Eco-Friendly Holiday Cards [Week 32]
Whichever holiday you’re celebrating, this year opt for a more eco-friendly holiday card!
Amanda Drews
As Thanksgiving creeps near, we are reminded that it’s probably time to order holiday cards.
I try to have our Christmas cards ordered by this time so I can hand them out at Thanksgiving before mailing the rest in order to save on envelopes and postage. However, if I put it off until then, there are usually some good Black Friday deals on eco-friendly holiday cards. Hint-if you order them early, you can typically similar deals to the ones you would get on Black Friday!
Have your card recipient list ready before you order so you don’t order too many cards that will go to waste.
When looking for an eco-friendly holiday card, keep these things in mind:
- Digital
- Reused and upcycled
- FSC or SFI certified paper
- Recycled Paper
- Natural dye printing or low VOC ink
- No glitter or foil- many recycling facilities are able to strain out the small amounts of foil but others may consider it contamination for the new paper products they are trying to produce. It’s better just to skip it.
Here are some eco-friendly holiday card options:
Digital Cards
I think it’s safe to say that a digital card is likely the most eco-friendly holiday card since you aren’t using any paper or adding to the weight of the mail trucks. However small the amount of energy it uses, there is some used to create your card plus the energy used to power databases that store your emails that haven’t been deleted. So if it’s only a casual greeting and not a sentimental digital card, just delete when done.
Reused Cards
If you’ve saved cards from the past and have been thinking about finally getting rid of them, save the side where the person who gave it to you wrote on until you’re ready to write your new message on it. That way you won’t accidentally send it to the same person! Cut off the back. A patterned scissors might make it a bit more special and festive. Then write your message on the blank back for the new recipient.
Will it be obvious that this was a previously given card? Yeah probably, but that’s also part of the point. Hopefully you’ve been telling your friends and family about your new eco-friendly lifestyle journey! And if they don’t appreciate a handwritten card in general or expect you should purchase them a new one in the first place, they are kind of jerks anyways and you shouldn’t care what they think.
You can also find reused and vintage holiday cards on Etsy. Or hold a drive in your community! You could make it where if people bring in a certain number of cards, they can take that many from the drive.
Recycled Cards and Photo Cards
Green Field Paper Company
Green Field Paper Company offers Grow-A-Note cards that you can plant. They contain “non-invasive and non-GMO seeds”. Their Hemp Heritage cards are “25% hemp and 75% post consumer”. They are also acid and chlorine free. Green Paper Company’s Junk Mail cards are a “confetti-laden” card free from chemical and dyes made from 100% recycled junk mail. All these are made in the USA.
Plymouth Cards
Plymouth cards only offer USA made cards made from eco-friendly materials such as recycled paper, jute, or sisal coffee bean bags. Their papers are acid and lignin free. You can get their Photo Insert Note Cards and put your own printed photos in there.
Artifact Uprising
Artifact Uprising offers minimalist photo holiday cards so your photo is the centerpiece of the card. Customize your 100% recycled card but skip the foil option. Their envelopes come in 100% recycled craft paper. You can even get address printing on the envelopes! We have ordered from Artifact Uprising once.
Paper Culture
Paper Culture uses 100% post consumer recycled paper or bamboo and plants a tree for every order to offset their carbon footprint. On their About Us page or their corporate office they say “we do little things like print on two sides of the paper, recycle, compost, and choose offices that are close to public transportation.” Your card order even comes with free designer assistance if you like. We have ordered photo Christmas cards from Paper Culture for multiple years because I like the variety of designs they offer.
The Arbor Day Foundation
The Arbor Day Foundation also offers to plant a tree with every order and they use 100% recycled paper for their cards.
Minted
Mint offers a ton of choices for cards that look beautiful. They do offer recycled paper cards, however, I would prefer to buy from a company that only offers recycled cards. We have purchased cards and invites from Minted.com before and were happy with how they turned out.
Take An Eco-friendly Holiday Family Photo
Here’s my take on taking the perfect family photo in an eco-friendly way, my friends may disagree, especially my photographer friends but…
- Choose a photo location that is near your home to save on the energy it takes you to get there
- Choose a photographer that uses eco-friendly practices and lives near the photo shoot location
- Consider using photos that were already taken. Show off that vacation, graduation or trophy winning moment!
- Use clothing you already have. Does your whole family really need to dress in outfits they will never wear again? And is it you? If you plan on wearing those outfits again, go for it!
- I guess this isn’t eco-friendly advice but just advice in general…Keep it authentic! Your holiday card does NOT have to be perfect. I would 100% more prefer to get a card where someone’s kid is throwing a fit in the middle of the shoot than to see my friend’s in strange clothes with forced smiles.
What to do with your old holiday cards
If you are disposing of old cards and holiday photos here are some tips:
- Check out my post on the Rules of Recycling. You should be able to recycle paper and cardboard cards in your curbside bin.
- Regular photos go in the trash
- Trash cards with glitter or foil
- Reuse old cards when you can
- Or don’t dispose of them! I keep all my holiday cards, wedding and baby announcements, and invites in a scrapbook. My mom did that too and it was my favorite photo album to look through as a kid! I especially like seeing how the fashions have changed.
- Check out the different eco-friendly holiday card companies and see which options you want to go with.
- Consider the resources that go into your family photo.
- Get your recipient list ready and order just enough so you don’t have many extra cards.
- Be mindful of how you dispose of old cards.
- Head to next week’s post on Eco Friendly Christmas Trees, Real vs Artificial
