8th Day of Christmas Giveaways with Leah DiPascal
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Welcome to the 8th Day of Christmas Giveaways!!!
Tweet ThisToday my friend Leah DiPascal is here to share her favorite way to display Christmas cards! She also will be giving away a festive candle and holder to keep your home smelling inviting this season. 
Leah is a speaker, inspirational Bible teacher and writer for Proverbs 31 Ministries. She also writes for the First 5 mobile app which reaches over 500,000 people in 191+ countries each day. Her love of ministry centers around helping others engage, understand and apply God’s Word to their hectic and oftentimes stressful lives. Leah lives outside Charlotte, North Carolina where they stay busy running a family business and raising two teenage sons.
Connect with Leah on her blog, Whispers for the Soul, where she shares what God is teaching her, along with real-life stories of adventure that are helping women around the world.
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 Leah with today’s post…
My Favorite Way to Display Christmas Cards
Hi Friends!
Leah DiPascal here and yes, I am so excited to be a part of Karen Ehman’s 12 Day Christmas Celebration!
Gosh, it’s that time of the year already? How is it possible that 2015 has gone by so quickly? But don’t you just love Christmas and some of the special moments that comes with it?
Roasting marshmallows over the fire pit. Sipping hot chocolate with an extra layer of whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on top. Listening to glorious tunes while stringing lights and hanging heirloom ornaments onto a freshly cut Frazier tree.
Christmas. It is the most wonderful time of the year … don’t you agree?
One of the things I love most about the holiday season is sending and receiving Christmas cards.
Since our family lives far from relatives, there have been many years when we were unable to travel “home” to be with our extended family at Christmastime.
But … each year I can count on my Aunt Elsie to send the first Christmas card of the season, which always arrives in my mailbox the week after Thanksgiving.
As days pass, I find myself waiting with great anticipation for the mailman to slide a new batch of red and green envelopes into my holly-and-bow draped mailbox.
My routine is always the same: I open each card, read the message inside, gaze and smile at the enclosed family photo, then proudly tape it to my kitchen pantry door.
As the countdown to Christmas continues, every white space on that door disappears as I tape a steady stream of cards and pictures over every inch, including the doorframe.
Smiling faces and seasonal attire are on display as I hang each card with loving care. Neighbors, friends, relatives, classmates, co-workers … even our mailman and dentist’s cards are included.
I used to bundle all those cards and tuck them away in a keepsake box once January rolled around. But the last several years, I’ve decided to make some changes to my Christmas card tradition.
Instead of tucking away those beautiful smiling faces (into a box I probably won’t open until the following December), I transfer them onto a decorative framed corkboard, which hangs in my laundry room.
You’re probably wondering, the laundry room? Yes, the laundry room, because for me it’s a central place where I’m guaranteed to be several times a day.
I strategically display the picture cards there, so every time I go in and out of the laundry room, I am reminded to pray for each person represented.
Even after the Christmas decorations are packed and put away, the cards remain and I am committed to pray for each family. Not just for one month or two, but all year long.
I pray for stronger marriages and godly children.
For daily provision and unexpected blessings.
For loving conversations and renewed appreciation.
For restored health and increased faith.
Every time I whisper a prayer, I’m reminded of how blessed I am and grateful to God for placing these special people in my life.
Though many miles may separate us, prayer instantly brings us invisibly together — right in the midst of some flowery-scented laundry detergent and spray starch.
Last Christmas I was surprised to receive a much smaller amount of picture cards and honestly, I was a little bummed it at first. Honestly, I think more people are going digital and uploading their family photos on Facebook or Instagram because of the cost factor. It is getting expensive, but that’s a topic for a whole other post.
The smaller amount of cards didn’t deter me. God knew my heart and my plans. I figured He sent me just the right photos of families I needed to pray for in 2015.
Ever consider changing your Christmas card tradition? Before you pitch or put away those seasonal cards, why not embrace the idea of turning them into an annual prayer collection? What a great opportunity to speak prayers of blessings into someone else’s life and experience a greater sense of gratitude in your own. Not just at Christmastime, but all year ’round.
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To show my gratitude for each of you I’m giving away a Bath & Body Works Candle Set. It’s contains a Joy candle and Christmas decorative holder. The candle smells divine!
It’s Your Turn:
To enter the drawing for this lovely candle set simply leave a comment and share how you display your Christmas cards each year or share what’s one of your favorite traditions during the holidays.
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I’d love to connect with you in 2016! Let’s touch base on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, okay? Or you can drop me a note on my blog – letting me know how I can be praying for you and your family – and I’ll add you to my Christmas card cork board for 2016. :)
We have a lined basket that we put our cards in. It tends to float around the house depending on which room we are in.
We hang them on the wall. This year I bought a new card holder that is in the shape of a wreath and the cards are slid into spots
We put our Christmas cards up on the mantel.
I am a realtor so I try to send many cards! I love to display the ones I receive on an old painted metal wheel cap ? that i have on my wall and I use cute clothespins ..
We hang our cards around the doorway.
We have a hanging angel pocket that the girls love to put the cards in. Not sure I’m too crazy about it, since you can’t actually SEE the cards once they are in the pocket. Cute idea, but really doesn’t make too much sense. Love the bulletin board idea! I also like the metal ring/prayer list idea.
I tape the cards to the doorframe between our living and dining room. Once Christmas has past, I punch a hole in the upper corner of each card and put them all on a metal ring. They then hang from bakers rack where I can see them as I pass into the kitchen.
I display all the pictures cards on my kitchen cupboard for the year.
I usually just put my Christmas cards in a basket. A few months ago I found some boxes of Christmas cards I had saved for many years ago. I took those out and mailed the pictures to those families. It was really fun.
I have a basket I collect them all in!
All Christmas cards are taped to the doorframe between the living room and dining room for all to see.
I frame my doorways with the cards and pictures we receive. If just a letter comes, it goes in a basket near the couch to be looked and reread throughout the season.
I love the laundry room idea! I too am in mine regularly. Adding pictures may be a great way to make it less dreary.
We take twine and pin it to the wall then use clothespins to hang the cards. Kind of like a clothesline. ?
I tape the cards around the edges of our antique, round mirror which hangs above the piano. When that is full (it’s a small mirror) I hang them on red & green holiday twine hung at the top of the french doors (closed, of course) in our living room. I also put all the pictures on a bulletin board in our kitchen and leave them there all year. There are a few that won’t fit there, so I put them on the refrigerator.
I display our family Christmas cards on the inside of the front door. We see them every time we come and go. Also because the door is in my living room it adds to my decorations.
We have a decorative hanging thing with pockets. I did read about praying for the families and have started taking last years pictures to my prayer closet to pray for them also. We don’t send out cards due to time money and stress so we don’t receive as many these last few years either.
I display my Christmas cards each year but as I receive more photo cards, I put those out on my entry way table for others to ‘see’ as well. I love the idea of praying for them through out the year.
I like them in a pretty basket or taped around a door frame that’s a primary entrance.
At our old house I’d hang them on the mini blinds. If not cards to fold through I bought some cute mini clothespin clips to clip them to the blinds. New house we don’t have blinds up in the main areas…so I go back to a tree that hangs on the wall (or propped against it) to slide them on. I don’t ever throw away our cards. They are in some old tins to be able to go back and enjoy through the years. It does seem that cards in the mail has dropped off, but I remove names too from people I never see or hear from too.
We string a ribbon along one wall of the living room and use decorative paper clips to hold the cards on the ribbon. Many of the picture cards make it into a picture frame at the end of the season. I really like the idea of using them as a prayer reminder…thank you for the wonderful idea!
I, too, place our cards in a bin for people to read at Christmastime, however I love this idea of hanging the pictures up for a year of prayer. May try this! One tradition I personally have is that while addressing, writing, signing, licking and stamping each envelope, I pray for the families we send our cards to.
Merry Christmas!!
:)
Thanks for the idea. I usually just gather my cards in a stack, but I do pray for them ?.
I have a hanger that I got at a Christian book store and it has 3 pockets and there are names of Jesus on it. I wish we got more pictures of family members. We get most cards from older relatives who mail cards. I love the cork board idea. I could print some pictures and display them that way. Thanks for sharing your idea!
I have a Christmas tree shaped card holder that hangs on a wall. Some cards I have kept over the years and I like pull them out and compare how their families have changed. What a great idea though to post them throughout the year as a reminder to pray. What I would add to that is to send each if them a hand written note at least once during the year letting them know they’ve been prayed for. Receiving that note would be so encouraging?
I usually store them away with my Christmas decorations, then pull out to display the following year. But I love your tradition, and I think I will do that also! :) Whenever I post something on my facebook, I say a little prayer for every person who “likes” my post… But this cards idea makes it a little more “personal” . Thank you for sharing – and Merry Christmas!