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11th Day of Christmas Giveaways with Whitney Capps

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12 Days of Christmas at KarenEhman.com

Welcome to the 11th Day of Christmas Giveaways!!!


12 Days of Christmas at KarenEhman.com
Today my friend Whitney Capps is here to share a glimpse into the Capps’ household at Christmastime. (Or just after Halloween?) ;). She will be giving away a “Karen Ehman Prize Pack” which sounds a little funny for me to say, but Whitney chose 3 of her favorite books to give to one special reader! I love it!

To join in on the fun and be entered to win the various prizes, simply leave a comment on the post answering the question of the day. ALSO—one grand prize will be given to one person who comments on all 12 days.

The Grand Prize is a $50 gift certificate to Proverbs 31 Ministries store and a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com!!!

Now, here is Whitney for today’s post…

Christmas in July

Hello friends of Karen! My name is Whitney Capps, and I’m a part of the Proverbs 31 ministry team with Karen. I’m a speaker for the ministry, and I write for our First 5 mobile app. If you haven’t heard about it, check it out in the app store. It’s a great way to start your day in the Word of God. I just love it!
But my favorite ministry assignment is wife to Chad and Mom to Cooper, Dylan, Ryder and Tate. (Yes, four boys. All ten and under!) Our family is loud, wild and a little bit crazy. Here’s just one example…12 Days of Christmas

We love Christmas. Like really, really love Christmas. Our family decorates the day after Halloween. For real! All you Thanksgiving purists feel free to gasp and judge. I’m so sorry. I married a man who loves our home decorated for Christmas. So on November 1st, we start pulling out the red and green tubs of decor. We turn on the Christmas tunes and Christmas comes to town. (y

Now for the “bah humbug” part. When the week after the 25th rolls around, I am so over Christmas. It must come down. I mean
like some weird switch happens in my brain, and all the decor starts to make me all claustrophobic. And once it’s packed away, I cannot bear to see it, hear it or think about it again until the next year. I won’t let my boys watch seasonal Christmas movies in the spring. I absolutely can’t listen to Christmas music in the summer. Nope. No sir. Not gonna happen.

There is one tiny exception. Our Christmas cards. I hide my “”no-Christmas crazy in this one area. We love all the cards our family receives during the holiday season. It makes my heart swell to thumb through them, smiling at the faces and names that represent sweet friends and family. So I can’t bear to throw or pack them away. So here’s what we do. We keep our cards in a basket near our kitchen. At dinner we pull a card from the basket and pray for the family represented. It’s not big. It’s not profound. It’s just a sweet little tradition that let’s us enjoy Christmas year-round.

It’s our little bit of Christmas in July. And it makes me feel festive in the best kind of way.

12 Days of Christmas at KarenEhman.comSo, do you send Christmas cards? What do you do with yours at the end of the season? Any other tips or ideas we can steal? Share them!Okay, you know the drill. Make sure you leave a comment to be entered for today’s prize! I’m giving away a Karen Ehman prize pack featuring three of my FAVORITE books by her

All winners will be announced on December 22nd!

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173 Comments

  1. I do not send Christmas cards every year, but try every other year. Sometimes, the time is just not there. I do LOVE the prayer ideas using the cards that are sent and hope to put up a cork board for those cards to see and pray throughout the year.

  2. My hubby & I tag-team our Christmas cards. He keeps the list updated throughout the year (with my help) and prints out the labels. I write the cards out, personalizing each of them. Then we have a production line as we decide who gets which card (we usually have several different types of cards). The whole thing only takes us an hour or so and we have over 100 names on our list! We LOVE sending out Christmas cards! ?????

  3. I still haven’t mailed ours out- I am hoping to do that today! I do love to receive cards. This year I plan to hole punch them and attach them to a ring so I can enjoy them year after year!

  4. I “usually” send out hope you had a Merry Christmas/Happy New Year cards because I can’t seem to get it all done on time I do save the cards I receive but I get fewer and fewer. I have used them on scrapbooking pages

  5. I love to send out Christmas cards to my loved ones and friends to send them cheer. I do not get many in return….only 4 so far this year. I tend to throw the cards away every year. I like to collect the homemade cards. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

  6. I love your post ! cause I am such a Christmas craze! I go all out inside in out on thanksgiving weekend and have two trees!
    what I do at end of the season is put the ones I get in a special box and then we look at them before the next Christmas and see how our nephews n nieces have grown from one year to the next. you and your family have a Blessed Christmas!

  7. YES :) We send Christmas cards & we make little “Memory books” of them at the end of each year and flip through them on occasion throughout the year after praying over each family! Hee hee- I begin listening to Bing Crosby Christmas on Pandora in September- my family is ready for that to end- :)

  8. I definitely send cards. There is something great and special about hand written notes. Then I keep the ones that have good messages or notes. You know some people just write their names while other put some thought into it.

  9. We normally send out photo cards, but are not this year. The last couple of months have been crazy and I decided not to add any additional stressors. We usually put the photo Christmas cards into frames once the holidays are over. Regular cards get turned into gift tags for the following year.

  10. Love your idea of pulling the cards & praying for the sender. Definitely one I want to adopt. I save cards that have a message or saying that is m. The covers of meaningful. Some are saved for students to use the next year as writing prompts. This year I will be using some of the pictures/drawings as inspiration for Bible journaling.

  11. We no longer send Christmas cards. This tradition got let go the year we were in dire financial straits. Fortunately we do still receive cards from some of our closer friends. Sometimes they are used to line the door frames of out living room. This year they are being displayed on our television stand. Once the season is over they will be tucked away in a box to keep as memories.

  12. I usually send a photo card. We have a lot of extended family that we don’t get to see very often. It is a great way for them to see how the kids are growing. I always save the cards I get but just put them in a box. I don’t really know what else to do with them.

  13. I usually send out a card with a short personal message to the person I’m sending it to and I typically write a letter telling about my year to put in the card. My letter usually includes a few pictures on the back that go along with what I wrote about. These go out to family and close friends. I really like the idea of keeping the cards out in an obvious place, a basket or bulletin board so you remember to pray for those people through the year!

  14. I send cards with a photo inside or photo cards. Sometime the week of Christmas-ish…..or new years. I keep all the ones I get photo or not. I love seeing hand written notes. I have a grand plan to scrap book them, I love the prayer idea! Much more manageable than scrapbooking!

  15. What a great tradition! We love Christmas (but we do wait until after thanksgiving to decorate *wink*). We don’t send cards. I never seem to get around to it!

  16. We have always sent a photo card and a letter. After Christmas I usually toss the cards that are just signed but tend to keep the pictures and letters. I usually find myself rereading them after the season and everything is put away and out of site. I try to contact the people who sent letters like by sending them an email and I make reference to some thing in their letter. It lets theme know you really read it and it meant something.

  17. I have a special table that all the cards go on. I enjoy sharing them so the whole family can see how people wish us good tidings. I used to save them all but now I try to save all the ones from close family like parents and brothers.

  18. We do send out Christmas cards, but only include photos to close family and friends since I cannot bear the thought of my children’s pictures getting thrown away. I also love to decorate, but we don’t do that until the day after Thanksgiving. I am ready to put Christmas decorations away the day after Christmas, but my husband likes to have them up until January 1st. Our first Christmas married, I had our tree undressed, ornaments put away and the tree at the curb for pick up before my husband even woke up!

    During the month of December, we keep cards received in a reindeer basket and look at them throughout the month, and then like many others, we pack them up with our Christmas decorations and we look at them again when we begin the Christmas decorating process again the next year. Then, the old cards with beautiful designs, my daughters and I have made into bookmarks, gift tags, etc. If there is a sweet personal note handwritten, I do save the card in a box of correspondence that is dear to me.

    It seems each year we receive fewer and fewer cards, probably because everyone stays in touch with social media. Receiving cards in the mail, though, is so much more meaningful.

    I love the idea of saving cards to use as a reminder to pray for other families.

  19. Yes, we do send Christmas cards, and we probably get 20 or so from friends and family. I put the pictures that we receive on the bulletin board in our kitchen, and a few overflow pictures go on the refrigerator. I do keep the rest of them though, and every once in awhile I go through them and decide if we still need to keep them! I feel that they are important as a sort of archive or history of our life, and the lives of our friends and family.

  20. I punch a hole in the corner of ALL our Christmas cards, not just the photo ones, and put them on a metal ring. This then hangs from our bakers rack.

  21. I love Christmas cards but time some times slips away. I have written many Christmas cards after the first of the year. I can pause and enjoy writing the messages. When cards arrive I look at them and put them up…..but in early March I sit down again with those cards and spend quiet time with each, keeping them in my heart.

  22. We save the picture ones for the scrapbook and recycle the others……but I like the idea of keeping them and reflecting on them throughout the year.

  23. I do the same thing: save Christmas cards in a bowl to pray for the families during the year. I wish we had thought of this when the kids were small and still at home!

  24. I love to receive Christmas cards and pictures and family letters! I have been much slower lately at getting my cards out but I love them!

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