The Christmas Season's Cultural Icons

The Christmas Season's Cultural Icons

Cultural Christmas Icons

Christmas Trees
Most of the modern day trappings of Christmas originated in the European countries and America. The Christmas tree began to appear in Germany as early as 700 AD. It may have grown out of half-remembered druidic traditions, or possibly out of the annual bringing in of the Yule log. The practice spread across Europe, and by the Victorian era people were decorating the trees with candles, candy and cakes. In 1880 Woolworth's sold the first manufactured Christmas decorations.

Xmas
Using Xmas instead of Christmas also dates back a long time—Christ in Greek is Xristos. By the 1500s the term Xmas had passed into standard usage.

Santa with a little girl Santa Claus
And then, of course, there is Santa Claus. Santa's life is based on the life of St. Nicholas, who lived in Myra, in what is now Turkey, in the 4th century AD. Nicholas was a young bishop who wanted to give money to the poor, but was incredibly shy.

Rather than give the money directly, legend has it that he climbed onto the roof of a peasant's house, and dropped a bag of money down the chimney. The moneybag landed in a sock that a young girl has hung by the fire to dry, and it is from this story that we get the modern Christmas stocking. Santa Claus's red costume is a reminder of the bishop's robes worn by Nicholas.

Santa's Reindeer
We're not altogether sure when Saint Nick's white horse was transformed into eight sleigh-pulling reindeer. The earliest evidence was from 'Twas the Night Before Christmas—the famous poem/story by Clement Moore.

Moore even gave the eight reindeer their names. Although legend has it that Saint Nicholas climbed on rooftops to drop money down the chimney, Moore decided the reindeer could fly to the rooftop. Maybe this was because the Right Jolly Old Elf had short legs and was unlikely to scale walls.

And along with the reindeer and the sleigh came the jingle bells. A silver jingle bell is the treasured gift from Santa in the popular holiday story, The Polar Express.

Who Brings the Gifts?
Cookies and milk left for SantaWhile most countries celebrate Christmas in some form or another, each culture has it own unique celebration. Depending on what country you are in, Christmas-related holidays can be celebrated anywhere from December 6th through January 6th. While some cultural Christmas icons are celebrated independently of Jesus' birthday, others celebrate a pagan icon and Jesus on the same day.

If you were a child in France for Christmas, you would put your wooden clogs outside on December 24th to get small presents. Alternatively, a child in Italy would expect "La Befana" to come on January 6th to give him or her gifts. Although the details of a Christmas celebration are location-specific, the spirit of Christmas usually revolves around expressing care, compassion, and love to those around you.

From the North Pole to Bethlehem, Christmas Costumes Leave Few in the Cold

From the North Pole to Bethlehem, Christmas Costumes Leave Few in the Cold

Cultural Christmas Icons

The wide variety of stories, legends and traditions surrounding Christmas provide several options for people who like to celebrate in costume. Styles vary from secular to religious. Christmas plays and parades provide endless opportunities to become a living symbol of the Christmas holiday.

Santa and His Entourage
Santa Claus inarguable boasts the greatest of the Christmas costumes. Some, however, fear that donning a Santa Claus costume could dilute the Santa Claus mystique for children. Around Christmas time, people dressing in Santa Claus costumes seem to be everywhere: malls, schools, food or gift drives, and even grocery stores.

However, one rarely sees two Santa's together. So don't worry about your children losing the magic behind Christmas and Santa Claus just yet! The classic image of the red suit, black boots, pipe, white beard and bag of presents remains powerful enough to keep kids in line to talk to Santa year after year. Children also relish the Santa Claus costume at home, whether a friend or relative dresses up to distribute gifts.

Accompanying the Santa Claus costumes, Mrs. Claus costumes, complete with a floor-length red skirt and a Santa hat, can turn any woman into a festive holiday character. Similarly, Santa’s helpers, the Elves, make great costumes for children. A pointy, short red or green hat along with pointy shoes, tights and a big-buckled tunic complete this Christmas costume. If you are feeling more daring or want a more exotic or unique Christmas costume, dress up as a Christmas tree or Frosty the Snowman!

Rudolph and the other reindeer are fun pet costume ideas for the holidays. Alternatively, you could make your pet part of Santa's workshop and dress it up like an elf. An antler headband or a pointy hat for your dog or cat will spice up any holiday party!

Tell Me A Christmas Tale
Christmas stories offer many opportunities to dress up in Christmas costumes. One of the most beloved Christmas tales is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, reinterpreted in plays, cartoons, ballets, and film. Scrooge, Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future offer several opportunities for great yet subtle costumes. While Scrooge requires a silk top hat and a scowl, Marley and his fellow apparitions can use chains and deathly makeup.

For a more dramatic effect with your Christmas costume, you could reenact The Nutcracker or The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Although these Christmas costumes are more entertaining and unique, they do require more work to get into character and can be significantly more costly.

Another novel source of Christmas costumes is the most unusual Christmas film of all, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Costumes of Jack Skellington and Sally are available online for those who want a creepier Christmas celebration.

Religious Christmas Costumes
For people looking for a more serious, religious Christmas reenactment for the holidays, the classic, simple story of the nativity may be best.

Because the characters of Joseph and Mary are simply a poor couple looking for a place to stay, they can be easily recreated with a few simple sheets (beige for Joseph and blue for Mary). The figure of Jesus can be represented with a baby doll wrapped in a blanket. Other costumes include angels that can be dressed in white robes, wear gold halos made out of pipe cleaner, and don wings made out of cardboard and sprinkled with glitter. Most people make do without the donkey, although it would certainly make a fun costume for children’s Christmas plays.

Of all the costumes involved in a nativity scene reenactment, the most effort goes into the costumes of the Three Wise Men. Because they are kings, try to get the most regal robes and tunics available, along with decorated crowns. Usually a strip of cardboard, glue, gold paper and some rhinestones can turn any kid into a noble and Wise Man.

Christmas Parties
Variations on all of these themes are well suited for Christmas parties at school or home. You could even dress in a Santa Claus costume for an office Christmas party. A mistletoe hat can also make a party memorable and exciting. For those who wish to put that extra effort into Christmas, dishing out the kisses is certainly within the spirit of giving.

Christmas Icons Around the World Share Universal Message

Christmas Icons Around the World Share Universal Message

Cultural Christmas Icons

Christmas Icons Around the World - International Christmas gift givers tailor the beloved holiday to fit their own culture. While Christmas icons around the world vary in when they visit and what they give, they all promote the Christmas spirit of giving to those close to you and caring for the less fortunate. Here is a brief overview of international Christmas gift givers:

Canada and the United States: In 1809, Washington Irving made Santa Claus a part of North America's vocabulary with his novel A History of New York. Irving represented the figure of Santa Claus as St. Nicholas, a man with a flying wagon that brought presents to children.

In 1863, Santa Claus was upgraded to the red suit and the reindeer. Since then, he’s remained mostly unchanged. The name Santa Claus comes from the Dutch "Sintaklaas." Along with the Dutch name, the North American tradition also includes Santa Claus carrying a list of nice and naughty children, entering homes through chimneys, and appreciating any milk and cookies left for him.

Belgium: French speaking Belgians know Saint Nicholas as "Père Noël." Rather than leaving coal, Père Noël leaves twigs and sticks for the naughty children in Belgium. However, unlike the American tradition, Belgians celebrate Père Noël's birthday on December 6th, separately from Jesus' birthday.

Brazil: In the Brazilian tradition, Papai Noel is a resident of Greenland, not the North Pole (perhaps Santa has a summer resort there?) and dons silk clothing to suit the warmer locale. Christmas festivities revolve around decorating, feasting, and dancing more so rather than gift giving.

The Czech Republic: Svaty Mikalas descends from Heaven on a golden rope with a whip-carrying devil for the naughty children. Czechs also traditionally bring a branch from a cherry tree in their homes on December 4th: if the branch blooms before Christmas, then the family should expect good luck and a short winter.

Denmark: Julemanden is the name of the Danish Christmas gift giver. He travels with his mischievous elf, Julenisse, who wears red stockings and enjoys playing pranks on naughty children. On Christmas Eve, children leave out rice pudding to prevent Julenisse from playing a joke on them.

France and Quebec: French children leave out their wooden clogs for Père Noël to fill with presents. Père Noël also decorates Christmas trees with candies and other treats while his companion, Pre Fouettard, keeps track of who’s been naughty and nice.

Germany: December 6th marks the beginning of the German Christmas celebration. Although the figure of Der Weinachtsmann is quite similar to the American Santa Claus, Christkind is a unique Christmas icon that captures German culture's imagination. As Christ's messenger, the Christkind is an angelic, crowned young girl who visits each house with a basket of gifts.

Italy: Italian children expect La Befana (a name meaning "Epiphany" in Italian) to come visit them on January 6. As legend goes, La Befana refused to give the three wise men food and shelter as they traveled to visit the baby Jesus. She realized her error and ever since has traveled the earth looking for them and being generous with gifts to all good children, in case Jesus is among them.

Japan: While much of Japan isn't Christian, the Japanese have adopted many of the American Christian traditions surrounding Christmas. Hoteiosho, a priest that looks like the American Santa Claus, has eyes in the back of his head surely to help him spot any sneaky, misbehaving children.

Netherlands: On December 5, Sinterklaas sails from Spain and travels around the country on horseback. Children who fill their shoes with hay for Sinterklaas’ horse find presents in the morning. The Dutch tradition has evolved recently with Sinterklaas no longer beating naughty children with a birch rod.

Nicaragua: From December 16th to Christmas Eve, Nicaraguans hold nightly prayers followed by carol singing. However, children don't receive gifts until January 6, the celebration of the Epiphany when the Three Wise Men came to give gifts the baby Jesus. The night closes with fireworks and a manger scene decorates every home.

Norway: Julebukk, the "Christmas buck," is a goat-like creature traced back to Viking worship of Thor and his goat. Julebukk guards farm animals and plays tricks on children who don’t leave him a bowl of porridge. Unlike most of the other international Christmas gift givers, Julebukk doesn't leave the children gifts: it is up to the children to go door-to-door seeking treats and gifts.

Russia: Dedoushka Moroz or "Father Christmas" is a secondary figure to Baboushka, the present-bearing woman with an origin similar to Italy’s La Befana. Although Communist oppression hushed celebration of Christmas, the collapse of the USSR has revived tales of Baboushka with undimmed enthusiasm. Russians celebrate Christmas on January 6th by singing carols and attending churches decorated with yelka flowers.

Spain: Three Wise Men revisit their travels on Christmas Eve while the family feasts and celebrates the birth of Jesus. Children leave straw in their shoes, hoping most of all to feed the donkey of Balthazar, the gift giving magi.

Sweden: In honor of St. Lucia, who fed persecuted Christians, the eldest daughter of the Swedish family carries food to each family member on the morning of December 13. For Christmas, another family member dresses as the Tomte, a red-robed, bearded gnome that bears gifts along with rhyming hints for children to guess what the gift is.

United Kingdom: On Christmas Eve families only eat Frumenty, a corn pudding. At night, Father Christmas dons a long red or green robe as he delivers gifts to hanging stockings and pillowcases. Christmas day brings a feast of roast turkey and an exchange of gifts.

Repeated year after year, Christmas is perhaps the most universal holiday that manifests itself in unique Christmas icons around the world.

Printable Christmas Cards | Make Unique Homemade Christmas Cards This Year

Printable Christmas Cards | Make Unique Homemade Christmas Cards This Year

Christmas Traditions

Here are some great Christmas card ideas to print or scrap

crafthubs.com

Christmas cards can be a very fun activity for children and adults alike. There are many creative things you can do to make your unique homemade Christmas cards stand out on everyone's mantle.

Since many times the only time you contact certain friends and family members are during the holidays, it's a good idea to make your Christmas cards special for them.

Why not take pictures during a fun Christmas activity and then make a collage of pictures to put on the front of the card. You could also take pictures of your family doing one of their favorite things like bike riding together, hiking, playing games or pictures from your family vacation.

Since most Christmas cards you receive with a family photo on including a posed photo, you could make yours unique by adding this kind of photo.

You can also create very unique printable Christmas cards by using Christmas clip art images packs that you can just copy and paste into a template, add a Christmas card verse, print and fold, and you are ready to address your card.

You can find some really nice papers by going your local copy shop to use for making unique homemade Christmas cards. You can sit around as a family and cut out different shapes from fancy paper and make a collage on the front of the card. Use your imagination and find unique Christmas decorations that can be used to decorate the card.

Your cards do not need to be the usual shape why not try making them in the shape of a Christmas tree or a snowman or any other shape you would enjoy making. When you are ready to write the greeting on the inside, try searching the Internet for Christmas quotes or poems you can include.

Whether you want to make your cards funny, religious, full of warmth or really bring out your personality, you can make someone's day by giving them a unique homemade Christmas card.

The great thing about making a homemade card is that you can be sure no one has ever had a card like that before.

These unique homemade Christmas cards will be the first ones they will want to put up and the first ones people notice when there visit homes.

Your friends and family will really want to show them off.
Have fun.....

Raising Your Greeting Cards to the Next Level: Embossing

Raising Your Greeting Cards to the Next Level: Embossing

Christmas Traditions

Embossing is a technique used to create raised surfaces, usually on pieces of paper. In the crafting world, it is usually used for piece making greeting cards or other rubber-stamped projects.

Embossing is not difficult to learn how to do, and this project really gives your cards and stationary a professional look and feel. There are two main types of embossing done today, but both are easy enough to quickly learn.

Dry embossing, which is also called cool or cold embossing, is the most time-consuming process of the two embossing techniques. However, it is fairly simple to do, so you should give it a try if you like the finished look.

To do dry embossing, you’ll need plastic stencils and a tool called a stylus. A stylus is long like a pencil and has a metal shaft with a point that looks like a tiny ball.

Some styluses come with duel ends so you have a variety of ballpoint sizes with which to work. It is important that the stencils be made of plastic or another hard object unless you have a very steady hand because you’ll be using them as a guide.

Most people like to work on a light box to have a better view of their craft. Simply tape the stencil to the back of your paper and use your stylus to press hard as you trace the stencil.

When you tape the stencil and flip over your paper, you’ll be left with a raised image. This is a great technique for wedding invitations or baby shower cards.

Heat embossing is done very differently. In this case, no stencil is used, but you do need a rubber stamp, heat embossing ink, heat embossing powder, and a heat gun.

Do no mistake a heat gun for a hair dryer—heat guns do not blow hard or at the same temperature. To do this type of embossing, use the special ink to stamp an image onto your paper.

A stamp with a lined outline instead of a block stamp works best. This ink is made to dry very slowly, some careful not to smudge it.

Next, sprinkle the powder over the ink as if you were applying glitter. Dump the excess back into the container, gently tapping your image to remove any extra powder.

Next, use a heat gun to heat the powder. You should see it slowly melt. Immediately remove shut off the heat gun and in just a few seconds, the raised image will be completely dry.

This process, along with dry embossing, can create beautiful cards that your friend will never believe you made yourself.

Christmas Greeting Cards

Christmas Greeting Cards

Christmas Traditions

Greeting cards in general and Christmas cards specifically are massive business, in fact, they're huge. You can hardly go to any retail shop without seeing them being made available for purchase in the two or three months prior to Christmas Day.

Christmas greeting cards are exchanged during the Christmas season by many people, including even non-Christians. As a matter of fact, they are a tradition throughout Western cultures and even in Japan.

Christmas cards are the evidence that the cell phone and computer generation cannot be blamed for short messaging and the claims of short attention spans that go with that.

Even without computers and cell phones our grandparents were communicating with short messages through all these years in much the same way we do today. They were however clearly doing it the old fashioned way.

Greeting cards, in general, are often informal and sometimes even impersonal, with romantic greeting cards senders tell someone that the greatest Christmas gift they could receive they already have in them and their love and friendship. It should not be overlooked that New Years is another time that greeting cards are very well received.

The sending and receiving of Christmas cards is a decades-old tradition, centered on sending wishes of goodwill and good holiday cheer to people that we very often don’t see very much throughout the year, if at all.

With expectations being what they are it’s unfortunate but often sending out the Christmas cards becomes more of a source of stress than one of merriness and joy.

Sending business Christmas greeting cards, either by postal mail or email, is one low-cost way to make a good impression and let customers know a company genuinely cares about their business. Don't be surprised if customers show their appreciation by sending cards in return or just saying thanks the next time they see the business owner.

Sending a card not only brings joy to the person sending it but also to the person receiving the card and the shared joy is multiplied.

Have You Ever Considered for Christmas Gift Shopping Online?

Have You Ever Considered for Christmas Gift Shopping Online?

Christmas Traditions

You can save money and time when you do your Christmas gift Shopping online!

If you are one of those that believes it’s not then you probably like to enjoy the atmosphere of physical shopping. It’s likely that you enjoy the process of writing your Christmas shopping list, then checking the items off as you complete it. Spending some time searching for the perfect gift for everyone on your gift list can be a great deal of fun.

Christmas shopping at the flea market might not have been something people thought about in years past but with the struggling economy and the upswing in flea market popularity, more people will remember these unique sales venues when it comes to gift buying.

With the continued growth and development of the world wide web, Christmas gift shopping has never been so easy. Buying Christmas presents online is just as much fun and is much more efficient than trudging around the shops looking for gift ideas and jostling with all the other shoppers for a place in the checkout line.

Christmas gift shopping online on the internet is here to stay and its growing popularity is clear evidence. Visit our top selling toys review site to find out more about the best selling toys for this Christmas.

Actually, Christmas gift shopping with children can be made fun and easy by incorporating activities appropriate for children into the schedule of the shopping trip. This may include visiting stores which may be of interest to the child.

Whatever you do keep in mind Christmas shopping should be enjoyable rather than a frustrating experience.

Even if you choose to buy gifts in a brick-and-mortar store, one thing shopping online can give you a good idea of is how much you should be willing to spend.

One of the really neat things about doing your Christmas gift shopping online is you can do it in your pajamas if you feel like it.

When you shop on the internet, you're not wasting your valuable time and energy going from mall to mall or store to store.

Shopping Online For Christmas Convenience

Shopping Online For Christmas Convenience

Christmas Traditions

Christmas shopping can be quite a hassle. Why not make it easier on yourself this year by shopping online for Christmas. Here are some helpful tips for shopping online to be sure your purchases are secure, and the best places to shop.

Most major retailers now have online stores. Not only that but you can find some really fun specialty stores getting unique gifts you can't find anywhere else. You don't have to fight traffic or stand in long lines, so it's much more convenient.

If you are looking for a specific item or store code to your favorite search engine and type in what you are looking for. If there are certain stores you are familiar with you may feel more secure shopping online at them.

Most of the major department stores are extremely safe for a secure shopping experience. You can also be sure that they have a good exchange or return policy.

There are many wonderful stores online. You can find some really great deals because they don't have the high overhead like a retail store.

Before making any purchases over the Internet at one of these stores, be sure they have a secure connection.

If the stores have a secure connection it should be displayed in their virtual check out. Also, most computers will inform you when you are entering a secure area. If you have a good virus protector on your computer it should definitely let you know if the site is secure.

Another advantage to shopping online for Christmas is that you can shop anywhere in the world. This makes it easier to find gifts for even the most discriminating person on your list.

Be sure to look for hidden charges

When you are shopping online you can do a lot more comparison-shopping without having to drive over town.

What you will want to watch out for in some stores are hidden charges. Make sure you check to see the cost of shipping and handling.

Some stores will offer free shipping where others may overcharge. Also you want to keep an eye out for taxes. Some stores already at these costs in their prices and others do not, so be aware.

I should have found the perfect gift and are ready to purchase, check to make sure you can make your purchase with a credit card on a secure server online. Some of the smaller stores may require that effect your credit card information.

Many stores also accept money orders or checks. If you feel more secure using these just remember, your product will not be sent until they receive your payment. This can make it difficult to keep your product in time for Christmas.

Make sure to check the shops return policy, in the event that the person you purchase a gift for is not crazy about it and would like to exchange it. Be sure that the store explains how to return merchandise.

Shopping online for Christmas can make shopping much less stressful and make it a much more enjoyable event.

By simply being careful while shopping online you can get all your holiday shopping done and have time to enjoy the holidays.

Christmas Gift Ideas are Classified into Quite a Few Categories

Christmas Gift Ideas are Classified into Quite a Few Categories

Christmas Traditions

There are Christmas gift ideas for him, her, couples, romantic Christmas gifts, kids and even personalized gift ideas.

When purchasing gifts for Christmas you should take care to choose gifts you can afford. If you have limited financial resources for Christmas gifts, there are a number of creative ideas that will help you give the best gifts.

Also keep in mind photographs make good Christmas gifts. All you have to do is choose a suitable good quality photograph and send it via e-mail to any of the many web-based companies taking care to specify the size and style of picture required together with any special requests, such as merging two photos into one portrait, and then place the order.

Kids seem to be the ones that have a knack for having their gifts picked out down to the serial number as early in the year as June or July. Visit our top selling toys review site to find out more about the best selling toys for this Christmas.

For finicky people or those who seem to have everything, you might consider purchasing gift cards. Kids will get really excited over something like this as they can then tailor their own purchase more to their liking.

Kids love all sorts of gifts. You could simply buy a craft box to organize crayons or materials for crafts, include a pack of construction paper, a writing pad or notebook, some fun pencils, washable markers, and a watercolor paint set.

Baskets or bowls are great for themes. For instance, a nice big popcorn bowl with matching little bowls are great to use as an inexpensive Christmas gift when you fill it with microwave popcorn, some movie tickets or DVD rental movie gift cards.

Baskets can be found quite inexpensively at local craft stores or can be purchased in bulk online.

Consider a basket or tin of items appropriate to the individual. Things like cookies, fruit basket, beauty items, pantry items, etc.

While you can purchase gift baskets already made, you can save money by making your own.

Last Minute Gift Ideas for Christmas 

There’s always some sort of situation where you need last minute gift ideas and you don’t know where to turn. You might be buying a last-minute gift for your mother-in-law, a spouse, or even a child.

Some people rush to work on the last day of the office gathering, suddenly remembering that they had secret Santa duties, and they need a last-minute gift for that.

Don't panic if you haven't yet bought a gift for that special someone.

The Internet can be your best friend when it comes to finding solutions for Christmas gift ideas. You can find something suitable for everyone.

For instance, a gift certificate to a major store will always be a hit. Plus, it’s suitable for both genders and all ages.

You can buy online gift cards to places like eBay, Amazon.com, Target, Best Buy, and more. Most people who are in a panic for a last-minute Christmas gift usually stop by a 24-hour drugstore, such as Walgreens or CVS pharmacy.

All that you're going to find here are cheap substitutes for a special gift that you could have purchased online instead.

When you buy an online gift certificate, the company will usually give you the option of having an announcement emailed directly to the recipient.

Or, print out the purchase details, stick it in an envelope, and give that as a Christmas gift.

No one needs to know that the gift that you purchased was a last-minute one. If you don't have access to the Internet at the exact time that you need the gift, you can always stop by your local grocery store and find gift cards there.

It's best if you can tailor your gift card to the person's interests.

For example, for the do it yourself man, you might pick up a $50 gift card to Home Depot or Lowe's. Another great option, for a sports fan, might be to get a gift card to the MLB shop online, where they can purchase their choice of fan gear.

Teenagers will love a gift card to Best Buy. Here, they can buy video games, consoles, cell phones and accessories, movies, and many more technical gadgets of their choosing. This type of gift card is great for grownups too.

Another perfect type of gift car is a Visa or American Express gift card. When you buy this type of gift certificate, it works just like a debit card – and your recipient can use it anywhere that Visa or American Express is accepted.

Another great last minute gift idea is cold, hard cash. While it sounds impersonal, kids and teenagers will LOVE it.

They prefer to get money over having an uninformed grown-up buy them a gift they won’t like.

And you can pick up a simple cash gift greeting card to stick it in.

Quick and Easy Christmas Recipes for Holiday Treats the Kids Will Love

Quick and Easy Christmas Recipes for Holiday Treats the Kids Will Love

Christmas Food

Are you looking for a way to keep your children busy during the holiday break?

One great way to have them contribute to the holiday festivities is to have them help make holiday treats

In many families, cookies are an important part of the holiday tradition. Even if your children aren’t able to bake yet, they can help decorate. Here are a few quick and easy holiday treats your kids will love.

#1 Rice Crispy Treats

Rice Crispy treats are no-bake snacks that can be ready in a matter of minutes. You can find the recipe on the side of any rice cereal box. You need a box of rice crispy cereal, a bag of marshmallows and butter. Once the treats are made, you can use cookie cutters to shape them into holiday decorations.

One easy shape for younger children is to cut the treats into circles and decorate them to resemble tree ornaments.

You can use basic colored gel frosting found at the supermarket, or make your own buttercream frosting and color it with food coloring to match your desired decorating style.

Let your little ones express their creativity by decorating the treats.

#2 Sugar cookies

Round sugar cookies can be made and decorated with holiday ornaments. Or you can roll them out and use various holiday cookie cutter shapes to get more creative.

This is particularly fun for older children who may enjoy more complicated decorating tasks. Additionally, older children can bake the cookies.

#3 Peanut butter balls

Another no-bake cookie that’s fun to make are peanut butter balls. They’re also called buckeyes.

Basically, you blend peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar into a gooey mess.

You then roll the peanut butter mix into melted chocolate, let cool and enjoy.

Here’s a quick and easy recipe.

* 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 6 cups confectioners' sugar
* 4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Direction:

1. In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners' sugar.
2. Roll into 1-inch balls and place on a waxed, paper-lined cookie sheet. Chill for thirty minutes in your freezer.
3. Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or in your microwave. Stir frequently until smooth.
4. Dip frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top.
5. Place back on wax paper and store in a refrigerator.

If you have family recipes, invite your children to help bake. Getting your children involved in the holiday preparations accomplishes many beneficial things. It helps them feel valuable. They learn new skills.

Additionally, it helps them stay busy during time off of school. They’ll be able to grow up and share their joy of holiday baking with their own family.

Recipes for Christmas | A Meal That You Can Make Quickly So You Can Enjoy The Festivities

Recipes for Christmas | A Meal That You Can Make Quickly So You Can Enjoy The Festivities

Christmas Food

The best way to make sure that you can enjoy your day on Christmas and not spend the whole day in the kitchen cooking while everybody else is having fun is to use a little by planning.

There are many things that you can make ahead of time and store in the freezer or seal in Ziploc bags and refrigerated.

Set the table the day before Christmas with a nice tablecloth, stacked dishes, and silverware and have the glasses already on the table. If you want to have a nice centerpiece for your Christmas meal be sure to have it a ready couple of days before Christmas so you won't have to spend the time on Christmas doing it.

It is not necessary to put out a complete sit-down meal like on Thanksgiving. Why not make a nice buffet style meal with ham sandwiches, a tray of vegetables, chips and dip, cake and pie, nuts and a nice fruit salad.

First, you want to make your shopping list in advance for all the items you want to include in your buffet. You can cook the ham in the day before Christmas and slice it for sandwiches, and put it in a Ziploc bag.

You can purchase frozen yeast rolls and put in a pan in the morning and by noon that we ready to put in the oven so you can serve fresh rolls for the sandwiches.

You can cut up your vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower, carrot sticks, celery sticks in any other vegetables you enjoy and put each vegetable in its own Ziploc bag the day before Christmas. You can also make the pies and cakes a day or two for Christmas and refrigerate them.

If you get most of the meal ready a day or two for the holiday, then on Christmas day you can make a quick fruit salad, but at the vegetables in a tray, whip up a nice vegetables dip, pull out the cakes and pies and slice them, and just finished up any items that could not be pre-prepared.

By preplanning your holiday meal, you can get everything ready in an hour or less and have plenty of time to enjoy visiting with family and friends.

Homemade Edible Gifts from the Heart

Homemade Edible Gifts from the Heart

Christmas Traditions

Are you looking for a new way to show your appreciation and gratitude this holiday season? Are you looking to give gifts this year that is special and focus on giving rather than materialism?

Consider making your own homemade edible gifts this year.

When you spend your valuable time creating something from your heart, your friends and family know you love and appreciate them. It takes a bit of extra time, energy and attention to make something from scratch.

However, in the long run, it’s also easier than hitting the shopping malls and battling the crowd in search of that perfect gift. You can make one instead.

meetpenny.com

How to Create Homemade Edible Treats

The first step to creating homemade treats is actually two steps. You want to consider what you can make, where you’re skilled. You also want to take your recipient in mind.

What do they like to eat? What foods are their favorites or what would they enjoy most?

For example, if you’re making a treat for your young nieces and nephews, then perhaps they’d most appreciate candy. If you’re making a treat for your single brother, then perhaps he’d appreciate a ready to go soup and biscuits, with just "add water" instructions attached.

Your second step will be to prepare a plan. What are you going to make and who are you going to make it for?

You’ll want to make a detailed plan that also includes when you’re going to make your gifts. Take care to keep your gifts in mind.

For example, if you’re baking bread for family and friends, you’ll want to make it close to the day you’re actually giving it to them. Hold onto it too long and you’ll be giving them stale bread.

Next, you’ll create your shopping list. In addition to writing down all the ingredients for your recipes, you’ll also want to shop for the packaging.

How are you going to package and wrap your treats? Will the packaging be part of the gift?

For example, if you’re baking homemade bread will you also give your recipient a bread pan or will you deliver it on a disposable plate?

If you’re making edible treats that your recipient can assemble themselves, you might want to purchase nice jars or containers for the ingredients.

For example, if you’re giving someone oatmeal cookies, you might layer all the ingredients in a large mason jar.

Tie a ribbon around the outside and then attach the mixing directions to the ribbon. They may have to add an egg and water but the rest is done for them.

Packaging can play an important role in your homemade gifts.

Have fun making your homemade edible treats. Set aside a day or a weekend from the process and really enjoy yourself.

Your passion, joy, and enthusiasm will show in your results.

Online and Traditional Christmas Cards

Online and Traditional Christmas Cards

Christmas Traditions

What are Christmas cards?

Of course, they are greeting cards that could be given to people you care about most during the Yuletide season. These Christmas cards are not difficult to come by at the local book and stationery stores. Local book and stationery stores are your source for greeting cards for all seasons—including Christmas cards. Different kinds of pre-designed, attractive Christmas cards with Christmas poetry, even, can be bought in the many books and stationery stores that litter the town or city you live in. It’s easy to take your pick from them for your loved ones. But did you know that online, these cards are also being offered for free by some sites?

Yes, we call them the virtual cards. Now you can send greetings for all seasons and events or special occasions all over the world through the internet!

However, which of the two has more meaning?

Before we answer that question, let us look at the benefits and/or advantages and disadvantages of using the traditional cards and the free online greeting cards.

Traditional greeting cards:

Traditional greeting cards can easily be obtained…from the book and stationery stores. All you need to do is walk towards the nearest store and find the perfect card among the many offered by the store and your favorite stationery company.

Traditional greeting cards can easily be handed to the people whom they are for. Because they are ‘on hand,’ it is easy to give them to those who they are intended for. They can even keep the card in their collection of letters from friends and family and look back on it when they become older!

One great disadvantage of using the traditional greeting cards is that snail mail takes so long for the card to reach their recipients. Snail mail indeed takes so long so perhaps, if you’re in the United Kingdom (UK) and you intend to send a greeting card to someone on the opposite side of the world, say, for example, Indonesia, you would have to send it a month or two early so that it would reach the recipient on the day or before the day of the special occasion.

Online greeting cards:

One great advantage of using online greeting cards is that it reaches the recipient quicker than snail mail does.

Many people opt to make use the free online greeting cards because they reach the recipient of the cards faster as opposed to snail mailing a tangible greeting card. Although they cannot really print out and keep the card and would not have the luxury of seeing the handwriting of the sender on the card, free online greeting cards convey as much meaning as the tangible ones.

During the Christmas season, Christmas cards are saleable and a favorite among the many gift buyers. It can speak much more than a gift that can actually answer what the recipient truly wants—on the material side of Christmas. Christmas cards are so meaningful, especially the tangible ones, that people tend to keep them in their treasure trove of a letter so they could read them in the nearing future.

Christmas Fun Activities for All the Family | New Family Christmas Traditions

Christmas Fun Activities for All the Family | New Family Christmas Traditions

Christmas Traditions

Have a great time with the kids while they're on vacation

Most children get two to three weeks off for Christmas vacation. Just think of all the fun activities that you can do with your children during this time.

What better way to bond with your children than doing Christmas activities.

One activity that you will definitely want to do with your children is making cookies. Making and decorating cookies is always a good choice for a Christmas activity.

Not only can they decorate the cookies but you can also let them decorate the plates they go on.

Once the cookies are made lay them around nicely on the plate and let your child wrap them in cellophane or plastic wrap and put ribbons and bows on it. Let your children make a plate of cookies to give to one or more of their friends.

lalymom.com

Another good activity to do with your children is to have them pick out a gift for a less fortunate child. You could take your child to a shelter and let them give a gift to one of the children who otherwise would not receive a gift.

You may choose to take your children to a homeless shelter and serve meals on Christmas Day to let them feel the joy of giving. Whatever you decide to do, it is always a good idea to do something with your child to teach them that the true meaning of Christmas is to share with others.

Another good activity to do with your kids is let them make their own homemade greeting cards to give to all their friends. But together some colored papers, markers, photos of your child and other fun things to trim the cards with.

Let your child use their imagination to make special cards for their friends, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Your kids will absolutely love this activity.

Fun Activities for Christmas

Fun Activities for Christmas

Christmas Traditions

A fun thing to do on Christmas would be playing Christmas music and have a singing talent show. Get three people to volunteer as judges. Let everyone take a turn singing a song and then let the judges give them a score from 1 to 10.

You could also have two different groups, one group of children where the adults would be the judges and then let the adults sing and the children would be the judges. The winner gets to take home the music CD.

lalymom.com

Another fun activity is to sit around in a circle and have everyone compare their best gift ever and then their worst gift ever. Just be sure the person you got the worst are from isn't sitting in the circle.

You could also compare the best handmade or most interesting present you've ever got. Once everybody has shared their stories it's time for dessert.

Make a batch of sugar cookies a couple of days before Christmas and cut out Christmas shapes. On Christmas day bring out three or four different colors of icing in different sprinkles and small candies.

Let all the kids make a few cookies each. Tell them to be as creative as possible and make some silly and some fancy.

When you are unwrapping the gifts be sure to save all the paper. Have fun with the kids (and the adults if they want to) by sitting around the table.

Now have some kid safe scissors, tape, ribbon and a few small Christmas ornaments on the table. Have each kid take the paper and accessories and design a hat.

Let them make any design they want, then be sure to get pictures of everybody with their hats on separately and together as a group. What a great addition to your Christmas scrapbook.

Family Gift Exchange

If your family is growing and you have now have got too many members counting grandchildren, nieces, nephews, your own children and your parents, you may want to consider doing a gift exchange.

The way to do this is put everybody's name into a hat, and then have each person draw one name that they will buy a gift for. You will want to put a price limit on it on the gift so that everybody knows not too go over.

Now when you have your family gathering for Christmas, everyone can pass out their gifts and be sure that everyone gets one.

Another fun thing to do is have a white elephant gift. This is where everybody buys a gift and then number all the gifts.

Next each person picks a number out of the box and that is the gift they get. Now everyone opens their gifts.

Now the person that had number one can look around the room at everybody's gifts and if they want somebody else's gift instead of the one they got, they can change it by taking someone else’s and giving them there gift.

Next continue this with each person until everyone has had a chance to steal a least one gift. Now just to make it even more fun, go around the room one more time and let everyone have another turn.

This can be a lot of fun as you may steal a gift you want and then somebody can come and steal it from you. Maybe on your second turn around you might be able to get it back.

Another fun game with gifts would be to buy a $1-$2 gift for each person in the family and then let each member go through and shake and feel the gifts and see if they can guess what it is. The first one you guess right is the one you can keep.

You will need to number these and write a list of what is in each one so you will know when someone gets it right.

LED Christmas Lights Have Come a Long Way!

LED Christmas Lights Have Come a Long Way!

Christmas Decoration

You can now get LED Christmas lights among the many modern and safe alternative choices.

Christmas lights now come in so many kinds of LED Christmas lights, rope lights, battery operated Christmas lights and other stylish and safe tree light and outdoor Christmas lights decorations - compare and save here!

No matter what type of Christmas lights you enjoy putting up, your choices are no longer the same as they used to be.

Now you have a wider selection to choose from, better value and the kind of lights that give your home a soft, romantic holiday glow or ones that can light up the night and make your home a masterpiece in electricity.

There are bulbs in an array of colors, many different watts and various sizes and shapes. You can spend a little bit of money on lights or you can spend a lot.

Knowing which kind of LED Christmas lights to choose from depends on the size of your home, and how much ground you’d like to cover.

If you don’t know what kinds of lights to get, you run the risk of buying the wrong lights and then having to take or send them back. One of the choices you have in Christmas lights is the LED lights.

The initials LED stand for light emitting diode. These lights don’t take as much power to use and you can get a wider angle of light. These kinds of lights offer longer use (thousands of hours) and you can use them to decorate inside your home or outside in the yard.

They’re a very safe type of bulb because they don’t get hot to the fingertips unlike regular lights, which can sometimes be a fire hazard.

With LED Christmas lights, you don’t have to worry if your tree dries out like you do with regular lights.

They are a little more expensive than the run of the mill Christmas lights, but your family’s safety is worth the cost.

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

Christmas Cake

If you are looking out to find the Best Christmas Recipes for your family, friends or Christmas party, then you have come to the right place. All we do is delivering you informative path to end your search on this.

What makes the best Christmas recipe? Actually, I feel that our everyday meal recipe can also be eaten during Christmas. But what distinguish the Best Christmas Recipe from everyday life recipes is that the best Christmas recipes are made specifically for Christmas and for those that are going to eat them, to enjoy the merriment of Christmas while taking it.

Today, I have got another recipe for you and I am sure you will like it. Your children and family will love it! I can bet that. Here we go:

By: Laurie Bennett

“This is a great old Maine recipe, moist and spicy. The Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread actually tastes even better the day after it is baked. Great for holiday gift giving!”

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7×3 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.