Holiday cards

Holiday cards have been sent and received for this season. They hang beautifully from our doors or refrigerators or bulletin boards. We enjoy them for a month or so, until the holiday spirit fades.

What do you do with old holiday cards? Keep them, of course! Almost every card you receive can make at least one really good gift tag. Some can make three or four! It's a great way to get more enjoyment from your beautiful cards. Once you've cut out some lovely gift tags, recycle with rest of the card. It's easy, cost-effective, and, best of all, green!

Maybe you'll want to send out more cards to your friends and family next year. Be careful, of course, when you're picking out next year's greetings that you don't buy cards that are made of first-use paper and unhealthy inks. Instead, look for cards made of recycled paper and soy- or vegetable-based inks.

Red Stamp, for example, offers over 100 different eco-friendly cards. They even offer photo cards, if that's your tradition, made from recycled paper and printed with soy-based inks. You can find a whole slew of cute holiday cards at Seltzer Goods. Their cards and envelops are made from 100% recycled paper and made in America. They're also printed with veggie-based inks.

Another great option is Etsy, which is an online resource for handmade items from across the nation. Some artists on Etsy use eco-friendly materials in their cards. (I love these, pictured above.) The holiday cards you'll find on Etsy don't cost any more than store-bought options, AND you'll be supporting individual artists, not corporations and sweatshops. It's quite easy to search the entire database on Etsy, so you don't have to look through each artist to find fun holiday cards.

Of course, more creative green card options exist, too. Zanisa, for instance, sells cards with Christmas tree ornaments made from handmade recycled paper embedded with seeds. These cool cards serve three purposes: you send them as holiday greetings, the ornaments decorate the receipients' trees, and, if the receipients throw the ornaments in some dirt after the holidays, the world is beautified -- and carbon sequestered -- by some pretty flowers. (Don't have any spare dirt? Consider guerilla gardening.)

Another option with auxiliary benefits: getting your holiday cards from a non-profit organization. The Sierra Club, for example, offers lovely card choices made from recycled paper and soy-based inks that feature nature photographs.

Remember, holiday cards typically go on deeply discounted sale right after Christmas. If you're the type to plan for next Christmas on Dec. 26, be sure to look for cards made from recycled paper and soy-based inks. And enjoy!