Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets Blog

Do you love sending out beautiful Christmas letters each year? Maybe you enclose them in your Christmas cookies or Christmas popcorn tins. Many people add them to their Christmas cards every year. Does your list get longer and longer and it seems you can’t find anything new to write inside? If you’re struggling to find something meaningful to write inside your Christmas card, why not borrow some words from days of old? Many quotes centering on Christmas can easily be found online.

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

Have you ever noticed how those lovely family holidays tend to make us crazy? We let stress carry away any joy we get from being with our loved ones, and if children are among your guests, you will find anxiety amplified. The good news, though, is that you can have a stress-free (or certainly less stress) Thanksgiving meal by taking a few easy steps before you even put the turkey in the oven.

Planning, planning, planning. Being prepared reduces anxiety levels enormously; it is when we are frazzled, harried, hurried, or torn in eight directions at once that stress overtakes us. To keep this from happening, sit down well in advance of Thanksgiving and plan your guest list and menu. If you tend to become easily stressed (and who doesn't around the holidays?), you may want to think about paring down your guest list.

If this isn't a possibility, it's time to delegate and plan your dishes accordingly. Instead of laboriously making portobello mushrooms stuffed with pine nuts and goat cheese, make a big pot of creamy garlic mashed potatoes. Guests will still love them, and you can make a large quantity easily. You don't have to write your menu from a gourmet, haute cuisine restaurant; simple favorites will do just fine. Better yet, have guests bring side dishes. You can be in charge of the turkey or ham, and your guests can bring the side dishes, appetizers, and desserts. Delegate; your local guests will be more than happy to bring food. And if you have to, buy a pumpkin pie instead of making one. It'll be fine.

Enlist family or a close friend to help you clean the day before your Thanksgiving feast. Children can pick up toys, straighten out rooms, and maybe even man the vacuum. This will leave you free to cook and perhaps even enjoy your guests on Thanksgiving. This is a great time to delegate as well: just because your great-grandmother single handedly cooked Thanksgiving differ for 25 people while making crafts and warming apple cider for everyone doesn't mean you have to. Get your spouse, children, and friends to help you prepare foods and get your house ready for guests. If they're eating with you, they can very well help out! And they will probably be very happy to do so. And if not, you can bribe them with pre-Thanksgiving treats.

Preparing the meal is not stressful when you're at home with the leisure to do it yourself. But when guests start arriving and your aunt starts looking over your shoulder and giving you tips about your gravy, this is when it starts to get a little too warm in the kitchen. To avoid some of this stress, give your aunt – and anyone else who is dishing out advice – jobs. People can peel, chop, grate, slice, or wash to help you out. Every chef needs prep cooks, so don't be afraid to delegate tasks.

If there are guests who you know will be more hindrance than help in the kitchen, create other jobs for them. Maybe someone can help the kids make crafts or read them books to keep them out of the kitchen. Maybe you can set up some board games or put on the game in the living room. Maybe you could send people out to gather leaves and acorns for a centerpiece or let them paint gourds. They'll feel helpful and they will not be underfoot. Let others know that they should relax, have a drink, read, watch television, or visit with other guests without feeling obligated to do anything. If all else fails, set a tray of holiday chocolates in another room and run for the kitchen.

If you have children at your gathering, give them a break. They pick up on the excited or stressed atmosphere and act accordingly. If they cannot sit through an entire adult meal, set a kids' table. Let them get up before the adults and go watch a movie or set up a game in the living room for them. Don't be too rigid about rules today – letting it slide will help alleviate a lot of stress, and life can go back to normal tomorrow.

Most of all, give yourself a break. Remind yourself that you are thankful for all of these people in your home and for the food which you are preparing. One step at a time; you will get there, people will eat, and Thanksgiving will be a success.

America’s best loved parade, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, is now a historical icon of American culture. Most people cannot imagine Thanksgiving Day without it. It’s easily recognized as the official kickoff to the holiday season. Americans young and old eagerly await the parade that brings larger than life helium balloons, Santa, and millions of audience members to the streets of New York.

How did this tradition get started? In 1924, Macy’s was already a leading department store in Manhattan. As a way for its immigrant workers to celebrate their new American culture, Macy’s organized the first parade that year. It was originally called the Macy’s Christmas Parade until its name was changed officially to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It is so well-known now that people often refer to it as the Macy’s Day Parade.

That first year there were no oversized balloons marching down the sidewalks. Instead, live animals were borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. For various reasons, including the safety issues of parading live animals, the parade began to feature balloons in 1927. Goodyear Rubber and Tire made the balloons, the first of which was Felix the Cat. Balloons are inflated the night before the parade outside of the Museum of Natural History, and the public is invited to watch.

The parade started at 145^th Street in Harlem and marched its way to the Macy’s building at 34^th Street. In 2009, the parade route was changed to eliminate Broadway, where it has marched every year, so that more viewers can see the parade. Millions line the streets to watch as floats adorned with roses and manned by celebrities and animated characters march past them. Each year bands compete to be awarded the honor of marching in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Professional athletes, starlets, Broadway stars, and ordinary people march in the parade, many of them Macy’s employees.

At the end of every parade since the first, the parade ends with a big wave from Santa.

The parade became a permanent fixture in American history after it was featured in the 1947 film Miracle on 34^th Street. Actual footage of the 1946 parade was made a part of the film which forever immortalized the festivities.

The parade has run every year since 1924 except from 1942-1944 when the parade was canceled due to WWII. The rubber and helium necessary for the balloons was needed for the war effort. The parade was back on again for 1945. In 2006, parade organizers, noting a world-wide shortage of helium, proposed excluding the balloons from the parade, but public outcry got the balloons back up again. From that point, fewer balloons have been a part of the parade.

Since 2002, the balloons and floats have made their way to Orlando, Florida after the parade where they are marched down the streets of Universal Orlando Resort. Guests are given the opportunity to be balloon handlers for a day.

Each year a different character is featured in balloon form as an older one is retired. Broadway shows are also featured complete with the stars and performers from the production.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a piece of Americana recognized and cherished by more people than any other parade.

Now that the digital age is upon us, most people have become shutterbugs. It’s so much fun to click and share your photos right away. If you’ve just purchased or received a digital camera or you want to know how to get professional-looking holiday photographs this season, read on.

Family photo greeting cards make great inexpensive holiday gifts. 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 christmas gift boxes 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 unposed, 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.

Halloween is a night kids look forward to all year. It’s fun for them to dress up as someone else and head out into the night in search of yummy delicious holiday chocolates. Since it gets dark so early in the Fall, children Trick or Treat in the dark. Keep some safety tips in mind so that everyone makes it home safely.

• Never let small children out to Trick or Treat alone. Even if they know the neighborhood, it’s not a good idea to send them without supervision. Not only are the decorations spooky for youngsters but with people out in costume it may be hard for your child to recognize stranger danger.

• All costumes should be checked for visibility. If you’ve dressed your little one as a ghost and they can’t see out of the eyeholes or might trip on fabric, it’s best to alter the costume so it’s shorter and easier to see out of. Same goes for store bought masks. Often they look ideal on the outside, but inside your child can’t see well enough to walk or their breathing may be impaired. Double check before purchasing anything that will cover a child’s head.

• All halloween candy that Trick or Treaters collect should be thoroughly checked by an adult before any child touches it. Pranksters have been known to tamper with candy and children have gotten poisoned or worse. The urban legend of the razor blade in the apple is a word to the wise.

• Not every neighbor is friendly. Teach your children to avoid any houses that are dark or that are unfamiliar to them. Instruct them never to enter anyone’s house, especially when they don’t know the people. They may get so excited about going in for free candy that they forget your warning. Another good reason for you to stay closely by their sides.

• Cars are a hazard on Halloween night. Children often head out for Trick or Treating right about the time people are driving home from work. A tired or distracted driver may not expect a child to be walking down the road in the dark and may not see them until it’s too late. Have your child wear reflective clothing and carry a flashlight. Make sure they stay on the sidewalks and never cross the street alone or when a car is coming.

• Older siblings may offer to take younger ones out on the big night. Depending on your level of comfort and your neighborhood, you might consider driving them or walking along. While an older sibling will often be a perfectly fine babysitter at home he could get distracted by a fancy light show at one house or a ghoulish display at another. One distracted moment and your younger child could get lost or worse. On this one night you may want to insist that you chaperone.

• Check your child’s costume not only for warmth if you live in a colder climate but also for mobility. That dog suit may seem fine in the house when your child tries it on, but out in the 40 degree night, your child may end up miserable and shivering. When in doubt, add layers under the costume so you can still see the costume but your child will stay warm. Also, have your child test walking outside in his costume. It’s one thing to try a costume on in a store aisle and another to have to walk in it in the dark. Any clunky shoe covers (paws) or oversized gag shoes (clown) will have to be monitored.

• You want your child to have a good time, but Halloween often brings out the zanier people. Don’t cave in if your child insists you’re being overprotective and unfair by coming with them. If they’re whining about you being there, they’re not mature enough to be out on their own at night.