These recycled Christmas cards are great for an end-of-year activity and focus on fine motor, cutting, and gluing skills. If you’re anything like me you probably have a stack of old Christmas cards from previous years and this is a great way to use them up.

This activity works well with these resources:

Another reason that I like this recycled Christmas card craft is that it costs very little in supplies. If you don’t have any old Christmas cards you can usually buy a large packet for a few dollars. Try to collect them this year so you’ll be all ready for next Christmas!

What you need to make recycled Christmas cards

• Old Christmas cards (any designs and patterns) – front cover only
• Red and green construction paper (I used pre-cut squares which were the perfect size)
• White construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Christmas stickers (optional)
• Ribbon or pipe cleaners (for the top of the present and bauble)

How to make recycled Christmas cards

1. Give each child some of the old Christmas cards and have them cut them into strips. The size of the strips doesn’t really matter and if they cut them in different sizes they’ll still work.
2. Use red or green construction paper and cut those into the same size strips.
   
3. Glue the strips onto construction paper – if you’ve used green paper, glue them onto red paper.
   
4. Decide on the final picture that you want and cut out a triangle for the tree, a circle for the bauble or a square for the present.
   
5. Glue the shape onto folded white construction paper
   
6. Add stickers or ribbon to the picture and write on the inside.
   

One of the nice things about these recycled Christmas cards is that it’s a great chance to teach about recycling and sustainability. These make a great gift for parents and are easy enough to do as a whole class activity. I have sometimes done these as part of small group centers as well. Often at Christmas I will set up 3 or 4 different Christmas crafts and have parent helpers at each table – this makes the process much easier!

I hope you enjoy making these recycled Christmas cards. We would love to see your finished results. Make sure to take a photo and share it in the Simply Kinder Facebook group.

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