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Sunday, November 20

Beyond the Recycle Bin: Holiday Cards.

For the past few years, the idea of going green and sending out holiday cards seemed to be a conflict of interest. I mean, we're trying to reduce unnecessary waste of paper products, and here I was sitting down once a year sending out a bunch of paper holiday cards? So for a time, I didn't send any.  

But the holidays just didn't feel the same. So this year, I've had it. I'm sending cards. I want to sit down and address envelopes to friends and family. I want to write little quirky notes inside and make the experience more personal. I miss paper mail sometimes. The good mail - like birthday cards and the new issue of InStyle - the kind of mail you look forward to, you know?

As luck would have it, I found more eco-friendly options to achieve this nagging desire and stay with the green theme.

Reduce
Grow-a-Note seeded plant cards. This is ingenious. Not only are these actual cards you can write on, each card is embedded with wildflower seeds. The recipient can plant the card in the ground and watch it grow in a colorful array of flowers. Don't just send a card, send a bouquet of flowers for as little as $2.64!

Reuse
Ornament Cards are a great way to add longevity to your efforts & card materials. Grandparents will especially love to get these cards and keep them year after year. What the heck, keep one for yourself too! What a fun way to document how your family grows and changes each year.

Recycle
Paper Culture offers gorgeous recycled paper options for holiday cards. But more than that, they have an eco-commitment that surpasses many of the recent recycled card options you may have seen elsewhere. 


BEYOND THE BIN
Want to do something different this year?  Perhaps these additional options will tickle your holiday fancy.

Local support cards
Support neighborhood businesses like photography studios by purchasing photo cards from them. Our amazing neighbor jookie, a portrait boutique inc. is still offering holiday card options. Many studios, like jookie, offer recycled card stock options, so be sure to ask.

Humanitarian cards
The quintessential theme of the holidays:  giving. So how about cards that support a greater good. Going green is not just a trend towards recycling. On a greater scale, it's about supporting our earth and everyone & everything in it. So go ahead and cross continental boundaries. The Good Paper company offers a beautiful handmade cards options from youngsters in Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS and genocide, and by women in the Philippines who have escaped being forced into prostitution. These cards are not for the thrifty, but doing good of this magnitude rarely comes with a low-cost option.

Zero- footprint cards
And don't automatically discount the benefit of E-cards. No longer the simple emails with static images you may be familiar with, but fun and exciting, animated greetings which include online games & stories. The range is large with lots of choices so pull the kiddos close and click play. You'll find more traditional optionshilarious options, and those that do those things AND warm the human spirit like Care2 for example.

So this year, I'll be grabbing a cup of steaming chai tea, sitting down at the table with a little holiday music playing and a fire crackling in the background. I can't wait to find my favorite red sparkly pen and actually hand write my cards. It's peaceful & gets me into the holiday spirit. Later, after all the cards are addressed and ready to go, I'll grab my daughters & head over to mailbox and send them off.  

Just like when I was little... but different.

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