It’s July. I still have Christmas cards. No, not the leftovers from the ones we sent. The ones that friends and family sent to us.
We received one from The White House because we actually paid money and officially joined the Republican Party one year (gasp!). Just so you know, when you give money to a political party, the only thing it gets you is junk mail. That’s right — you won’t get anything close to a representative who stands up for what you think is right. It REALLY means that you’ll get tons of junk mail asking for more money. Oh, and a Christmas card from The White House if your party’s man occupies the Office. And if you give lots of US dollars, then I think you get an ornament for your tree. Because that’s obviously what we want when we send money to Washington, isn’t it? But that’s not my point.
I thought it was alright to just throw away all the Christmas cards at the end of the season (except for letters – I keep letters). I even threw out the one from The White House. I know my husband is fairly sentimental. But I had no idea he was so sentimental even about Christmas cards. Karl did not appreciate my throwing them away. He made me go through the garbage to find them, especially the one from The White House. It was, after all, the first White House Christmas card with scripture on it. Our little piece of history it was. Our little bit of hope for America.
I hate digging through garbage, so I learned my lesson. Just to be on the safe side I decided that not only would I never throw out a card from The White House, I wouldn’t throw away ANY Christmas cards. I reminded myself of Eve, who in her determination to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil decided she’d go one better and not even touch it.
SO. This Christmas rolled on by and I kept all the cards. I put a rubber band around them and put them with the stash of other sentimental things that belong to Karl.
Fast forward 7 months. Karl decided to clean out a few things over the weekend. As he was going through his closet, he found the stack of Christmas cards.
“Why do we have old Christmas cards?” he asked as he threw the stack on the floor beside me. His toned seemed to say, Who keeps old Christmas cards?
I can’t win.
“If you leave them with me, I’m just going to throw them away. Even the one from The White House,” I assured him.
He didn’t even answer. I could see it in his eyes; I knew exactly what he was thinking. And it had nothing to do with Christmas cards.
Now I’m wondering…do you throw away Christmas cards or do you keep them?
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Leslie Wiggins 
18 responses to “My Sad Republican”
I keep pictures and letters, but I throw everything else away. I’m not much of a pack rat though, except pictures – I have lots of pictures.
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I always keep the pictures and letters, too.
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I update the refrigerator with the new pictures and toss the old. And I keep my favorite cards by tearing off the illustrated piece and then using them as gift tags on next year’s presents.
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I do NOT keep them. I keep the pictures, that’s it. ‘Cause I am NOT a pack rat. I’m the opposite. I sometimes throw things away that we still use. Just because we haven’t used them for a little while. Yeah, I’m that bad. 🙂
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I love your idea for using the front of the card to make gift tags!!!
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I’m more like you, Janet.
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I tear off the address label from people whose addresses I need and I stick those in my address book.I keep photos and cards where people have written us lengthy notes.I stash them in our Christmas stuff and then the next year when I pull it out, my sentimental side has sort of gone away and I usually toss them then ;)I used to keep ALL of them and that makes no sense to me at all!
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Hey! We like Aaron!Lisa was too fru-fru for us. And the whole eye-squinting thing drove me nuts.
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I toss ’em. Too much clutter makes me shudder.
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Kim, I actually punch holes in our letters and keep them in a photo album with the Christmas picture. Crazy, no? I enjoy reading them again.
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I grew up in a pack rat home….and hated it….so I throw everything away….even a white house Christmas card!!! : ) But I do keep pictures, put them on our fridge for prayer through the year, and as soon as we get new ones, I throw the old ones out. 🙂
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Shawnda, your comment reminded me of something Lifesong-Kim wrote. One of their Christmas traditions is to put all their Christmas cards in a bowl where they do family devotions, and then when it’s time for prayer they pull out a card and pray for that family. Using the cards as prayer-prompts is a great idea!!
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I save all the cards for one year and then go through them when I’m writing the cards next year, tossing them as I go. But I like Elle’s idea of using them as gift tags!
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You also like to throw away bills we haven’t paid…Well, maybe I’m okay with that.
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Hey, that’s only happened a few times. Besides, we can pay them all online these days.
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Um, maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but I don’t keep them, any of them. I check to make sure I have the correct address, I might hang on to the pictures in a drawer for a month or so, but then they all get trashed. Literally.I’m not sentimental and I’m not afraid to own it.Much.
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I keep way too much – including lots of old Christmas cards. If I ever get back to sorting through them, I thought maybe I’d just keep ones that weren’t repeated the next year because someone died or we got out of touch, as well as the interesting letters or notes – and all the pictures – yeah, I keep way too much.
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LOL – this was funny! I keep the ones with pictures from people who mean a lot to us. This year I bought a cute card holder from pottery barn that is permanently fixed to my wall, so I can keep pictures up all year. =) I love it!So to answer your question, I toss both Christmas & birthday cards and letters, but usually feel slightly guilty doing so. But I keep anniversary cards from Josh. =)
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