Every year we look forward to visiting Santa and by “we” I mean my girls…of course. This year we had the pleasure of visiting Santa at the Upper Canada Mall. There is something magical about walking into a shopping mall during the holiday season…the lights, the music and the decorations. Santa was sitting happily, beneath a gigantic pile of wrapped gift boxes, in a beautiful white throne. My girls were prepared to answer his questions and smiled sweetly for the camera. After we picked up our package of photos I started to think about how we could share our Santa pictures with our family and friends this year. 
Later, as I sat staring at our huge pile of Christmas cards that we have received over the last few years, an idea popped into my head. What if we recycled our old Christmas cards and shared our Santa picture with our family and friends. Perfect.
Recycled Christmas Cards
scissors
mall Santa pictures of various sizes
old Christmas cards (ones that you don’t mind crafting with)
utility knife
envelopes
Start by cutting the front of the card away from the back of the card. You want to use the card cover, as long as it doesn’t have any writing on the back.
Place your Santa picture in a spot that you like on the card cover. Use the knife to cut 2 slits in the cover. Cut the slits diagonally on opposite corners of the picture. This way the picture will be held in place…but can be easily removed by the recipient.
Slide the picture in place. Write your holiday greeting on the reverse side of the card…much like a postcard.
Purchase a package of envelopes that will fit the largest card size. If your cards are too large, feel free to cut them down to size. Address envelopes and send to friends and family.
I love this idea, it gives us the opportunity to recycle our old cards and share our lovely Upper Canada Mall Santa photograph. We also like to display one 5″ x 7″ copy of our Santa photograph in a frame. I set up a display of all our photos in our living room over the holidays. We are building quite the collection of Christmas memories. I love unpacking the photographs every year. It is so much fun to watch my girls react to the pictures of themselves when they were babies, perched on Santa’s knee. My girls are 11 and 8 years old now, I hope the tradition of visiting Santa Claus at the mall doesn’t end any time soon.
Do you visit a mall Santa every year?
How do you display your pictures with Santa?
Looking for more ways to connect with your kids this holiday season?
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Disclosure: This post was generously sponsored by Upper Canada Mall, however as always the opinions expressed are my own.Looking for more ways to connect with your kids this holiday season?
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