Whether you're looking to live a waste-free life or just want to live a little greener, there's no reason to throw out your used cards when you can refashion them! These crafts with old Christmas cards will give you the satisfaction of a clear conscience and more materials for all your papercraft projects.
A staggering 200 million boxes of Christmas cards are brought in the UK every year, leaving many of us with the dilemma of how to clear up after Christmas without chucking things into landfills or our recycling bins. We're here to give you some fun recycled Christmas card ideas so you can turn that holiday cheer into pretty and practical items.
We've rounded up lots of ingenious ideas for crafts with old Christmas cards below. They're suitable for all skill levels – give them a go today!
- These 75+ easy Christmas crafts for kids are perfect for keeping little ones entertained
- What to write in a Christmas card for your friends, family and partner
- How to make paper Christmas decorations
Crafts with old Christmas cards you can make today!
- Gift tags
- Puzzles
- 3D paper decorations
- Bunting
- Bookmarks
- Paper wreath
- Advent calendar
- Desk storage pots
- Make a mini paper village
- Fold into gift boxes
How to recycle your Christmas cards into something beautiful
1. Make Kraft gift wrap for next year
Reach for your scissors and snip up your cards to highlight your favourite Christmas artwork and designs. Then layer these up with Kraft card to make simple gift boxes, cards and tags for next Christmas! Our guide to How to make a hexagon gift box shows you how.
2. Make Christmas coasters
Ooh yes why have we never thought of this? Thankfully Craftsy have – it's one of 7 Fun Ways to upcycle your holiday cards that they've come up with. You just need some simple white tiles and a couple of store cupboard basics to make magic happen.
3. Sew together a sustainable garland
The lovely team at Mollie Makes show you how to recycle your Christmas cards into this sustainable garland. They show you how to use your sewing machine to stitch the pieces together and create this 3D effect.
Looking for more garlands to make for your New Years Eve party? Check out these fantastic DIY party decorations.
4. Make fun Christmas card puzzles
This is such a sweet idea – thanks to Piglets Pen who shared this super cute make on Instagram. Stick your favourite cards onto lollipop sticks (you can either recycle these too from your freezer, or buy a pack of 200 over at Baker Ross).
Now, cut between the sticks and you have your very own mini puzzles! They make cute Christmas cracker or stocking fillers and are fun games for kids to play over the holidays.
5. Super simple mini bunting idea
Looking for quick crafts to do over the Christmas holidays? Snip up your Christmas cards, then fold and string them up into sweet miniature bunting! Inhabitat has the DIY for you.
6. Cut and fold them into geometric baubles
Christmas cards are a great source of decorative card for folding festive shapes. We've got this free geometric baubles template to get you started making your own gem-themed decorations.
7. Transform them into a bowl
My So Called Crafty Life has come up with this beautiful DIY Vintage Christmas Card Bowl! It works well with either glorious vintage designs like the ones used here, or with your favourite 2025 card patterns. Add blanket stitch detail to the edges for extra homespun vibes!
8. Turn them into paper pine cones
We cannot WAIT to get started transforming our cards into pretty papercraft pine cone decorations to replace our Christmas decorations this January! Find out how to make paper pine cone decorations here.
9. Make your own gift tags
A classic refashion idea – cut or punch your Christmas cards into tag shapes for next year's Christmas gifts.
You can create simple tag shapes by cutting a rectangle, then snipping triangles away from two corners and punching a hole in the top. Or, you can get a pretty nifty Tag Paper Punch to make light work of it for you.
Simply Living Green With Rebekah shows you how in more detail.
10. Cut into pieces to frame your favourite Christmas photos
Print out a few snaps from Christmas Day and make a frame decorated with festive elements cut from your Christmas cards.
This idea is from a round-up of Creative Ways to Reuse Christmas Cards by The Sachse News.
11. Fold them into mini paper houses
Try our sweet DIY for how to make a house tealight holder and use your Christmas cards as the basic card that you make them out of (use battery-powered tea lights inside for safe results!).
Whip up a batch of 24 houses this way and you'll have a cute advent village for next year.
12. Upcycle them into clever bookmarks
Lori Miller Designs has come up with a handy template and tutorial for how to take used Christmas cards and turn them into sweet festive bookmarks! How to turn Christmas cards into bookmarks
13. Make a poinsettia garland
Cut your cards into petals to make a papercraft garland to decorate your home next Christmas! While our example is made from plain card, we think this would look lovely cut out of assorted festive cards with petals filled with Christmas motifs and prints!
Get the Free poinsettia garland templates here on Gathered.
14. Turn them into 3D tree ornaments for next year
This neat idea ticks two of our favourite craft boxes – traditional feel and great to get kids involved with! You simply cut up your cards into circles then do a few clever folds and glue them together to form 3D paper baubles!
Find the full tutorial over at What's Up Fagans?
15. Snip them up into a star wreath
We love this tutorial from French blog and party store Fêtes vous meme! Cut or punch shapes from your favourite cards and turn them into a papercrafted wreath.
Quick warning though, if you don't speak French, it's best read in Google Chrome or another web browser that offers an English translation.
16. Upcycle all that sparkle into clever origami stars
We found this idea for reusing your old cards and turning them into 3D stars on Salihan's Flickr – see her Star Mediation blog at Salihan.com.
This would work nicely with any origami projects that you fancy having a play around with over the Christmas period. For more ideas, try these Easy Origami Ideas for Beginners.
17. Grow your own Christmas card trees!
We're loving this cute idea from Better Homes and Gardens! Trim up your cards into a batch of circles and then layer them up for cute decorations for Christmas 2026.
18. Christmas card paper chains
Cut your Christmas cards into thin strips then turn them into place cards and paper chains for next year! We show you how to make Christmas paper chains here on Gathered, but you could make this tutorial even more eco-friendly by using recycled Christmas cards.
Where can I recycle Christmas cards?
If you don't think you'll have time to try these upcycling ideas this year, fear not – Christmas cards and envelopes are ripe for recycling too. While regional guidelines here in the UK do vary between counties, at their core Christmas cards are made of, well... card and paper. So with a bit of thought you should be able to recycle them via your green bin or local household recycling centre.
Any embellishments, ribbon or glitter cannot be recycled though, so you'll need to remove those first. Find more good advice for how to recycle your cards over at Recycle Now. Check your local council waste recycling guidelines and they should include guidance on what they will and won't recycle under the category of "paper and cardboard".
Make your own paper decorations this Christmas
Forget buying this year and have a go at making your own Christmas paper decorations. We've got lots of ideas to get excited about in our round-up.
