8th Day of Christmas Giveaways with Leah DiPascal
*PLEASE NOTE: If you are receiving this post via email, you will need to click on the title of the post to navigate to the website to leave your comment on the actual blog post. Thank you! :)
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.
*********************
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.
*********************
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 cute little snowman basket where we put our cards. We used to put them on our mantel or string them up in a doorway, but it got too cluttered looking as our list grew, so we like our little contained card holder, so we can pull them out and enjoy them whenever we want to!
Hi, i really enjoyed your post. Especially the 4 ways you pray for the families who sennd you christmas cardss. My cards are displayed on my entertainment center and when thats full i hang them around the doorway to my kitchen that way whoeveer walks through gets to see the cards and stops to read them. Fun. Our tradition is taking turns hanginnng the angel on top of the tree. We have been doing tthat with our children since they were little. Now they are grown and only 3 of our 5 children live at home. God bless and Merry Christmas to you all!
What a great idea! I have a wire tree that I got at Pier 1 years ago that has spiral branches and I use them to hold cards.
I usually keep them standing up on a table but often I’ve thought about putting them on the outside of my door. I live in an apartment building and several of us decorate our front doors.
Unfortunately, I think Christmas cards are becoming more and more obsolete. It is such a beautiful surprise to get a Christmas card in the mail…but each I see less and less.
But one of my favorite Christmas traditions is each year my aunt puts together a little book of pictures of the family through out the year. I so look forward to that book each year!!! It is not anything fancy, but it is absolutely beautiful to me. Looking over how our family spent the past year with little memories here and there….is priceless!!
We collect cards in a sleigh basket that sits beside a Santa. Leah has inspired me to also pray for each family we receive a card from.
Many years I have displayed them on a door. This year I have them all in a basket, not being displayed presently. Last year I saved the pictures and hung them all on a bulletin board near my desk, where I saw them constantly. I love your prayer ideas. Many years I have moved the pile of cards to my corner for morning devotions and I would pull one card a day and pray for the family.
Hang the on the banister. They can be up there way after Christmas.
Years ago I bought these cute little clothespins in green and red, and I use them to attach the cards to twine strung across the top of our (not in use) fireplace. I always get more cards than fit there though, so then I string the twine/cards across the tops of living room windows. I so enjoy looking at them. I LOVE your idea of turning them into prayer cards for those loved ones!
We have been getting fewer cards the last few years too. I love your idea of keeping them visible for you to see throughout the year and praying for them, I think I will start that tradition. One of my favorite traditions is reading from our story of the day book. It has a story a day starting Dec. 1st through Christmas Eve. It’s an advent book.
We pile them in December (I really should find a basket or something), but then in January I put them on a display board in the laundry room for the exact same reason!!!!
I used to put them around the entry way between the dining room and living room. Now that it’s just the 2 kids and me, if I receive any I want to put them on the stairway wall. But I may have to wait until next year to receive cards. So as of now I just have some garland and lights until the cards come
We have a sunroom with lots of window so
I display the pictures on the window sills to look at through the season. My favorite tradition is just spending time with family as all my siblings live far awy, but usually come home for Christmas.
Christmas cards and pictures get plastered all over my frig.
Each year I receive the Christmas card and display them on our large dining table, leaving room for the two of us to eat. I also put the “overflow” on the book shelves in the living room as well as in front guest bedroom. The joy of sending cards gives me the opportunity to put in a personal message to each recipient. I always write a Christmas poem which I include in my card. Since most of my family live far away, I cherish the cards that bring me cheer and love.
We tape them around the door way in our living room
My Mother used to put the card over the cord my parents used to secure the tree from falling, so they’d be displayed on both sides of the tree. And now I put them on our inside hall door or over our couch and display them in the shape of a Christmas tree – having the smallest card at the top and then sizing the downward to the largest being the tree’s trunk. Nancy from Massachusetts
I have 2 decorative card holders that hold all the cards we get (through our church or through the mail). I generally hold on to all the cards and have quite the accumulation from the past 20 years or so.
It is hard to narrow down my favorite tradition at Christmas. It is my favorite holiday and I really like to go looking at lights, watch seasonal movies and spend time with family. I also like to show my love for friends and family and will always give gifts despite our income level.
I have a Christmas sleigh which I put the Christmas cards in. I love your idea. My laundry room is small and does not have wall space to hang a cork board like you have.
We tape them up with washi tape onto the back of our front door – not fancy but it’s pretty :)
We usually set them on a table or attach them to the tree. this year however we are looking to find a different way to display them! Our favorite tradition is baking Christmas cookies while watching hallmark channel Christmas movies!!
Hmmmm, now you have me thinking about how I can display them all year! I’ve learned through the years that one ministry a stay-at-home momma can have is being a prayer warrior. Thanks for the idea!
I give my Chtistmas card to the kids class at church and they in turn make Christmas cards out of them for their mom and dad the next year at Christmas
I have a basket that hangs from an armoire. After reading them, they go in there and stay until the following year when I remove them again to browse through… I LOVE the idea of having them out to pray for. Thanks for sharing!!
Ours are in a card hanger on the window until after Christmas. Then we keep ours in a basket and pull from them to pray for a family at night.