Recycle Christmas Cards

Inspire your child to create his own original Christmas cards. As he makes unique holiday greetings, he will be learning environmentally-friendly practices. This activity is a great way for your child to learn the importance of reducing his waste and the ease of which he can recycle old materials into new items. Boost his creativity and fine motor skills as you save your wallet and the environment.

What You Need:

• Old Christmas cards
• Glue stick
• Card stock
• Scissors

What You Do:

1. Show your child the pile of Christmas cards that you have saved over previous years. Explain to him how things that may seem old or useless can be reconstructed to create brand new goods.
2. Let your child go through the pile of Christmas cards and pick out several that he likes the best.
3. If the picture on the front of the card is an object that can easily be cut out, help your child cut out the pictures and set them aside.
4. Once your child has several cut-out pictures set aside, go through the pile with your child and help him think of ways to piece together the pictures and reuse them on new cards. For example, if you have a Christmas tree and cut-out pictures of gift boxes can be arranged together on a new card.
5. If your child picked out cards that feature just one large picture, consider cutting out pieces of each picture and putting them together like a puzzle on the front of a new card, creating a "Christmas photo collage" of sorts.

Save the environment one Christmas at a time! Rather than buying and sending out newly purchased Christmas cards, consider starting a recycled card tradition with your little one.