m running out of storage though!

My mum is to blame for my sentiment/hoarding 😂

Recycling, usually keep some of the Christmas ones and ds will use for cutting/sticking the following Christmas, which then ends up in the bin eventually

Most get turned into gift tags with the remnants going in to the recycling. I keep the odd one that's special either because of the sender/meaning or because of the beauty of the card.

I keep them nowadays, in case the sender dies.