There are probably hundreds of ways to display Christmas cards, but I have a new favorite. Since I receive so many photo cards, I want to enjoy them for most of the year. I hate putting them away, never to be seen until some day years down the road. And throwing them away would seem irreverent. So leaving them up allows me to recall memories, pray for them, and think about how old I'm getting (because would you look at how old their kids are now!!).
I had my husband make this semi-rustic rack for me last Christmas season which hangs in our laundry/mud room all year long (we go in and out this door most of the time so it's an ideal location to seem them often). I got the idea from some magazine, but they used the mattress springs from an old antique crib. Well, I have just that sort of antique crib, but I wasn't about to cut it up to make a card holder, so we improvised. The wire I used can be purchased at a farm supply or hardware store (sorry I can't remember what it is called - if I find out, I'll edit this post with an update). My husband made a simple wood frame, added the wire, and a couple of hangers.
Being the perfectionist that he is, the wire was inserted into a slit just like a real frame. You can kind of see the groove in the above photo (He wanted to fix the miter joint that you see above, but I put my foot down and told him I wanted RUSTIC, not Pottery Barn! I still need to take some sandpaper to it and a bit of antiquing.). If you are doing this yourself, I certainly think applying the wire directly to the back of an old frame would work fine. Wouldn't it be cute to make one of these with an old ornate thrift store frame repainted and with some chicken wire? Very shabby chic! Mmmm... now my mind is thinking of all kinds of styles this can be adapted to.
Since this hangs in my laundry room, I used clothes pins to secure the pictures to the wire. The photos can be easily moved around as more arrive. Sometime later in the year (much later), this gets converted into a message board for birthday invitations, reminders, and notes.
So, how about sharing how you display your cards?
