One of the things I most look forward to each Christmas season is the daily arrival of holiday cards from friends and family. As the official household card maker for my own family, I understand firsthand the time, energy, and thought that goes into creating these cards each year. So I do my best to carve out a prominent place in my home to display the cards for everyone to enjoy throughout the holiday season.

Each year, I try to come up with a new and creative way to display holiday cards that doesn’t clutter up any of the flat surfaces in our home and that serves as a festive addition to the holiday decor. This year, I’m hanging them vertically on doors located in our foyer by attaching them to a long piece of ribbon that’s affixed to the door on the reverse side via duct tape (fancy, I know, but it works for me).

If you are looking for some creative ways to display your holiday cards in “clutter-free style” this year, I pulled together this collection of great examples from around the web in order to provide you with a little inspiration.

1. Use garland and ribbon to create a hanging card display across a window or above a door, like the pom pom garland display featured on Bob Vila’s blog.

2. Repurpose an old shutter to create a cardholder by tucking your cards in between the slats, as demonstrated by Courtney from A Diamond in the Stuff. Not only is this option fantastic for holiday cards — you can use it year-round to organize bills, coupons, invitations etc.

3. Create a card wreath (or several!), using a wreath form covered in decorative fabric. Use clothespins to attach cards to the wreath form. Genius!

4. Use cards as Christmas tree ornaments! This is what I call “killing two birds with one stone”. See the simple tutorial at Better Homes and Gardens for how to pull this off.

5. Don’t have a Christmas tree? Create a Greetings Tree, Martha Stewart-Style, using some dried winter branches, a bucket, and some ribbon.

6. Hang cards vertically on doors and cupboards using pretty holiday ribbon like this example found on the Greener Grass blog (great minds think alike!)

7. Create a Card Garland on your stairway banister ala Martha Stewart.

8. Create a Washi Tape Card Tree like the folks at the Thyme is Honey blog did. A conversation-piece indeed!

Now it’s your turn to share…got a creative way to celebrate those holiday cards? Let us in on it in the comments section below.

Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher or Refined Rooms? Visit www.RefinedRoomsLLC.com or connect via: Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | LinkedIn

When it comes to reducing the sense of overwhelm that generally accompanies the holiday season, the name of the game is “Do Things Early”. Today I’ll offer up a list of items that may be on your super-sized Holiday To Do List that you can focus on knocking out in the next week or two, in order to carve out more time for the festive aspects of the season come December.

1. Do the Deep Clean

Now is the time to clean your carpets and refrigerator, dust the blinds and ceiling fans, and disassemble your family room furniture to vacuum under the cushions! If you tackle the deep cleaning now, you’ll be ready to entertain guests after just a surface cleaning of the common areas come December.

2. Declutter

November is the perfect time to declutter your closets as well as the kids’ playroom, in order to make room for the influx of new items that will be arriving in late December.

Decluttering also comes into play as you begin the holiday decorating process. Take time to review your holiday decor; remove any items that you haven’t used in the past few years from your collection. You can either donate the items, or consider hosting a “holiday decor swap” with your friends.

During your declutter frenzy, don’t neglect the kitchen! Declutter the refrigerator, freezer and pantry by tossing unused leftovers and expired items. You’ll need to make room for all of the yummy holiday party food!

3. Take inventory of your food

As we all know, food plays a significant role in our holiday celebrations, so expect to devote a bit more time and energy during this season for organizing and maintaining the areas that serve as home to your food items.

Once you’ve cleaned and decluttered the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, take inventory of what food items you now have on hand. Knowing what you already have comes in handy when you begin preparing your holiday grocery shopping list. I actually recommend using laminated printable inventory sheets on a regular basis to assist with weekly meal planning (click on the image to purchase a set for yourself!).

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4. Prepare and freeze meals

During the holiday season, you may find yourself hosting an impromptu get-together with friends/family. It pays to cook and freeze a few one-pot meals now so that you’ll have an easy home-cooked meal on hand for these occasions.

5. Organize your coupons

Go through your coupon collection and weed out the expired ones. Create a system for tracking expiration dates for those “great deal” coupons that you definitely plan to take advantage of as you begin your holiday shopping in the weeks to come.

6. Take inventory of your gift wrap supplies

Now’s the time to ensure that you have a sufficient supply of gift wrap, gift bags, ribbon, and scotch tape on hand. If you don’t have a gift wrap station, go ahead and create one (see my previous post for ideas).

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7. Prepare holiday cards

If you choose to send out a holiday card, begin completing all of the sub-tasks associated with getting the cards in the mail…purchasing stamps, updating your card recipient address list, taking the family photo, etc. Even if you prefer not to send the cards out for another month, you can purchase/create cards, stuff and address the envelopes and have them ready for send-off now!

8. Declutter your camera memory cards

Remove the memory cards from your cameras and video recorders, download the contents onto your computer and delete the images/videos from the memory cards in order to make room for all of the amazing images/video footage you plan to capture during the 2014 holiday season!

What other holiday tasks do you tend to complete in early November in order to get them off of your holiday To Do list? Please use the Comments area below to share your tips with other readers!

Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher or Refined Rooms? Visit www.RefinedRoomsLLC.com or connect via: Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | LinkedIn

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Tag Archives: Holiday Cards

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