The Best Eco Friendly Holiday Cards + Free Templates!

I’ve always wanted to send out a holiday card. It feels like such an adulting milestone. I remember growing up with holiday cards of smiling friends and family members lining our doorframes. The best ones came with updates on how and what each family member was doing.

Plus, who doesn’t love receiving mail? Us millennials and Gen Zers don’t often send mail, but I’m pretty sure all of us absolutely love receiving it. It’s nice to break up the promotional flyers and bills with something nice for a change. I have a feeling that the millennial and Gen Z greeting cards of today would also feature a lot more pets, which I’m totally here for. So I’d love for holiday cards to make a comeback this holiday season among all generations. 

The problem is, holiday cards are surprisingly expensive. The average pack of holiday cards costs $X. And then mailing X holiday cards costs an additional $X. On top of that, holiday cards can have a hefty carbon footprint. When the holidays already cost a lot of money and waste, it’s tempting to let holiday cards slide. Indeed, I’ve avoided sending my own cards because of the cost. How can you make or buy eco-friendly holiday cards at a fraction of the cost? I’ll guide you through it!

Eco-Friendly Holiday Cards

Eco-friendly Christmas cards are a great way of spreading holiday cheer without overly contributing to post-consumer waste or climate change. There are so many great options these days for physical cards that have a smaller carbon footprint. I’ve compiled some of my favorite options below!

Paper Culture Eco-Friendly Cards

One of my favorite options is Paper Culture. Their cards are made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper. They’re also a green business, off-setting all carbon emissions in the production process to be carbon neutral. Plus, they plant a tree for every purchase.

Aside from their green credentials, their card options are the closest to traditional cards of any option I’ve seen. You can add your own photos to their templates or make your own designs. They’re truly a great comprehensive, eco-friendly option.

Plantable Holiday Cards

Plantable cards are a fun, eco-friendly option, particularly if you don’t have many cards to send out or have a higher holiday card budget. These cards have embedded wildflower seeds and are made from Earth friendly materials. Consequently, you can plant them and they produce beautiful wild flowers.

I love these options from Marissa Kay Apothecary. They have gorgeous, unique designs. Plus, the cards support women in Nepal. You can find seed paper cards from a wide variety of other vendors on Etsy and online. Botanical Paperworks is another great option for seed paper cards.

Tree Free Card Company

The Tree Free greeting card company uses 100% solar energy to power their printing. Plus, their cards are made from 100% recycled materials and VOC free inks. On top of that, they donate $1 for every card you buy to nonprofit organizations.

They have a variety of holiday cards available. For a non-denominational option, I love their Winter solstice card collection. These unique cards have gorgeous designs that your friends will love.

Arbor Day Foundation

Similarly, the Arbor Day Foundation offers greeting cards made from sustainable materials, including 100% post-consumer recycled content. Plus, for each card bought, the Arbor Day Foundation plants a tree.

Junk Mail Cards

These cards from the Green Field Paper Company are so fun. They make all their paper products from recycled junk mail. You can even see very faint images from the junk mail used. And no two cards are alike!

The Green Field Paper Company is also carbon neutral. They purchase wind power credits to offset electricity generated. And they conserve water in their production process.

Minted Holiday Cards

Minted has some of the most eco-friendly holiday cards around. Their cards and packaging are made from 100% recycled or compostable materials, their packaging is made from 80% recycled materials, and their unique designs are made by independent artists.

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Making Your Own Holiday Cards

Free Photo Editing Options

There are a number of free photo editing options that are relatively easy to use. Of course, you can use the editing options on iPhoto, Google photos, or whatever platform you’re on. However, the editing options are pretty limited. If you want to, say, crop someone into or out of a picture, those options are going to leave you high and dry.

A more comprehensive free photo editing option is Gimp. I’ll be honest, it took me a bit of trial and error to figure out the features. However, once you get the hang of it, it’s comprehensive in its editing options. I primarily use the lasso feature for editing missing people into family pictures. For example, last year my family took two sets of family pictures with different people taking the picture. I used Gimp’s lasso feature to cut one of the photographers from one picture and place them into the picture they weren’t in. Voila, a complete family picture.

Other highly-recommended photo editing software include Pixlr and Fotor. Canva also has some nice tools for photo editing, but it’s far from comprehensive in this area unless you upgrade to a pro license and even then, photo editing isn’t its main forte. Tom’s Guide has a good overview of the pros and cons of these options.

Construct Your Holiday Cards for Free

Don’t construct your holiday card in Word. I know we’re all most familiar with Word. But we all know what a nightmare Word is if we want to try to put a picture in with text. Instead, try using Powerpoint or Google slides. Simply resize the presentation to a holiday card size or 8.5×11 if you prefer (see here for instructions on how to do this).

You can then copy and paste pictures and text boxes where you want onto the slide. Want a block of text by a picture? It’s easy peasy in Powerpoint. This is a great option for your family newsletters.

If you want to get fancier and make a professional-looking holiday card, you can still kind of manage in Powerpoint. You can search for free borders and graphics online to add to your image.

A more comprehensive option, however, is a graphical design site or software like Canva. Canva has a free subscription where you have access to a wide variety of templates, graphics, and more. You can work from an existing template or use a template as inspiration for your own design.

Construct Your Homemade Cards for a Low Cost

However, if you want to spend a little more, you can get a Canva Pro subscription. If you’re just looking to make a holiday card, you can get a free trial of the Pro subscription. You can also pay $12 a month and keep the subscription for a limited time if you want more than the month free trial. The Pro version gives you access to way more templates, graphics, and functionality. So if you’re looking to get fancier, it’s worth the extra money.

You can also use Paper Culture to make DIY holiday cards using their templates or your own design.

Holiday Card Printing and Mailing Options

First, consider emailing your card. Yes, it’s less fun than snail mail. Buuuut it’s free and easier, so that’s highly tempting. Plus, tree-free Christmas cards are an eco-friendly way of sending holiday greetings that doesn’t involve much in the way of carbon emissions. And people love receiving fun emails too. The benefit of emailing your card is that it’s also easier for people to follow-up with you. Consequently, you still get many of the benefits of sending out holiday cards, with some bonus benefits too.

If you prefer going the traditional route, you can print your cards through Paper Culture. As mentioned above, they use 100% recycled paper and are a carbon neutral company. You can also use Greener Printer to print your cards on 100% recycled materials and with soy based ink. They also offer carbon offsetting for a carbon neutral printing process.

Holiday Cards Template Options

Looking for holiday card templates for inspiration? Feel free to use these holiday templates I’ve provided below! Just upload the templates to whichever printing platform you prefer, add a personal message, and you’re good to go!

Final Thoughts on Eco-Friendly Holiday Cards

Is there anything that gets you quite in the holiday spirit like receiving holiday greetings from friends and family? Or that makes you feel more grownup than sending traditional holiday cards? The good news is that there are more options than ever to create and send gorgeous cards without having a negative impact on the environment. So this season, I hope you consider using eco-friendly holiday cards as a way to reconnect with friends and family and channel your creativity.

I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyful Kwanzaa, Hopeful New Year, Restful Solstice or whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider liking, subscribing, or sharing with others. It’s always a big help! Interested in related content? Check out my posts on stress-free holiday planning, managing family conflict during the holidays, eco-friendly gift giving, and 61 holiday-themed journal prompts.