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8th Day of Christmas Giveaways with Leah DiPascal

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12 Days of Christmas at KarenEhman.com

Welcome to the 8th Day of Christmas Giveaways!!!

Today 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 DiPascal HeadShotLeah 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.

12 Days of Christmas at KarenEhman.com

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!

12 Days of Christmas at KarenEhman.com

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 InstagramFacebook 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. :)

All winners will be announced December 22nd!

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202 Comments

  1. Our cards sit on a bookcase; as I walk by, one will catch my eye, pick it up, read it and offer a prayer of thanksgiving for family & friends!

  2. I also tape our cards to a door we pass often during the day. When I take them down I add the names to my calendar for prayers throughout the year.

  3. At Christmas time we hang our cards on the door. I love reading all the cards at the end of New Years Day. I remember the person who sent the card and the fond memories we share.

  4. I found the cutest Christmas card holder made out of felt with pockets and a wooden hanger. I bought it a few years ago and love it. It has a nice Christmas theme design and is very colorful. All my cards stay nestled in the same place each year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

  5. Wow. I love the idea of putting these up in the laundry room as a prayer board. Right now we neat lay ours out on a tray and picture cards make it to the fridge after the holidays.

    My Christmas gift to myself this year was having a very talented friend make me a prayer wall so that my children and I can hang prayers on the hooks and always be reminded to pray for others and each other.

  6. I usually display our Christmas cards in a big gold reindeer basket which sits on a table in the family room. They usually get packed up with all of the Christmas decorations in January, but I love your idea of displaying the photos where you can be reminded to pray for those families. What a great idea! Makes me wish I had been sending you our family’s cards over the years!!! Everyone can use prayer, right?! Now you’ve motivated me to figure out how I will display my cards throughout the year. Thanks for the great idea! Hope you have a blessed Christmas and a new year full of God’s best for you!

  7. We tape ours to the door leading out of the house. We are constantly in and out and by hanging them here we see them frequently.

  8. One of the projects on my list of things to do during Christmas break when I’m not working on school stuff is to paint an old shutter with chalk paint, hang it on a wall near my kitchen, and place holiday cards on the rungs of it.

    Sadly, they are in a pile on my counter right now.

  9. We tape our cards on the arch going into our den & on the walls of the kitchen depending on how many we get. One of my favorite traditions is putting out the special nativity scene that I got on a trip to Bethlehem many years ago.

  10. I keep then in a basket for people who stop to be able to look through. I keep all the cards and especially the photos so I can put them on an album some time…..hasn’t happened but I still keep them! I love the idea of a cork board! I did do that with all the graduation cards we get…..wish I would have thought of Christmas ones earlier!!!!!

  11. I place cards in a Christmas basket. The following year I use the front of the cards to make gift tags for the presents. No cost for gift tags plus gives a spiritual message on gift.

  12. I will not be displaying any cards this year. I have received cards and have them stacked in a pile after I open and read them. My husband passed away earlier this year from lung cancer and it is the hardest thing I have gone through in my life and to see the cards with just my name is very hard. I am not sending any this year either as I can’t send one with just my name and not his. Maybe next year will be better but not sure.

  13. As time allows, I like to read each card and pass around each photo at supper time since some don’t read yet. And to make so everyone sees it. I also like to display mine the following year in an window frame with jute string and tiny clothespins. In my hallway- the only wall space long enough. ? Love your idea of becoming a prayer focus!!

  14. We have a special Christmas bucket sitting on the coffee table in which all our cards go. In the evening we look through the cards while enjoying our lit Christmas tree.

  15. We just moved into my in law’s house and there was a beautiful card holder that my mother in law had. So, I’m now using that and plan to in the future.

  16. I live with my parents so she decides where she displays them. The ones addressed to me and my kids display ours upstairs on my dresser. I would love a card wreath and love the laundry room idea.

  17. Our cards hang over our bar.

    My favorite Christmas tradition comes from when I was a little girl and my grandparents (whom I lived with) would take me to look at Christmas lights. I still love going and looking at all the lights out on houses. Now, my husband and I take our girls to look!!

  18. I keep all our cards on the fireplace mantle and then put together a scrapbook of that years Christmas memories. I LOVE thebidea of praying for each of the families throughout the year….
    Thank you and God bless you CHRISTmas with your family ?

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