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.

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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!

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A lot of people realize that finding the perfect holiday gift could be very difficult.  This is where personalized Christmas ornaments come in handy.  As everybody would want to spruce up their homes for the holidays, your personalized Christmas ornaments would be perfect.

Who does not like a little vanity?  You can easily give your closest friends Christmas ornaments with their photos on it.

Who does not cherish their memories?   More than anything, personalized Christmas ornaments are a great way for you to give the gift of reminiscing to your friends.  Help them down a trip to memory lane!

Just some tips on how to get the perfect picture:

1. Get on their Facebook accounts and find the perfect photo.  Chances are, if they posted it on their social networking site, they are proud of that particular photograph and it means something to them.  This way you would not have friends shrieking that it was a bad shot or their shoulders made them look fat…

2. Try to memorialize a special event.  Wedding pictures, vacation pictures or even scenes from their past Christmases would be perfect choices for a photo ornament!

3. Kids, kids, kids!  It would be great if you could have their kids’ photos on these Christmas ornaments.  Not only will it make it more fun for them to decorate, but they will surely love the idea of having their kids faces light up their Christmas tree!

4. Great for sets.  Personalization now does not have to be done in bulk.  Indeed, you can have a set of ornaments that are individually personalized, meaning one ornament would have one picture, another would have a different picture.  A great set could include pictures of the entire family in different situations.  Or it could be solo shots of each family member.  It could feature a different photo taken from every year, like say you have a friend or family member who is now 18, and you give her a set of Christmas ornaments that features her own photos over the years.

5. Be creative!  As with anything, you only limit yourself by not thinking outside the box!

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Christmas is a time for kids, and what great way to have them excited for Christmas months before it actually comes than by customizing your own Christmas stockings!

But coming up with your own Christmas stocking from scratch is not an easy feat.  Fortunately, you now have the option to just buy a great stocking kit.  It comes with everything you need to put it together:  beads, sequins, threads and instructions.  Gather your kids around for some bonding moments.  Each one gets their own kit and you all work on it together.  Not only do they get to design their own Christmas stocking, but you get to spend some quality time with them too.  And it is not even Christmas.

And there are a lot of designs for you to choose from.  There’s the Santa Paws Bucilla Felt Appliqué Christmas Stocking Kit that features a jolly Santa Claus and three cute dogs.  This is perfect for animal lovers or for that little one who has been asking for a puppy the whole year round.

If your precocious little boy is into sports, there is no way he could resist the Football Santa Bucilla Felt Appliqué Christmas Stocking Kit, where Santa is playing America’s favorite past-time: football with no less than an adorable snowman cheering him on!

For your little girl, there is the Christmas in Oz Bucilla Felt Appliqué  Christmas Stocking Kit that features a scene right out of the Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow up and down the yellow brick road.

Or how about a trio of bears dancing ballet?  The Ballet Bears Bucilla Felt Appliqué Christmas Stocking Kit mixes great girly colors like azure, pink, magenta and purple for a really sweet design!  What is more, you can further personalize it by putting your little girl’s name on a heart attached to the stocking itself!

Come Christmas morning, they will wake up excited to see what Santa has left in their stockings, but what they will remember most is how you took time out to make the stockings with them.  Can you think of a better way to make Christmas even more special???

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Not all Christmas stockings are as affordable as ours at Merry Stockings.  Check out this Swarovski-encrusted Christmas stocking - it retails for over $3,500!

You can save yourself a lot of money by browsing our more down to earth designs.  Plus you can actually personalize them with your name!

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When it’s time to open the Christmas stockings, if you’ve recently welcomed a new addition into your family, Santa may need a little help.  So what kind of stocking stuffers could you try for your little one?  How about a few stocking stuffer ideas for baby’s first Christmas:

• New receiving blanket
• A pacifier or nuk
• Teething toys
• A new lullaby CD
• Bath toys
• (Chewable) family photo flip book

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Sometimes we are surprised at what people choose to imprint on their Christmas stockings.  Most go the traditional route and personalize their stocking with the first name of each family member.  But some decide to do things a little differently.  Here are a few of the types of create Christmas stocking imprints that we’ve seen and some ideas for trying something new.
1. Mommy and Daddy stockings
2. Pet stockings
3. Nick names
4. Catch-all categories like “cousins” or “friends”
5. The current year
Put some thought into what you’d like on your Christmas stockings - we can imprint just about anything!

Photo: TPorter2006

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Unclutterer.com has a round up on organizing your Christmas wrapping paper.   Staying organized can be a challenge during the holidays.  Try using one of these organizers to keep your life a little more sane when it’s time to pull the Christmas decorations out of storage.  (Make sure to read the comments for some additional resources.)

2007 Personalized Christmas stockings are now available.

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Being a golfer, I really hope my wife reads this post! Golf is a very popular game and buying the right christmas present for the golfer in your life is an important endeavor. A lot of golf products would fit nicely into a 20″ personalized christmas stocking made by MerryStockings. Here’s a list of suggestions:

1. Two sleeves of golf balls: preferably Pro-V1’s

2. Bag of golf tees…for the extra touch, you can personalize golf tees.

3. A new golf glove

4. Gift card to a local store (if you’re reading this honey…that would be Golf Galaxy)

5. Gift card to a local golf course…most courses have caught on to the gift card idea

6. Personalized golf ball marker

7. Golf club cleaning kit

8. Personalized divot repair tool

9. Golf towel that’s either personalized or from his/her favorite local course

10. Two tickets to August National to watch the Masters.

Don’t have a personalized christmas stocking: shop for one, or two: http://www.merrystockings.com.

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Decorating your home can be a lot of fun.  Sometimes the outdoor displays can get a little out of hand (so says my wife) but it’s great to get compliments and second looks from the neighbors.

One family in Colorado takes outdoor decorating to the next level and for a good reason.  They raise money for Celiac Disease research through their website and use their amazing displays to raise awareness.  Check out www.komar.org and consider donating money to their cause.

Thanks to The Decorating Diva for pointing out this great site.

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