Two Greener Christmas Card Solutions
This post is a part of A Greener Christmas Guide, a series of posts dedicated to celebrating the holidays with a lighter impact on the earth. For more of this series, please visit A Greener Christmas Guide.
Almost 300,000 trees are cut down every year to produce Christmas cards in the United States. Then there are all the nasty inks, fixing agents, and chemicals that make our cards look oh-so-pretty (and become oh-so-toxic). We look at them for maybe ten minutes, toss them in a basket or on our mantels with fifty other cards for the holiday, and throw them out, right?
The problem is that while many of us may be recycling the Christmas cards that we get, we aren’t turning around and buying cards and paper products made with recycled materials. It’s like a diet: you can’t lose weight by just exercising or just eating better. You have to do both. You have to recycle, and you have to buy recycled products.
Unfortunately, finding cards made out of recycled paper is really REALLY hard. I can’t even find printer paper made with a reasonable amount of post-consumer content most of the time, and that should be such a basic product in the US. Instead, 93% of our paper comes from virgin trees. It’s no wonder you can’t find cards made with post-consumer content. Just so you know, the third largest industrial emitter of global warming pollution… is the virgin timber-based pulp and paper industry. How sad. We’re cutting down trees and generating pollution instead of reusing the stuff we’ve got.
1. Get Greener With Digital Christmas Cards
I don’t know about you, but that’s reason enough for our family to forgo the tradition of mailing Christmas cards. We’re sending digital Christmas cards instead. Everyone checks their email, and with the unlimited storage capacity of our computers these days, it’s a great way to keep down clutter in your house and hold onto the digital card. I’ve done the same with bridal shower and Thanksgiving party invitations and birthday cards, and the results have been packed houses and happy recipients with no waste.
To make my cards, here’s what I like to do:
- insert pictures and text into a Pages document (the Mac equivalent to Microsoft Word that is more graphic-oriented)
- save my document as a pdf so that everyone sees the page exactly as I designed it
- attach the page to an email with a clear subject like “Sarah, won’t you join us this Thanksgiving?” and leave the text of my message blank
People will probably say that I don’t have the sentiment to put together the time and money to mail real cards with my real signature. But I do care. It’s just that my sentiment for Mother Earth is so strong that I can’t justify the waste of paper, chemicals, and fuel to deliver my card. If every family in American sent just one Christmas card less, we’d save 50,000 cubic yards of waste every year. In case you’re curious, that’s enough paper to fill my house… 325 times.
2. Don’t Want to Go Digital?
If mailing Christmas cards is one tradition that you just Cannot Skip, please, oh please consider looking for cards that are:
- made with recycled paper (the higher the post-consumer content percentage, the better)
- made with soy- or vegetable-based inks
- chlorine-free
But watch out! Sometimes paper products will say “made with recycled products” or something like that. You have to check just how much of the product is actually recycled materials… are we talking 3% or 90%? That’s quite the difference in chopped down trees, wouldn’t you say?
We have two grandmothers around the age of 90 who will be getting our only two “real” holiday cards in the mail. I think we’ll go with one of these green companies; I love what they offer. Check them out:
I will be linking this article to my Christmas cards to explain to our friends and family why we have decided to send cards by email. Please feel free to link to this article if you chose to go digital this year as well (and add us to your holiday mailing list!).
If you would like to be added to my Christmas mailing list, drop a line below. Cards built on the computer are too much fun.
Happy Holidays! Happy Green Holidays.
Related posts:
- A Greener Christmas Guide
- Wrapping Up The Green Christmas Challenge
- 4 Steps to a Greener Holiday with Wrapping Paper
November 20th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Kaite, what a great thought-provoking post. I wish I had read this a week ago, as I’ve already bought my cards and did not look for the recycling information…I will take a look at those sites - that statistic about filling your house 39 times is amazing! I am definitely one of those people who won’t be going digital herself; I just absolutely love Christmas cards - sending them out is one my favorite parts of the season! But next year I will buy more conscientiously!
A few years ago I learned about a neat way to recycle Christmas (and birthday, etc) cards. I cut them in half, and still toss the backs of the cards in the recycle bin, but I send the card fronts to the St. Judes Ranch for Children, where children with cancer use them to make new cards, which are sold and the profits go back to St. Jude’s. Here’s the Web site below:
http://www.stjudesranch.org/give/Recycled_Cards.php
And here’s the address where you can send your cards:
Send your greeting cards to:
St. Jude’s Ranch for Children
P.O. Box 60100
Boulder City, NV 89006-0100
And, I would love to be added to your Christmas card list - please do sign me up!!
November 20th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Awesome post! And you know it’s not something I really have thought of before. I don’t know that I can forego Christmas cards, but I will DEFINITELY check a greener option. Thanks for this.
November 20th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Great post! This is something I never really thought about before, but you’re so right. A few years ago our family did the digital thing just for something fun and different. Maybe we’ll try that again.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:12 am
What great ideas! I didn’t really feel like sending out cards this year anyway so I don’t think I will. Maybe I’ll just do electronic cards instead.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
What an interesting post! I am a card lover, too, and won’t be doing them via e-mails. I will however be making mine this year. . . . and in the interest of saving on postage I will be hand-delivering the ones that I can (folks and neighbors who are nearby, of course).
I do love the info you shared and I really appreciate the Christy’s comment which included the address for the St. Jude’s recycled cards.
Hope you are having a great time preparing for the Holidays! I am so glad I found your post via Karen at A Scrapbook of Inspiration! Dana
November 21st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Katie,
Thank you for joining the fair. I love learning about how to go green, and you are right. There are so many wonderful digital scrapbook and softwares that enable you to send beautiful cards through the Internet. I love your blog. I know what you mean about living abroad. Our family lived in Asia for five years, I was homesick for familiar things, and especially during the holidays. Blogging wasn’t around when we lived overseas, it would have been wonderful to keep in touch and share photos.
I look forward to visiting you often.
Karen
November 21st, 2008 at 2:07 pm
There’s a great company called “Tree Free Greetings” that sells absolutely gorgeous cards made from plant fibers. No trees at all are cut down for the cards or envelopes. The pictures are stunning.
So, just in case youstill want to mail a few, there are options!
November 21st, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I’ve gone digital for people who are online, but there’s still those hold outs so I make my cards. Here’s a post about it
http://ebogie.blogspot.com/2008/10/holiday-cards.html
November 21st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Good morning… thanks for the info…
have a happy day
cielo
November 21st, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Oh, yes, great idea on the digital cards! That could be a fun change for sure!
Happy day,
melissa
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 am
A wonderful post. I did not know you were a green person like me. yea.
Grammy
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:12 am
Great ideas Katie! I really love your blog. Luckily, I haven’t bought my Christmas cards yet, so I will look into the options you mentioned.
Danielle
November 24th, 2008 at 3:35 am
terrific suggestions for a greener Christmas. I will certainly keep the digital option in mind for friends & family with e-mail
November 28th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
You can also make an awesome ‘Mash’ on http://www.masher.com…..they have some lovely Christmas footage, and really lovely Christmas music, that you can mix with your own phots and videos to make a great greeting cards to share with your buddies.
A x
December 26th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Katie, How nice it is to meet you , even if its on the computer. This is so great, and a wonderful idea. I sent cards off that we brought from ” Tree-Free Greetings “. They have several different kind of the ” Signature Series” . Mary Engelbreit is America’s most beloved Illustrator.Also Mary Engelbreit also has “Noteables” Collectable Memory Boxes. We brought the Merry Little Elf collectable recycle cards and envelopes. They are very cute indeed. This is the second year we have used them. The Tree- Free Greetings come out of Keene, New Hampshire.
Also I thought you may want to look at this site http://www.earth-friendly.net/sub/handmade.html Paper is made by hand of cotton fibres and flowers petals combined with manual silkscreen printing, two ancient crafts with long traditition. A combination of high value. They also have postcards ( 11,5×16,4cm) envelope (12×17,4cm) Another place, I have brought some things from them and they are wonderful. This site http://www.vickerey.com/earth-friendly-paper.html They use recycled paper, tree free paper ( like cotton,kenaf,lokta), or that have sustainable manufacturing processes. Just a bit of information here.
Lokta which grows naturally in the Himalayas at altitudes of 6000 to 10,000 feet. Lokta produces a long fibrous, acid-free paper and is prized for its attractive soft texture, natural color, exceptional durability and strength. Lokta paper is generally produced in the mountainous Himalayans region in the kingdom of Nepal.Lokta paper is an environmental friendly tree-free paper, made from a sustainable resource and harvested and produced naturally without the use of machines. After harvesting in the Fall, the Lokta bush naturally regenerates, reaching full maturity in just three to four years. Nepalese Lokta paper has been used in Nepal for thousands of years, the tradition passed down through the generations. Lokta paper has been used by Tibetan monasteries for sacred texts for centuries and Lokta paper is still used today for official Nepalese government documents. The Lokta industry supports a large number of people in remote villages and farming communities. Nepali handmade paper is produced through simple, natural technique and is a vital social and economic product in Nepal.
The remarkable process of making this exceptional paper starts by gathering the bark in the altitudes of the Himalayas and then carrying it down to villages, where local paper makers clean and boil the inner bark. The boiled bark is beaten with wooden mallets, producing a pulp, then poured over screened wooden frames and dried in the Himalayan sunshine, just as it was a thousand years ago.
Lokta plants reach a mature height of 10 to 15 feet with basal diameter ranging from 2 to 3 inches. The leaves grow 2 to 4 inches long and 0.5 to 1 inch wide. The flowers are white with a sweet smelling scent. The inner fibrous bark of this plant is the raw material used for the making of this handmade paper.
One can buy Calendars, Art Supply, books, decks, kits, desk & office , journals, note pads, photo albums stationery.
I have found the prices to be very reasonable my younger daughter (31) loves the journals, and note pads. I love the post cards, the boxed note cards , and the stationery. To name just a few. Like I said I love this shop, and the prices are very reasonable.
I hope I haven’t bored you. I have had a love of trees from as far back as I can remember. The saving of napkins and paper towels really add up in a years time. A nice piece of cloth that can bare up to washing and heavy use is great for napkins. Taking large beach towels and cutting them up and adding a bit of a hem. Can be used for cleaning and you just toss it in the washer and they are ready to go for the next time. Just little simple things really count up. The money one saves in a year time , could pay for a nice little week-end get away.
I have bored you enough. Keep it up. It is well worth it. Have a lovely day.
Misty