Here are a few to get you started:

From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another

The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other.

Emily Matthews

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.

Mary Ellen Chase

Good news from heaven the angels bring,

Glad tidings to the earth they sing:

To us this day a child is given,

To crown us with the joy of heaven.

Martin Luther

Love came down at Christmas;

Love all lovely, love divine;

Love was born at Christmas,

Stars and angels gave the sign.

Christina Rossetti

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Norman Vincent Peale

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on Earth, good will to men!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Heap on the wood!

The wind is chill;

But let it whistle as it will,

We'll keep our Christmas merry still.

Sir Walter Scott

Christmas hath a darkness;

Brighter than the blazing noon;

Christmas hath a chillness

Warmer than the heat of June,

Christmas hath a beauty

Lovelier than the world can show:

For Christmas bringeth Jesus,

Brought for us so low

Christina Rosetti

If it’s a Christmas letter you are looking to write, you can make it personal and festive with just a few simple tips. Write it once and print it from your printer to include inside or in place of a Christmas card and you’ll save yourself lots of time.

• Select a festive paper that you can use in your printer. Be sure it has enough room for your words and that your words will be legible against the background. There are so many fun papers that have holiday themes. You can find them at office supply stores.
• Write generically enough so that your letter can be sent to everyone on your list. A great way to start is, “This year at the Robertson’s…” Then you can fill in details of what your family did this year.
• Add lots of pictures. You can do this right in Word on your computer. Just select “Insert Photo” and you can upload photos that are already on your computer into your letter. Don’t forget, people who haven’t seen your children in a while will love to see how they’ve grown.
• Try to make it personal so it really gives a feel of what the family did all year. Did you get a new pet? Volunteer at a shelter? Run a road race? Include it all.
• Finish up with good wishes for the recipients. Something like, “We think of you often throughout the year and consider you among our greatest blessings. We wish you a year filled with joy, happiness and peace. Love, The Robinsons”
• After you print out copies of your letter, place them in a business envelope or tuck them inside your Christmas cards and mail.

Related Articles:

1. Discount Christmas Photo Cards
2. Christmas Cookie Exchange Tips
3. Family Christmas Traditions

Maple Ridge Farms is one of the best gift food companies in the world; founded in 1979, they have built an incredible reputation for quality and excellence. They guarantee “that every gift is one that you will be proud to give (and would be happy to receive).” Maple Ridge specializes in corporate and business gifts, so not only are their products exceptional, they handle the details – ordering, processing, and shipping – very quickly and efficiently. This allows you to choose your gift and let Maple Ridge take care of the rest with confidence.

Because Maple Ridge Farms deals exclusively in corporate and business gifts, there is a wide variety of products that will be appropriate for every occasion, from a promotion to a holiday. Some of their most popular items include:

Gift Towers. Gourmet gift towers make excellent centerpieces for office parties or gifts for employees, associates, and customers. The Ultimate Office Party Tower, for instance, features 23 wonderful gourmet treats, including: Ghirardelli Squares, honey roasted cashews, Starbucks Coffee, seasoned pretzels, English butter toffee, gourmet chocolate mints, dark chocolate almonds, five-alarm spicy peanuts, cashews au chocolate, praline pecans, chocolate covered raisins, milk chocolate almonds, chocolate mint melt-aways, peppermint bark, extra fancy jumbo cashews, pecan turtles, keylime snaps, chocolate truffles, cranberry delight, Bremmer wafers, private stock pepper cheese, beef summer sausage, and almost pecan honey corn.

These premium gifts have something for everyone to enjoy.

Gourmet Gift Baskets. These are classic gifts, and like the gourmet towers, they come with a wide variety of wonderful treats. The Deluxe Epicurean Feast, for instance, contains treats from Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Squares and popcorn on the cob to Cabernet Sauvignon cheese and Alaskan smoked salmon. These come in different containers, such as reusable tubs and woven baskets. You can choose savory treats, like the salmon and cheese, or sweet treats, like gourmet brownies and cookies.

Cheese and Sausage Gifts. These are perfect for individuals or as part of an office party. Again, a wide variety is available. The Smorgasbord, for instance, features half pound blocks of medium and mild cheddar, butcher-wrapped five ounce sticks of beef summer sausage, cashews, gourmet mints, and Bremner wafers.

Baked Goods Gifts. These are also perfect for individuals or as part of an office arrangement. The Home-Style Cookie and Brownie Basket offers a wonderful array of mouth-watering treats, such as chocolate chunk, white chocolate macadamia, apple cinnamon, snickerdoodles, double chocolate, white chocolate raspberry, chocolate pecan, and chocolate butterscotch coconut brownies. Even those without a sweet tooth can’t resist this tempting package.

Maple Ridge Farms also provides desk gifts, such as coasters and photo frames, and smoked gifts, such as spiral cut hams or applewood smoked turkeys. Any time of year, any occasion, and any recipient calls for a gift from Maple Ridge Farms. You can order their products through Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets.

If you’re cutting down your own tree, be prepared that it’s not as easy as it looks. Don’t go for the most monstrous tree on the farm. Choose a relatively small tree with a thin trunk. You won’t want to spend hours out there hacking away with a saw at an enormous tree. Go smaller, get done faster, and go home with enough energy to actually decorate the tree.

Choose a tree that has lots of branches. If it’s sparse, you’ll end up with a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. When those few needles fall off you’ll have just bare branches left to decorate. Go for one with full boughs that look lush. Make sure there’s not a bald side. Check all around the tree to make sure all sides are presentable. Don’t buy a tree that has brown needles. This means it’s been sitting cut too long without any water and will surely be brittle and dropping needles.

Go for a tree with healthy looking branches and plenty of them. Go for a tree that has a ball base wrapped in burlap. This sort of tree is meant to be planted after the Christmas season. That way you’re not throwing out a perfectly good tree and are instead adding to the beauty of the landscape. If you can’t find a balled tree, go for a cut tree but plan on recycling it. Most cities now have a Christmas tree collection day when you can put your live tree on the curb and it will be picked up and recycled into mulch. At least that way it’s not going into a landfill.

Plan for a way to get your tree home. The top of your car is the fail safe choice. Just be sure to bring rope as often the tree farm won’t supply it. Once it’s home, get it into a bucket of water or a tree stand that has a well in the base for water. The sooner you get it watered, the fresher it will stay.

Water your tree every day. Some people don’t even know you have to water a live cut tree. They figure it’s going to die anyway, but you really do have to water it if you don’t want the needles to fall off in batches. It doesn’t make for a good looking tree and the needles can be a pain to clean up.

If you have certain pets, like mischievous cats or a rambunctious puppy, you’ll want to make sure your tree is well secured. You can anchor it with the tree base but you might even want to rope it to a wall if it’s very large. Keep in mind that some animals will eat pine needles and that’s not the best thing for them. Keep your tree gated off from animals and babies so that everyone stays safe.

Now it's time to bake the Holiday cookies and wait for the presents to be put under your beautiful Christmas tree.

Gather some felt, fabric markers, white school glue, glitter, scissors and any iron on decorations or letters you’d like to use.

Using a template you will make out of a brown paper bag or craft paper, you will cut out your stocking. Trace around a store-bought stocking to make the outline, or do it freehand. You’ll want your stocking to be a bit oversized so you can get lots of presents into it.

Cut out two pieces of felt--one for the front and one for the back of the stocking. Using the glue, make a line all along the edges of the back piece of the stocking. Remember to leave the top glue-free so you can stuff your presents inside. Stick the front side of the stocking to the back side. This can either be done with white school glue or with a hot glue gun. The hot glue will adhere faster, but there’s no reason you can’t get great results with the white glue.

This part is fun for kids to help with. Decorate the front of the stocking by writing someone’s name up top with fabric markers. If you have the kind that puff up into 3D when they dry, that’s great. Now, add any iron on appliques or decorations you’d like. You can find Christmas iron-ons at a craft store. Simply peel off the backing and use a hot iron to adhere them to the stocking. Make a loop out of extra felt. Glue it into the top of the stocking so you can hang it on a nail or stocking hook.

If you’d like, you can run a line of glue anywhere on the stocking to make a design. Then sprinkle glitter on it and shake off the excess. When it dries it will look great.

Get creative with what you use. Use small reindeer or Santa figurines or ornaments. Just glue them on. Hot glue works best if you are gluing anything heavy, as it will set right away. You can also glue on gems and jewels from the craft store.

There is also another way to make a Christmas stocking. You can find a great needlepoint or cross stitch kit either online by typing in “Christmas stocking kit” or at a favorite knitting or craft shop. These kits come with everything you need, including easy directions, for stitching up a lovely Christmas stocking. Start early on these, especially if you’re a first-time needlepointer. They do take a fair amount of time to complete but they are worth it.

Try your hand at miniature stockings you can give to friends or hang on the tree as well. You can let the kids help design stockings out of fleece, canvas, cotton or any other fabric you have on hand. And don’t forget to make one for the family cat and dog!

Here’s a list of 10 stocking stuffer ideas you can use if you get stumped for ideas this year.

1. Candy Coal: Know someone who’s been naughty this year? Give them a few lumps of coal of the candy variety. You can usually find it in stores at holiday time and you can certainly order it online from candy stores.
2. Mini Shampoos and Conditioners: Raid the travel aisle in the discount store for miniature versions of hair care products. They’re fun to get and make great companions for those who travel a lot.
3. Handheld Games: Every toy store has a few handheld games that cost no more than a few dollars. Find games like pinball and soccer that come in small versions that don’t require batteries. In fact, while you’re out at the store, visit the dollar store and score some fun kiddie games that will keep everyone laughing and occupied on Christmas Day.
4. Sweet treats: Everyone loves a good candy cane. Now they come in every flavor and color imaginable, so you don’t have to limit yourself to white and red peppermint. You can also include a few gourmet candies like Lindt or Godiva.
5. Socks: For some reason, socks bring a smile to people’s faces when they see them in their stocking. Go for wacky colorful ones like the type with 10 individual toe compartments for a real giggle fest.
6. Mittens: Kids lose their mittens just about as fast as the Three Little Kittens did. Give them a few extra pairs of the universal, stretchy kind that only cost a dollar so you won’t be as heartbroken when they disappear.
7. Pens and School Supplies: Round about halfway through the school year, in December, kids find they have worn down their crayons, lost their pens and broken the erasers off all their presents. Why not restock their pencil boxes with new supplies?
8. Snacks: Take-along snacks like individual pouches of goldfish crackers, cheese and crackers, pretzels or cookies make a nice addition to the stocking. Kids can then slip them into their lunch bags when they return to school.
9. Tickets: If you want to really wow someone, give them tickets to a show or event they’ve been wanting to see. They’ll never guess that they’re hiding inside their stocking. You can either buy the tickets or give them a coupon you make that says they can buy tickets to the show on the date they want to attend.
10. Gift Certificates: They are the perfect size for slipping into a stocking. The gift certificate has a great smile factor as it allows the recipient to buy what they really want. Go for a music store or mp3 site like iTunes.com, or a favorite mall store. Gift certificates to coffee shops are also welcome as those drinks tend to add up when you go there every day. Other great gift certificates are to restaurants and theaters. Older recipients really enjoy getting a gift that allows them to take a special outing.

If you’re planning on taking a holiday Christmas card photo of the kids this year, plan early. Yes, you’ll have to buy their Christmas outfits ahead of time, but it will be worth it. No later than November, have your children dress in their holiday finery. Make sure you choose a time for your photo shoot that works for small children. If it’s just before nap time, you’re not going to get the best shots. Pick a time, like after lunch, when everyone’s happy and content.

Set up an area for your shot that’s got great lighting. It may be natural light or artificial. Just make sure there are no shadows or dark places that will obscure the little one’s face. Pick some holiday props. Even if your living room looks like a hurricane came through it, clear an area of all but a chair or bench and some lovely holiday props like a wreath, holiday gifts or holiday stuffed toys or blanket. Depending on the number of children to be photographed and their age, you’ll want to have everything set up before you call them over. Take a few test shots to see if the area you’ve prepared looks good in the frame. Use your digital camera’s playback feature to see the shots after you’ve taken them.

Now, bring over the kids. You can also take a family photo if your camera has a self timer. Just set the camera on a piece of furniture or a tripod and click and run so you can get in the photo.

Set everyone up so that all faces can be seen and there are no distractions in the frame. Even the smallest thing can ruin a great photo. Make sure all collars are in the right place, all ruffles and fringe are flat and in place. All faces clean? Then you’re ready to roll.

Shoot a photo and look at it right away. Do the colors work? Is everyone smiling? Is the photo centered? Modern photo programs like Picasa (which you can download for free) will allow you to crop and edit, so you don’t have to go crazy trying to get it absolutely perfect. But no program will fix a photo that’s fuzzy or blurred.

Take another few frames and review. Are the expressions realistic? A phony looking card is worse than none at all. If you’ve got a whole family in the frame, be sure to check each person to make sure their eyes weren’t closed. Red eye can be taken out in a photo program so don’t worry so much about that.

If you’ve got small children or pets that are supposed to be in the picture, let them rest between takes. Chances are you’ll get a better photo if you are spontaneous. So have one person place Fido or Baby in their place as you quickly get several shots in a row. You may find that an un-posed, off the cuff shot is better than anything you could have set up.

Have fun with holiday photo taking this year. Use the same suggestions when taking candids around the holiday table or at parties. Check to see what’s in the background before you shoot. Make sure the lighting is right. Turn off the flash if there’s an overload of light in the photo. Center your subject. Zoom in at concerts as close as you can to your child so you can get a good shot of their face. The audience shots of the entire group are often not as personal as a close up of the individuals.

With these simple guidelines, your holiday photos will turn out professional every time.

If you choose to make your invitations yourself, gather up the necessary supplies. You’ll need rubber stamps, ink, glitter, good card stock, envelopes, and markers or pens. Choose a rubber stamp with a holiday theme. Do a stocking and then cut out the shape so your whole invitation is the shape of a stocking. Or stamp out a Christmas tree and then decorate it with glitter and tiny ornaments made of foil or fancy papers. The fun of the handmade invitation is that you can design any shape and size you like. You might do a snowman cutout and then layer in glue and dust with white glitter. Add facial details with markers. Visit a craft store or look through holiday magazines for ideas on how to personalize invitations to suit your theme.

If you want an even easier way to design fun holiday invitations, try a site like vistaprint.com. There, you can design your own cards either using their templates or you can upload your own design. Add photos of your kids, your pets, or even upload your holiday card from last year to use as an invitation this year. The process is so easy. Log on and start designing. Once you have chosen your holiday design—and there are dozens to choose from—just add your wording. You can write a little rhyming verse to invite everyone over, or just list the date and time in fancy script. You might ask everyone to bring something like canned food to donate to a food bank or an ornament for an ornament swap.

The invitation is the perfect place to include something special that’s more than just paper and ink. Why not put a piece of mistletoe in an envelope with a little card tied to it with your invite information? Or deliver an evergreen branch to your friends in person with the details tied onto it. There is no limit to the ways you can use ordinary objects from the holiday season to send out your invitation.

Another fun idea is to purchase inexpensive clear glass ornaments from a craft store. Fill them with something festive like red and green candies or potpourri and then write your party details with permanent marker on each one. Tie up with a pretty silk ribbon and deliver by hand. The thrill of seeing your invitations come in person will give everyone a taste of how special your party is going to be.

If you’re going to be caroling at the party, why not print your invitation on the back of a musical score? Photo copy the words and music to a song you’ll be singing and include your invite on the back in pretty colored paper. Tie it all up in a ribbon and mail in a tube.

For a fun and yummy treat, how about cookie invitations? You can decorate cookies with your invitation details. Once the cookies have had time to set, put one per small box and tie up with a ribbon. Label and you can send these through the mail. Or, of course you can hand deliver your holiday treat.

Create a theme for your party early on so you can carry it through in your invitation. This will be the first thing people will see and it will set the tone for your party. If you’re having a snowman themed fete, send a small snowman ornament in a box along with your details. Or if you’re having theme is red cardinals, send a red cardinal pin or suncatcher as your invitation. With indelible pens, you can write on just about any surface and make the most amazing invitations.

Photos

You can use digital photos of family and pets to make really cute ornaments. Experiment with online software such as Picassa, which is free, to retouch your photos. After you’ve got your photos just right, print them out. Or you can use traditional photos printed from film in the same way. For an easy craft that children can do, craft ornaments from felt shapes. Cut out trees, bells, birds, holly or any other Christmas shape from felt in colors like green, red and gold. Using regular school glue, glue a photo on each shape. Punch a hole through the top and string yarn through the hole. You can also laminate photos and hang them on string or add glitter to the edges of photos and glue them on dominoes and hang them from the tree. There is no end to the ways you can turn photos into lovely ornaments. Use your imagination and get started creating memories.

Clear Glass or Plastic Balls

Every craft store carries some form of glass or plastic clear ornaments. These are perfect for filling with special items. The hooks are included, so all you have to do is fill and hang. One idea is to fill with glitter, confetti in fun Christmas shapes, photos of the kids or pets, potpourri, or sequins. The fun of these ornaments is that you can fill them with just about anything. If you live on the coast and have family that lives in the Midwest, filling an ornament with sand and shells is a fun surprise. Have children draw or write on the outside with permanent marker and don’t forget to add the year.

Cookie Ornaments

You can bake sugar cookies like you normally would, decorate them with colorful icing and then hang them from the tree. Be sure to poke a hole in each cookie before it’s baked as you can’t add the hole later without the cookie crumbling. Another way to make ornaments that will last (unlike cookies which will last only the one season) is to make a home made play dough. The dough can be made easily using a few ingredients you probably already have in the pantry. You use the same method you would for cookies, only there is no baking. The dough will air dry. Use shellac from a craft store to protect the ornaments and make them shiny.

Homemade Dough for Ornaments

Ingredients:

1 cup cold water

1 cup salt

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Tempera paint or food coloring

3 cups flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms. Roll out and cut with cookie cutters. Poke a hole with a pencil through the top of the ornaments. Allow to dry and run a string through the hole and place on the tree.

The more food coloring or paint you add to the dough, the darker your colors will be. Section off small batches of dough before you add the color so you’ll have more than one color to work with.

Use embellishments such as glitter, sequins, yarn, and fabric to decorate your dough ornaments. Add google eyes. You can even paint on top of the dough and make them as bright as you like.

What do you do with the mountain of Christmas cards you receive every year? They’re too lovely to throw out, and it just seems so wasteful not to reuse them somehow. Before you toss them in the trash, take a look at these ideas for reusing your cards.

1. Make Gift Tags: Because Christmas cards are usually printed on lovely card stock with pretty designs, they make ideal gift tags. You can cut out a portion and use it as a gift tag on a holiday present you are giving. Make a whole pile of gift tags at once by cutting just the best parts of images on each card you have. Then, when you need a tag, just pull one out and write the recipient’s name on it.
2. Make Christmas Ornaments: Use the images from your favorite cards to make festive ornaments. Cut out the images you like and glue them onto felt or card stock and hang from the tree. Try various backings from cork to wood. If you like the Holiday Card Star pictured here, you can make one of your own!  Instructions can be found at JennyHarada.com.
3. Use them in Crafting or Altered Art: One hot trend in crafting these days is altered art. This is simply decorating a page in a journal or an object with different images that you’ve cut out from various sources. Add Christmas card images to your collages.
4. Make Magnets: Cut out images and glue magnets to the back. Hang on the fridge. You can find craft magnets at the crafting store.
5. Make a Decorative Plate: Using any clear glass plate and some images from cards you can make a charming display item. Simply glue images to the back of the plate with the design facing out. Use mod podge or other medium that will dry clear. These plates are perfect for hanging as decorations, but should not be used for food. They are not washable once you’ve glued the backs with images.
6. Make another card: Who says you can’t reuse the whole front of a card? Just cut off the portion that has writing on it and glue it to another piece of pretty paper. Add ribbon and other embellishments so your card looks finished and well thought out.
7. Let the kids rip them: What fun it is for kids if you tell them it’s ok to rip up certain cards! Let them reuse the pieces to make puzzles or to decorate a paper wreath. There are hundreds of uses for little paper scraps. Let a child’s imagination run wild and you will be surprised at just how creative they can be. Provide other supplies like glue sticks and construction paper, glitter, sequins and paint so they can really show off.
8. Make bookmarks: Take favorite images and glue them to heavy card stock. Punch a hole and then add a tassel or ribbon to the top and place in your favorite book. These make great extras to tuck into gifts or cards.
9. Recipe Cards: If you want to share your favorite Christmas recipes with family and friends, write your recipe on the back of a recycled Christmas card image.
10. Placemats: Cut out images and lay them down on clear contact paper. Or glue images down on paper and laminate the whole sheet. Office supply stores will do laminating for you by the piece.

Here are links to just a few of my favorite Christmas tree crafts:
Paper Christmas Tree - to create an adorable table top decoration
Pine Cone Christmas Tree - kids can spend hours finding pine cones in the yard to create these adorable ornaments (or you can buy pine cones at a craft store)
Little Christmas Tree Decoration - watch this video to learn how to make these cute little trees

Create this beautiful jewel-covered Christmas tree craft by drawing a Christmas tree on a piece of heavy white (or green) card stock.  Cut out the trees. Then glue green jewels around the edge of the tree to create a green tree outline.  If you can find brown jewels, you can use those to outline the trunk.  Use red jewels to create a zig-zag garland pattern and tree topper. Then, glue on any color of jewels that you like to make "ornaments" on the tree.  These beautiful jeweled creations can be glued on Christmas gift basketsto give them some pizazz or we often use them as gift hang tags by punching a small hole in them and tying on a small ribbon to attach them to the wrapped gift bag or Christmas gift box.