Alternatives to Christmas cards

SmokeyJoan

Instead of continuing to send Christmas cards, I'd like to send personalised Christmas tree decorations to some of my friends, preferably bought from a charity so that the charity benefits, but I'm struggling to find any so I wondered if anyone had come across anything like this?

stimpy27

Last year in a magazine I saw a recipe for gingerbread men being sent in DVD boxes instead of cards with a little greeting. I thought this was a fab idea although I don't know what the postage would be.

scrivette

What a lovely idea. Closer to Christmas the Charity Shops often sell decorations in their stores.

C_J

Personalised Christmas tree decorations are a wonderful idea. You could buy a big tub of plain Christmas tree baubles from Poundland and personalise them yourself with permanent markers or glass paint and outliner. There are plenty of free templates on the internet to create a small card box the right size to put them in, too. I know it wouldn't benefit any particular charity this way, but you could always make a donation to your favourite one separately

I really love this idea.

NemoToad

If you fancied making them yourself (and then donating the money you save on cards to a charity) a really easy idea would be to make Christmassy shapes from pipe cleaners (e.g. stars, christmas trees, angels), tie a little ribbon or thread at the top to hang on the tree and make a little label from card and attach it to the thread too with your greeting on. Card, thread and pipe cleaners are all relatively cheap to buy!

WartimeScrapingofMarmite

I am knitting tiny little stockings to go on the christmas tree for everyone this year instead of sending cards. I am trying to think of a way this could benefit charity but the only one I can come up with is buying the wool from a charity shop!

SmokeyJoan

Thanks for all these great ideas. They are really creative and imaginative.