The holiday cards that arrive throughout the month of December are like little gifts in themselves—a fun way to reconnect with friends and family and see how families have grown over the year.

After the holidays, though, it’s hard to know what to do with those special cards. Adding them unceremoniously to the recycling bin seems like sacrilege, knowing how much effort, time, and money went into creating them.

Here are a few ideas for what to do with those cards when the holidays are over:

SCAN THEM: Scanning your cards onto your computer won’t take long, but it will allow you to enjoy them over the course of the year.

COZI COLLAGE SCREENSAVER: Once you’ve scanned the cards, you can include them in your Cozi Collage screensaver. With card photos in your collages, fun holiday memories will pop up unexpectedly all year long.

WALL COLLAGE: After you’ve saved your cards by scanning them, you can have fun with your kids by creating a poster-board collage. Try giving your kids free reign with cropping and arranging the cards on a winter evening by the fire, and see what they come up with. You can then put the collage up on your fridge, or on a bulletin board in the family room. Once you think it’s run its course, you can tuck the collage away—and pull it out next year to see how much everyone has grown.

SPECIAL GIFTS: The photos included in most family holiday cards portray families at their best: a freeze frame that represents the family for the year. Some families might keep a copy for themselves, but most send out every last card, thinking they have plenty of their own pictures. Even those who keep a copy probably don’t have copies of each year’s cards together in one place. Imagine how special it would be to quietly keep a file of the cards from your closest friends through the years, and use them to create a special gift down the road. What better surprise could you give your childhood best friend than a 15-year compilation of her children’s holiday photos for her 50th birthday?

These are just a few ideas for ways to enjoy these special cards after the holidays. What do you do with your holiday cards?

Let Cozi help you manage your family's holiday calendar, organize your holiday lists, and capture the chaos of the holidays with family journal entries.