I ♥ CHRiS BR0WN asked:


Where can you order them?

Kevin Garland asked:




A favorite Christmas song has a line that describes Christmas as ‘the most wonderful time of the year.’ While giving and receiving gifts is something that is highly anticipated and remembered at Christmas time, there are also many more activities that make Christmas memorable and wonderful.

One of these activities is decorating the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree occupies a central spot and is the most visible display of Christmas in most homes. Unlike in other countries, most American homes do not have a representation of the Nativity scene, which is more likely to be located at churches.

As soon as the Christmas season begins on the day after Thanksgiving, families will begin their search for the perfect Christmas tree. This in itself can become a memorable activity as children may accompany family members to places like a Christmas tree farm to select a tree.

Once a real or artificial tree is selected, then it’s an exciting activity for the entire family to play a part in decorating the tree. Manufactured decorations come in many shapes and forms. But a special memory is created when family members make a special ornament for the Christmas tree, or contribute one or more keepsake items to decorate the Christmas tree. It then becomes a ritual each year for those particular items to be placed on the Christmas tree although other decorations may change in coming years.

Another activity that can help to create special memories at Christmas is baking cookies. Along with popular gingerbread cookies, using cookie cutters to make special holiday-shaped cookies is also practiced a lot in households. Based on the ages of children, they can help in the actual baking activity by measuring and mixing some ingredients, or, younger children can sprinkle sugar on the cookies or decorate them with icing when they are finished. Helping in this activity can also be educational as parents can use the activity of measuring and figuring out equivalent measures to teach fractions and other mathematical elements.

An activity that is related to food which also helps to create memories during the Christmas season is making fruit and goody baskets, which are filled with candies, baked items and other treats for loved ones, their special friends, neighbors, teachers or for charity. Items such as goody baskets make especially wonderful Christmas gifts because they are home-made. That quality often makes them more treasured than a Christmas present that is bought at the store.

Because Christmas is the season of goodwill and good cheer, it is very important to reach out to family, loved ones and friends during the season. The busy lives that many people lead today often leaves them little or no time during the year to be in frequent contact with family and friends who are located far away, or even others who live within a reasonable distance in the same or a neighboring state, for example.

It is therefore very common during Christmas to send a Christmas or holiday greeting card to those individuals. Along with the pleasant memory of receiving the card, there may be a short letter included that gives a brief account of any significant event in the individual’s life or with members of the family. That makes sending and receiving Christmas greeting cards more memorable.

Then there’s probably the most anticipated activity of Christmas – finding out what Christmas gift Santa brought on Christmas Eve. While adults also look forward with much anticipation to see what Christmas gifts they will get, it’s really the children who get the most delight from receiving presents at Christmas. The carefully planned actions to hide Christmas presents from children and then to magically place them under the Christmas tree to be found on Christmas morning is one of the most wonderful ways to create unforgettable memories for children at Christmas.

Michelle asked:


I saw this in a random catalog last year. I know there is a clear plastic sheet that goes in front of your house and some kind of projector, which makes it look like snow is falling.
I found it! Pretty cool.

http://www.smarthome.com/c0304.html

Tony B. Smith asked:




Buying the top Christmas presents can be difficult. They usually sell out early. And sometimes, you have to stand in long lines to get them. So, what I’m going to do is share with you a list of the top Christmas presents.

That way, you will know what the best gifts are and where to get them at the best price.

The top Christmas presents are:

1. Nintendo Wii. This is one of the best gifts this year. The Nintendo Wii should sell out really fast. This is a popular item. If you are buying a present for someone who wants a game this year, you should get them a Wii.

2. LCD HDTV. This is another great Christmas present. This is probably the best TV out right now. If the person you are buying a gift for likes to watch the games on Sunday or likes to watch movies, you should get them this gift.

3. iPod. This is one of the most popular items right now. Everyone likes to listen to music. Also, the cool thing about iPods is the fact that you can watch movies on it, listen to audio books, and store pictures on it. If you are getting a present for someone who wants an iPod, you should get it for them.

4. Amazon.com Gift Card. The Amazon.com gift card is a great gift. You can buy it from anywhere between $5 on up to $5,000. The card can be used to buy anything from Amazon.com. They sell everything from TVs, games, toys, music, movies, to cookware, clothing, books, and more.

Jason Lanier asked:




Black Friday is reported by news organizations all around the U.S. as one of the best days to get a great price on a car. Dealers all across the country slash prices on new and used vehicles as the excitement builds in the retail market for the big market boom leading up to Christmas. Frequently, these exciting prices at car dealerships start on Black Friday early morning, and lead through the weekend.

If you have bad credit, you may feel like you’re left in the dark on Black Friday.

With a low credit score, you need to be able to get approved and get approved quick! There’s no time to wait as the sales won’t last long.

So what is the fastest and most convenient way of getting approved for a car loan to take advantage of these car deals? You can probably guess, online.

Online auto loans offer the most convenient and fastest way of securing an approval for an auto loan. There’s no faxing required and you don’t have to visit a dealership to get an approval. By completing an online application online, which takes just a minute, you can receive instant approval with legitimate companies.

Legitimate auto lenders and lending services that provide applications online can give you an approval in minutes. This allows you to know exactly what you’re qualified for, so you can go straight to the dealership of your choice and pick out a car, taking advantage of the incredible Black Friday car sales going on right now.

Low Jeremy asked:




The demand for children’s educational toys is rising. This is because more and more parents are appreciating the value these products bring to their kids – who wouldn’t want something that has learning and play combined into one fantastic product?

In fact, in 2005 alone, while the sales of traditional toys like Hot Wheels and Barbie dolls declined, sales of educational toys skyrocketed, with popular children’s educational toy manufacturer LeapFrog seeing its figures increase by a whopping 120 percent.

LeapFrog’s most popular educational toy to date is the Leapster L-Max Learning Game System. It is created especially for elementary level children and preschoolers. It carries a variety of games and can easily be plugged into any monitor or television set to play on the large screen. It is a kiddie alternative to the PlayStation.

It is for this reason that toy manufacturers all over the world are upping their ante on children’s educational toys and have begun making their own product lines to try to emulate the success experienced by LeapFrog.

Chicago-based toy manufacturer PIL has also come up with toys that are based on popular family movies for its Story Reader electronic book. Some of the films that have been adapted include The Lion King, The Incredibles, and Chicken Little. The product has long term value because children only need to buy the device one time and just purchase story cartridges, thereafter.

Walt Disney Co’s Disney Consumer Products, for instance, came up with a new educational game titled “Finding Nemo: Learning With Nemo”, which features an underwater adventure that teaches children number and letter recognition in the preschool level. The company has also partnered with V-Tech to manufacture a device that teaches children how to use the phone properly and instills correct telephone etiquette, called the Call ‘N Learn Phone.

Another toy company, Warner Bros Consumer Products also teamed up with major toy manufacturers to create educational toys and games based on its popular animated series’, like Batman and Looney Tunes. Even Scooby-Doo was not spared from having a Vtech smartridge created in its name; where children are being taught math, logic and spelling, all while going through a haunted adventure at an amusement park.

Toy manufacturers are increasingly realizing the gains that educational toys can bring to their revenues. Thus, their researchers constantly try to develop new products that tickle parents’ and children’s hunger for so-called combination toys.

Sam Benton asked:




Ready… Steady…

If you’re smart this year, you’ll be out of your blocks on the ‘B’ of ‘Bang’ to get your Christmas shopping campaign under way. Keep your eyes peeled though and you might just catch sight of a jolly old guy in a red suit, who’ll run you a good race for the early rich pickings.

This year though, if you and Santa are really smart, you won’t be breaking sweat on the high street, where you’ll both go head to head with frenzied Christmas shoppers, oh no, if you’re really smart, you’ll be browsing through catalogs for ideas and you’ll be ordering online from the comfort of your own armchair.

Shopping online is the absolute best way to keep both your dignity and your sanity, and it’s by far the best way to keep your stress levels in check. For those of you who really must indulge in the Christmas rush first hand, you have the option to order or reserve from your favourite bricks and clicks retailer then collect it yourself.

For me, the split between online and high street shopping will be ninety/ten. I have no intention whatsoever of lugging any more Christmas presents around town, rather, I’ll be ticking and clicking my way through my Christmas list online and only venturing into town for gift wrap and some casual browsing for stocking fillers, and of course, there’ll probably be plenty of coffee and muffin breaks in there somewhere as well.

Has it always been this easy? Well no, it hasn’t, and I’d have to say that my view of Christmas past has been a little jaded as a result. I’m sure there are shopaholics aplenty, it’s just that I’m not one of them. The advent of the Internet has made shopping and Christmas shopping in particular a darn sight easier as far as I’m concerned and it’s done something I never thought it would, and that is to remove the only dark cloud on the run up to Christmas, allowing me to enjoy the whole festive period from start to finish.

To just quickly remind you of how easy online shopping can be, let me just recap some of the benefits as I see them: You can browse a printed catalog for ideas (requested online of course), You can browse online where retailers have even greater ranges than catalog only or bricks and mortar only retailers can display. You can take advantage of web only exclusives. You can pay cash or take advantage of any number of pay now or next year options. You can sort and view the best bargains, by price, by brand, by model etc. You can hunt down those popular, but scarce hot sellers and know for sure that you’re one of the lucky few, once your order is confirmed. You can choose a delivery time or day. Are you tempted yet?

One final point: At least one (major) online retailer offers the following: Order by 3.pm on the 22nd of December and still have your things delivered for Christmas. So if you really want a stress free shopping experience right up to the last minute, catalog, Home Shopping & the Internet really are your best option. Even Santa’s gotta be tempted by that!

As always, Happy Shopping.

Emma asked:


My 12 year old daughter saw this World Vision Christmas Catalog in the mail and really wants to raise money to buy stuff from it to help other people. We cant really do anything at her school because of her strict principal, I WONT LET HER GET A JOB, and she wants to earn the money and not from us…

Help?

Annie T. Baxter asked:




Childhood Christmas Memories – Do you have one?

When you think back to when you were a child, are there special memories that you associate with Christmas time? Perhaps there was something that triggered the “countdown” to Christmas Eve and the arrival of Santa Claus? A special sweet holiday candy or ice cream? Or maybe, a tradition that made you feel like the holiday season was upon you? For me, the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalog, the Wish Book, was about as clear a signal as I needed. In fact, between my brother, sister and myself, I’m surprised there was any chance for my Mom and Dad to have a look-see. The hours we would pour over those wonderful toys, drawing a circle around the irresistible ones we were sure we just could not live without! Oh, and making the ever important list, complete with page number and toy description.

The Christmas toy list served many purposes. First, it was such a joy to look at the toys and think about them, that writing down their names and descriptions was like an extension of the whole Wish Book experience. Second, it was very helpful to be able to tell our parents all about what we wanted, and third, who wanted to possibly forget what special toy to tell Santa about?

Going to see Santa Claus

Going to see Santa Claus was a very big deal for me, and there was only ONE place that Santa would be before Christmas: Sears Roebuck & Co. department store. As far as I knew, Sears was just an extension of Santa’s workshop back at the North Pole. It had to be, he was always there, year after year, just like me! With my Christmas list in hand, telling Santa Clause what I wanted was such a treat and I always felt relief when he said I was on the “Nice List”, not the “Naughty List”! Remembering how magical it was, I also recall that after my “big day” to see Santa Claus, I would always ask my Mom if she thought he really knew where we lived and that question would be followed by all the “what if” questions that only a six year old could ask! Keep in mind, that was serious business to a little girl!.

What could be better than Peppermint Ice Cream?

I’m lucky to have those memories, and I cherish them dearly. The reason I started thinking about my childhood Christmas memories was that I came across something that I thought was so inventive: Websites where you can order your child personalized Santa letters! Santa Claus letters? I can just imagine that if I could have received a letter from Santa Claus himself, that would have been better than 1000 bowls of peppermint ice cream!

Personalized Santa Letters

When I saw my first “Santa Claus Letters” website, I thought, well, I could do that. I figured I could write a little note, use some clip art and print something on the computer to give to my little ones. Or if I wanted to make it really fun, I could even mail it myself to give it that little bit of “authenticity” and give the children the thrill of getting something in the mail, just for them. But once I started really looking at what is offered from some of these sites, I was bowled over! Even with the best clip art I could find and all the lace, glitter and glue I could use, the quality and variety of what some of the sites offer is more than I have time (or ability) to create!

What you can expect to find when you visit the Santa Claus Letters websites

Site 1

The first site I found caught my eye with the cute design of the Santa Letter. What allows the personalized Santa Letters to be created is the information you fill in from the short questionnaire when you place your order. Then that information is used to create the actual letter from Santa Claus to your child.

“Send a surprise personalized letter from Santa! It’s easy, it’s fun and will only take 5 minutes. No big decisions needed. Just answer a few questions for the Santa Claus letter to be personalized and you’re done!”

Site 2

More Santa Letters * Phone Calls from Santa Claus * Package from Santa

After I did some more searching, I found that there are several other sites that offer an amazing array of inexpensive gift ideas, beyond just a letter from Santa Claus. A great bonus is that the prices are very reasonable, definitely in the range of what I have budgeted for Christmas shopping.

PERSONALIZED PACKAGE FROM SANTA

An Incredible array of keepsake gift ideas:

Options include: Personalized Letter from Santa, Custom Letter from Rudolph, Personalized Custom “Nice” Certificate, Autographed Photo of Santa Clause, Custom Blend of Reindeer Food, An Authentic Piece of Santa’s Red Christmas Suit, Personal Greeting from Santa CD and finally a beautifully designed cheerful Red Gift Box with Stunning Original Art Work on the Interior!

This company has been seen in Parenting Magazine, Baby Talk, Parents, and American Baby Magazine. You can buy in confidence with their 60 day, no questions asked return policy.

Site 3

Santa’s Elves have been busy thinking up these special items!

This site offers some really creative items, geared to convince even the most skeptical child (or adult) that Santa Claus is real and has actually visited your house! From the Proof of Santa Evidence Kit to the Santa Boot Print Kit, you will have fun setting up the scene for your family to enjoy discovering…and, you just might re-kindle some of your own childhood belief.

Unique, inexpensive gift ideas for children and adults who need some Christmas magic

And that’s what started me thinking about all the children on my gift giving list: My own children, of course, the nieces and nephews, and even my cousins children, all who are in that wonderful, magical age of believing in Santa! With the variety of items to choose from, and the range of affordable prices, instead of worrying about going to the mall to find everyone the perfect gift (that they will forget about before my credit card bill is paid!), why not give something that is magical, special and they will remember, possibly long after they are adults? If I think about it, there are some adults I know who could do with a little dose of Santa’s special attention . Hmm, a letter from Santa to adults? Who says you are ever too old to believe?

Well, I believe that sprinkling some Holiday magic into the lives of the people I know, young and old, is what I’m planning to do this year. When I started writing this piece, it was going to be a nostalgic account about Christmas memories and traditions of baby-boomers and how to pass some of those traditions along in our own families. What’s nice, is that instead of just writing about how to do it, I can show you a few ways to do it! Re-awaken old memories of Santa Claus for yourself while creating new memories for your loved ones…Is anyone really ever too old to receive Santa Claus Letters or magical treasures from the North Pole? I know every Christmas Eve I make sure to check the Norad.org Santa Tracker, and every Christmas morning I awaken and wonder what Jolly Ol’ St. Nick left below our tree! I may be a little bit older, but I’m forever young at heart…and yes, Charlie Brown, I believe!

John W Ellis asked:




Christmas can be an expensive time, especially if you’ve got children. We are always looking for ways to spread the cost, or maybe even postpone the payments until next year, when we have a little more money to spend.

Shop from home with an online catalogue – and pay for Christmas next year

Choose to shop from home with an online catalogue and you are spared the agony of trying to find the money to pay for Christmas. Many of the popular brands of home shopping catalogue – such as Very.co.uk, Littlewoods and Marshall Ward – all offer the ability to make the purchases you need, now. And not have to pay a thing until next year.

Now, that is the way to make Christmas a more manageable experience this year. Sign up for one the big brands in home shopping (such as Very.co.uk, Littlewoods or Marshall Ward) and you’ll be able to sort out your Christmas shopping woes.

Fed up with the crowds – catalogue shopping is the way forward

Not only can you buy now, pay next year when shopping at an online catalogue – you also don’t need to leave the comfort of you own home. Just open an account with your chosen catalogue provider, and start your purchasing.

Now you can order that new furniture you’ve been after for months, get that big TV to watch all those Christmas films, and get the kids presents – all without having to leave the comfort of your home.

So, get the kettle on, make a nice cappuccino – and get everything you need to your ideal Christmas. And not have to pay a penny until next year.