Anonymous wrote:I do use the cards as an opportunity to reach out to some friends and reconnect. We don't do it for everyone, just too busy honestly. I wish I were better!

We display all of them and then keep a selection - close friends / relatives, anything with a nice handwritten note, kid friends that they want to keep (my preschooler is obsessed). I will probably re-cull after a couple yrs.

+1

We make a little display of them through January. I make sure we’ve sent cards to everyone who has sent us one. I sometimes send a text to people I haven’t seen in awhile (“thanks for the card! larla is getting tall!”) but not always.

On the etiquette question, if it's a close friend I text regularly, I might text to comment on the photo or message. If it's not someone I have a frequent texting relationship with, I generally just make sure they were on our card list. If I haven't sent their card yet I might comment on theirs in my handwritten greeting on the back of the photo card I'm sending them.

After displaying the cards we receive during the current Christmas season (minus the random realtor and business ones that get tossed), when they come down at the end of January I've been saving all the old ones together in a decorative box. We flip through them when decorating our tree or at some other point during the holidays.

It's really fun to see the changes over the years. I don't know what I'll do if/when the box fills up, but I'm glad I started hanging on to them about a decade ago. It's bittersweet, since we have a few from relatives that have since passed away. I like to take a few minutes tov talk about them. I think that helps keep the memories alive for the kids.