Personalized Christmas Stockings

Christmas is the time when kids rule. This is the season where we pamper them with gifts and spend time with them. In fact, a lot of people say that Christmas is the time when they remember how fun it was to be children, as many try to remember how their Christmases went as they were growing up. Indeed, for some families, Christmas is made even more special because of the kids in their house.

So how do you make this Christmas a little more special for your children? MerryStockings.com suggests these fun ways!

1. Teach them Christmas carols. Christmas carols are a good way to get into the spirit. Teaching your kids your beloved Christmas songs ensures that they would happily sing along as you turn on the radio or pop in your favorite Christmas CDs.

2. Develop their creativity with some activities. There are a lot of Christmas themed activities that you could do with your children. For one, there are coloring pages that you could download from the Internet. These Web sites offer free printables that you could print out and color with your kids.

You can then use the colored prints to decorate your house by displaying them on your refrigerator, walls or even table tops.

3. Let them help in the preparations. One great way to get children in the festive Christmas mood is to involve them in your preparations. Wrapping up some presents for friends? You can teach them to create gift tags, or cut scotch tape for you. Baking Christmas brownies? You can ask them to help you stir the batter or help you clean up. They could also help you decorate your home for Christmas.

4. Teach them some crafts. MerryStockings.com has some really nice Christmas stocking kits that you could do with your kids. Each of these kits include all the materials you are going to need and very simple instructions.

Share This

If you are looking for a good bonding activity for you and your children, why not teach them crafts? Not only would this be a good way for you to spend some quality time with your kids, but there are other benefits as well.

1. Develop their creativity. Creating something from different materials is a good way to each your kids creativity. They will learn how to color, how to sew, how to do things differently. With crafts, you are limited only by your imagination, but thankfully, it will also help you to develop their own natural creativity.

2. Teaching them to be patient. Kids today have the convenience of just buying anything they want. Instead of buying, you can teach them to create. It’s going to be much more difficult but it will teach them to be patient. They will need to keep trying until they learn something, and they will have that wondrous feeling when they finally finish a craft.

3. Develop their concentration. Crafts can help your kids concentrate. Their focus is on finish the craft you have.

4. Fun. Crafts are fun. Kids love to work with their hands, which is why sandboxes, beaches and Legos are so popular. They love to take their crayons and create things.

5. Teach them to follow step-by-step instructions. In order to learn crafts, kids are given simple step-by-step instructions. By following them closely, they are assured of finishing their own little projects.

6. Develop your relationship and communication with them. When you teach your kids some crafts, they will learn to defer to you when there is something they do not know or they cannot do. Develop this into a habit and soon he or she will be more open to you about problems and experiences in his or her life.

MerryStockings.com gives you an opportunity to teach arts and crafts to your kids with our Christmas stocking kits. These kits are very easy to do and very beautiful. It is perfect even for very young kids!

Share This

Christmas shopping does not have to be stressful. Well, not if you follow MerryStocking.com’s tips!

1. Make a gift list and stick with it.

Before even entering the mall, make sure that you have a list of people that you’d give gifts to. This would make sure that you do not end up buying something out of impulse.

2. Buy quality products.

Think about the person you are giving the gift to. What do you think he or she would like or want? Then seek out inexpensive but durable gifts. Same thing with Christmas cards, you should make it apparent that you wanted to impress the recipient and make them feel special and remembered.

3. Shop early.

There is no rule that says that you can not buy gifts early on. Buy gifts months or weeks before can certainly save you from the hassle of elbowing your way through the aisle, the horrendous traffic and the mad rush for a parking space. What is more, you can get more discounts when you shop early. It also helps when you are ordering personalized Christmas gifts. Advanced shopping ensures that your gift will arrive on time to the recipient.

4. Avoid the rush. Shop online.

If you find yourself still needing to buy gifts and you hate the thought of the Christmas crowd, then you should shop on a weekday morning, where the crowd is the thinnest. Or you can shop online. Just be sure that the site you are buying from is a reputable and secure site.

5. Keep the receipts.

Do not throw away your receipts before your recipient has opened the gift and you see that it is perfect. You might find that a toy you gave your son has a missing part, or a sweater is too big for your sister. It is always good to be able to have these replaced.

MerryStockings.com has a wide array of Christmas cards, Christmas ornaments, Christmas stockings that could be the perfect gift for friends and family. Make them feel special with a personalized gift this Christmas!

Share This

At MerryStockings.com, we know how you value your family.  And while our Christmas stockings are attractive and eye-catching in itself, we also try to add more value to these by making sure that you get something extra with every stocking you purchase from us.

Christmas decorations should be used and reused every Christmas.  Not only does it make sense environmentally speaking, it is what we think creates a distinctive Christmas tradition for you and your family.  As such, we made sure that all our products are very durable, making it easy for you to reuse them year after year. Most people think that Christmas ornaments and Christmas stockings are a one-off expense that they have to incur every year.  Wrong.  Our products will last through the years.

Because of their beauty and long life, our products also make the best family heirloom.  Take for example our Cross Stitch Christmas Stocking Kits, Felt Applique Kits and Bucilla Christmas Stocking Felt Kits.  These stocking kits are so beautiful that you would want them adorning your house every Christmas time.  Even your kids will love taking them.  And even when they grow up to be adults, they could still have these stockings to decorate their own homes with.

How is that for building Christmas traditions and reminiscing about past Christmases?

Speaking of reminiscing, our personalized Christmas ornaments allow you to have your family’s greatest moments on Christmas balls.  Over the years, you could literally watch your kids grow from being a toddler learning to walk to graduating from high school to getting married.  You and your family could make it a habit to think about the past years while putting up your Christmas tree.

Lastly, memories are to be made before they could be shared.  So why not spend a day with your kids putting together one of our stocking kits.  Not only would you teach them to be creative and think out of the box while training them to be crafty with their hands, but you also get to share some precious quality time with them?

Share This

Personalize your Christmas stockings.  Personalized Christmas stockings are a great way to individualize and differentiate Christmas stockings for your whole family.  And the ideas are limitless!  You could get an old tee shirt that each member owns.  An old work uniform for Dad, an old apron that Mom loves, and tee shirts that your baby has outgrown would be perfect.  Cut out pieces of these shirts and use these to line the opening of the stockings.

You can also embroider the names of your family member on each stocking.  Or you could use a term of endearment like “Sporty”, “Honey Bunch”, or “Little Ms. Sunshine.”  If you do not have the skills, you can easily buy personalized Christmas stockings online.

Hang your Christmas stockings with a hanger.  The easiest and most hassle-free way to hang your Christmas stockings is through using stocking hangers.  Check out brass or steel hangers from MerryStockings.com.  You can even get a more personal touch using photos of each family member on each hanger!

Be safe.  Christmas time should be a time for celebration, not for untoward emergencies.  First and foremost, be safe from fire.  Do not put lighted candles near Christmas stockings and other flammable Christmas decorations.  Also, do not hang Christmas stockings over a lit fireplace.

If you are using a stocking hanger, make sure that they are not heavy and are strong enough to hold up a full stocking.  If you can, consider gluing the hanger to your mantel.

If you have small kids, be sure that they will not be able to reach the stockings and pull on it.  This might cause the stocking to come off, or they may suffer from injuries from getting hit by a falling hanger.

Hang it elsewhere.  If you do not have a fireplace, or if your family lights a fire to keep warm, then consider hanging your Christmas stockings somewhere else.  You can use your banister to hang your stockings on.  Use ribbons to tie your stockings to your banister or rails.

Or you can hang it on wooden walls.  You can do this by hammering nails into your walls and hanging your stockings on the nails.  To hide the nails and beautify your set-up, you can use sprigs of mistletoe or left-over Christmas garlands to do the trick.

Share This

Everybody knows who Santa Claus is.  Every kid has left their Christmas stockings near the fireplace to find treats left in it by Santa on Christmas morning.  A lot of them have written letters to the North Pole detailing their wish lists and arguing that they have been nice.  Some even stayed up late to spy on Santa Claus as he goes through the house eating cookies and leaving gifts.

Santa Claus is arguably the most well-known and prominent Christmas symbol.  So this Christmas, MerryStockings.com urges you to decorate your house with a Santa Claus motif.  At MerryStockings.com, we give you personalized Christmas decorations that have a variety of Santa Claus designs that is perfect for your home!  Check out some of our designs inspired by the Jolly Ol’ Man!

• The Bucilla Felt Applique Christmas Stocking Kit: Patchwork Santa brings together Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, toys, gifts and snowflakes in one whimsical and fun design.  This would be perfect to create with your kids and would mean a lot of bonding time with them.  The finished product is a beautiful sight to look at and would certainly be a welcome addition to your Christmas decorations!

• The Cross-Stitch Christmas Stocking Kit Needlepoint: Naughty or Nice? also features a Santa Claus design.

This stocking kit is an elegant and crafty way to decorate your homes this Christmas.

• How about a glittering Christmas stocking to add sparkle to your holidays?  Then get the Felt Applique Christmas Stocking Kit: Sequined Santa.  Still a good project for the whole family and guarantees a fun bonding time for you and your kids!

• Behind every great man is a woman, so they say.  Even Santa Claus!  So get Mom into the picture with the Personalized Mrs. Claus Christmas Stocking.

.

• If you are aiming for a plain Christmas stocking, then you can always go for Santa’s colors: red with a white trim.  Like this Red Personalized Christmas Stocking with White Cuff.

Share This

Here are some fun facts and trivia that should start some interesting discussions over Christmas dinner.

MerryStockings.com gives you its Top 13 Fun Facts about Christmas that you could use to amaze your friends and your family!

Enjoy!

1. Christmas is actually a shortening of Christ’s Mass.
2. The first artificial Christmas trees were seen in Germany.  They gathered goose feathers and formed it into a tree after dyeing it green.
3. The wildly popular Christmas song, “Jingle Bells”, was not originally meant as a Christmas song.  It was actually written for Thanksgiving!
4. If you true love did send you all those gifts mentioned in the Twelve Days of Christmas, you’d have enough gifts to last you a year.
5. Christmas is sometimes depicted as Xmas.  This is because X in Greek means Christ.
6. Thinking about a Christmas gift for a loved one?  Try diamonds.  More people buy diamonds around Christmas time than any other time of the year, including Valentine’s Day.
7. More Christmas gift buying facts:  Visa reported that during the Christmas season, their cards are used more than 5,300 time per minute.
8. Still on gifts, did you know that 70% of all British dogs get a Christmas gift from their owners?
9. The busiest shopping day of the year is not Black Friday, but the Saturday before Christmas.
10. If you are looking for good uses for the good old Christmas tree after the holidays are through, then you can consider eating it.  A lot of the parts of a pine tree are actually edible.
11. Famous people who celebrates the same birthday as Jesus Christ includes Isaac Newton, Humphrey Bogart, Cab Calloway, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat, Rod Serling, Sissy Spacek, Armin van Buuren, Dido, Annie Lennox and Jimmy Buffett.
12. Emperor Yoshihito of Japan, W.C. Fields, Johnny Ace, Frederick Law Olmsted, Charlie Chaplin, and Dean Martin are just some of the famous people who died on Christmas Day.
13. A lovely story of generosity, Christmas stockings were said to have caught the pouches of gold coins that St. Nicholas gave three young maidens.  This legend started the tradition of hanging Christmas stockings.

Share This

Red is one of the main colors that is traditionally associated with Christmas.  Inherently lively, bright and warm, red symbolizes love, happiness excitement, fire and charity.  It is also the color that is closely associated with December.

Decorating your house for Christmas is not an easy task, but you can get design ideas from a lot of places.  One tried and tested solution is to decorate with colors.  Usually, a monochromatic theme would look best and red is just the color you should consider!  And here are the reasons why.

1. It blends well.  Red goes well with anything. Specifically, it goes well with other Christmas colors like green, white, and gold.  You can easily blend red with green or white, go all red, or have a tri-color affair with something like red, white and gold.  The possibilities are nearly endless.

Indeed, a Christmas tree decked with red lights and ornaments would make a perfect backdrop for ornaments in other colors like this personalized Christmas ornament.

2. Get warmed up.  If you live in cooler climates, red decorations help you feel warm because of its warmer tone.  In fact, together with gold and yellow, you can easily decorate your place to look cozy, homey and comfortable.

3. It’s easy to find decorations that would match your theme.  Because red is closely associated with Christmas, you should have no problems finding pieces that would go well with a red theme.  Santa Claus, the Christmas flower poinsettia, mistletoes are all red.  Almost all Christmas decorations have a red variety too, from Christmas lights to Christmas trees, ornaments, candles, ribbons.  Even this fiery red Christmas stocking that will surely stand out!

You can have matching red personalized Christmas stockings for each member of your family, or a collection of Santa Clauses as a centerpiece.  You can even use fresh flowers for a more natural Christmas feel.

The liveliness and vibrancy of red makes it an appealing color for Christmas.  With a little imagination and creativity, it is easy to prep your family up for a red Christmas.

Share This

…Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost nipping on your nose…

So goes the start of the The Christmas Song, describing the signs that Christmas is definitely in the air and the festive and loving mood that goes with it.

While Christmas means different things for different people, it will always have the same symbols and signs.  Most of us associate Christmas with family, love, happiness, gifts and sharing.  Christmas is a universal celebration, one recognized the world over.  As such, it has its attendant symbols, signs and representations.

One of the many signs of Christmas is its colors.  While lively and happy colors are used in any Christmas seen, green and red seem to dominate around this season.

Red is the color of December.  It connotes happiness, love and excitement.  In many religions, red is the color for blood, fire and charity, making it a perfect color for the season of giving.

Is it any wonder why it is the color of Santa Claus and traditional Christmas stockings?

While green is a symbol for youth, hope and nature.  It is the color of life.  It speaks of growth and redemption, and being able to hope and be happy even with all the adversity surrounding you.  Christmas would never be complete without the green Christmas tree, Christmas ornaments or the green wreaths.  Even Christmas cards come alive with the color green!

In recent years, white and gold have gained favor as Christmas colors, either in addition to or in lieu of, green and red.

White symbolizes the snow that is present in many Christmas themes.  It also symbolizes joy, purity and glory.  Gold on the other hand, stands for radiance and makes a befitting color for tinsel, candles, lights, and Christmas ornaments like this Nutcracker Personalized Christmas Stocking Holder:

The thing is, you do not really have to stick to just one Christmas color.  Because these are basically great bright colors, you can easily mix and match them to come up with wondrous decorations for the holidays.  Just check this woolen Christmas stocking to see how these all come together:

Share This

Christmas stockings are not only a great way to decorate your home or fireplace during Christmas.  For many kids, this represents treats and rewards brought to them by Santa Claus for being nice the whole year round.

Many people bring out the same Christmas stockings year after year to reuse as decorations.  But there are easy and inexpensive ways to spice up even the oldest Christmas stocking you have.

1. All that glitters…  This is the easiest way to decorate Christmas stockings.  Using glue from a squeeze out bottle, write out your child’s name and then cover it with glitter.  You can also use different color glitter and create familiar Christmas shapes.  For example, you can trace the shape of a Christmas tree on your stocking and cover it with green glitter.  Or perhaps you would be happier with Frosty the Snowman using gold glitter and then adding the details in their appropriate color.  Lastly, you can basically choose a section of the stockings and go all out with the glitter.  How about a zigzag pattern using different colors of glitter on the top part of the stockings?  Or perhaps giving a red Christmas stocking golden horizontal stripes?

2. The Name Game.  A perfect way to decorate your Christmas stockings is to personalize it.  There are many stores that sell iron-on letters or stick-on letters that you can use to do this.  If you are feeling specially crafty, you can use some holiday fabric or just about any spare cloth you have and cut out the letters of your child’s name and sew them to the stocking.  You can also embroider names into your old Christmas stockings!

3. Use familiar shapes.  Extending the holiday fabric idea, you can use these to cut out Christmas shapes like angels, snowmen, reindeers, Christmas trees, even something elaborate as elves and Santa Claus.  You can also use felt or satin for this purpose.

4. Embellish with relish!  If you are fond of sewing, you will have a lot of materials that you could use for embellishing a Christmas stocking.  From sequins to lace trims to buttons and beads, you can use these to add a whimsical look for your stockings.

You can do all these and have fun.  Additionally, you can also purchase Christmas stocking kits like these Bucilla Christmas Stocking Felt Kits, Cross Stitch Christmas Stocking Kits, and Felt Applique Kits for a more professional and beautiful look.

Share This