Personalized Christmas Stockings

With the advent of the Internet, it is now possible to send electronic cards to friends and family.  Indeed, with just a few steps that would only take minutes, you could already send out a holiday greeting.  You could also “personalize” it with a graphic of your choice, a personal note, even attach pictures or have it play a sound file (usually a midi version of a popular Christmas tune).

Using your recipient’s e-mail address, your Christmas greeting card is received in a matter of seconds.  Your recipient can click on the link on the e-mail he or she received to view your card.  He or she can then send you his or her own electronic greeting, as well as his or her other friends.

Admittedly, the convenience of sending electronic greeting cards is a benefit that most of us cannot turn down.  What is more, it costs next to nothing to send one, with a lot of sites offering free e-cards for you to choose from.  But is it worth it?  MerryStockings.com thinks it is not!  And here are the reasons why:

1. It is very impersonal.  True you could personalize an electronic greeting card, but nothing beats getting one in the mail and reading handwritten notes from friends and family.  Also, there are some senders who for the lack of time or originality tend to just send the same note to everybody.

2. It is not safe.  In this age of online hacking, phishing and identity theft attacks, opening a link on an e-mail is a no-no.  Even if the sender of the e-mail is a trusted friend, there is a chance that the link would take you to a Web site that could start sending you packets of data that could compromise your computer, download malware and spyware to it, and otherwise make you vulnerable for hacking and phishing.

3. Most recipients do not open it or it gets caught by spam filters.  Because of the threat described above, a lot of people do not open greeting cards that are sent electronically.  Some ignore it because of the sheer volume of e-cards they receive.  While others miss out on it because it has been blocked by spam filters.

This Christmas, know that you should keep touch with your friends and family even if they are far away from you.  The best way to do this is to send them a Christmas card.  Possibly, you could include pictures to update them how your family is like now.  Another alternative is to send the personalized holiday cards that would help decrease the cost of having to develop several copies of your photos.   With the right note, you can easily warm their hearts and make them feel treasured and cherished.

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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.

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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.

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• 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.

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All too often, the image of Santa Claus has been closely associated with the commercialization of Christmas.  Many people lament that the Christmas season has been much too focused with gifts and gift-giving that people, especially children, think of nothing else but the gifts they are to receive during the season.

But Santa Claus have been a very prominent feature of American Christmases since the 17th century, and because he symbolizes generosity and sharing that Christmas is also known for, it made sense that Santa Claus should be so.

America’s Santa Claus was based on a real person: Saint Nicholas who was the Bishop of Myra in the 4th century.  Myra is a place within present-day Turkey.  The Bishop of Myra was well-respected and renowned for his generosity and his love for children.  And it is this kindness that led to claims that he could perform miracles centuries after his death.

His remains were reportedly stolen from its burial grounds in the 11th century and were brought to Europe.  Soon after, devotions to the Saint grew across Europe.  In Russia, he became the country’s patron saint.  In Greece, he became the patron of seafarers and sailors.  In France, he was the patron saint of lawyers.  In Belgium, he was the patron of travelers and children. In addition to these, thousands of European churches were dedicated to St. Nicholas and December 6 became his feast day.  On his feast day, people would give gifts to each other, alms to beggars, food to the poor and even donate to charity.

St. Nicholas’ popularity dwindled after the Reformation, but his generosity remained alive.  Especially in Holland where people told and retold his story.  Saint Nicholas soon became Sinterklaas and Dutch children would leave their shoes by the fireplace to be rewarded with treats from the Saint.

Sinterklaas was brought to American soil in the 17th century by the Dutch, and soon the name was Anglicized to Santa Claus.  Today,  American children hang Christmas stockings near the fireplace in the hopes that Santa Claus would find them good the whole year round and leave them gifts and treats!

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A lot of people wonder why, of all creatures there are, reindeer are the ones that got associated with Christmas. Just as otherwise general images like snowmen, mistletoe and snowflakes are now used in Christmas decors and holiday greeting cards, reindeer have also become a modern Christmas symbol.

Reindeer are deer species found in the Arctic regions and are well-adapted to living in cold and under rugged conditions, thus a perfect animal symbol to use during the winter season — the season most associated with Christmas. But other than that, reindeer came to be popular in contemporary Christmas lore because of the poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” which was written by Clement Moore, and the song “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Moore’s poem, also known as “The Night Before Christmas,” talks of Santa Claus and his little sleigh, driven by eight flying reindeer. Moore’s poem was published annually during Christmas and has established the reindeer as a beloved symbol of the holidays.

Rudolph, on the other hand, was created by Robert May in 1939. May’s employer, Montgomery Ward, asked him to write a story which they could use in promoting its department store chain. The story of Rudolph was specifically used in a giveaway booklet. Needless to say, the short tale became a hit among children.  The story of Rudolph — first ostracized by others of his kind because of his red, shiny nose, and who eventually led Santa’s team of flying reindeer, lit his path, and helped him deliver Christmas gifts to all the children around the world — later on became a short animation feature. In 1949, a lyrics and a melody were written, although the story has been significantly modified. Rudolph then, and reindeer in general, became one of the most modern of Christmas symbols.

So next time you see greeting cards with reindeer  or Christmas reindeer decorations, wonder no more. Reindeer have become a part of Christmas history and a significant Christmas image and symbol, and will remain so as long as the stories of Rudolph and Santa’s flying sleigh will be retold from generation to generation.

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Christmas cards are the most convenient to give loved ones during the Holidays. But sometimes they are also the most meaningful. So it is not surprising if you have collected a lot of holiday greeting cards through the years.

If you have gone through the old Christmas cards you have received from friends and family, there are those you will find too beautiful to just keep inside a box. There are cards with lovely winter scenes, Christmas trees, the nativity scene, the baby Jesus, and all other symbols of the season. And there are those special personalized Christmas cards.  There are actually ways to use, and show off, these old cards and the lovely images on the cover.

MerryStockings.com says that you can decorate your home and get it ready for the holiday season using these cards. How?

As Christmas tree trimmings. If you are not very sentimental, you can cut out the pretty pictures on the card cover (but do keep the messages). Punch out holes and tie with pretty little ribbons. You can then hang them on your trees, together with your Christmas balls and other tree trimmings.

As door frame. If you cannot dare to cut the cards and would want them all intact, you can use them as is. Pick your favorites from among the cards and with a double-sided tape, arrange them around your door. You can see these cards every time you enter your house, or a room, and remember the people who gave them to you. It’s a nice way to remember special people and the touching messages they wrote. If you don’t want them to fall open and would just like to see their covers, you can use a tape to keep them close.

As table centerpiece. You can pick out your favorite cards and improvise a centerpiece stand where you could hang or stick the cards on. You can use anything with a multi-tiered form, like a cupcake holder or stacked porcelain bowls. You can add red and green ribbons or other Christmas accents to complete the look.

There are a lot of ways to use old cards for holiday decorations. If you are creative enough, the options are endless. You can create something beautiful, and you get to save money, too. If you think of it, this is a very creative, economical, and environment-friendly project. So next time you get another card, be sure to keep it and not throw it away.

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Christmas might be a predominantly Christian occasion, but not everybody who celebrates it is a Christian.  Often, we see embarrassing situations where a Jewish friend gets an overtly Christian holiday card with the nativity scene on it.  While some just shrug it off, a few may react strongly to the intrusion.

Corporate America, especially those in the retail industry, have tried to be as inclusive as possible when it comes to Christmas promotions.  Most come up with advertisements greeting their patrons with a generic “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays”.  The images they use are tied to no known religion or culture, except perhaps what is universally accepted as American.  This way, they avoid the trouble of having some group crying foul because of discrimination and they get to include as many people as possible in their wish of good cheer.

The truth is that there are other holidays that are closely associated with the Christian Christmas and are celebrated very close to it.   The Jewish Hannukah and the Kwanzaa are just two of these holidays.  Both are marked by the exchange of gifts, although the reasons for celebrating both are very much different from Christmas.  Hannukah commemorates the rededication of the Jewish temple, while the Kwanzaa celebrates the heritage of African-Americans.

Moreover, there are people who are not religious and they are inclined to be secular.  And then there are other celebrations like the New Year’s.

If you are planning to send out personalized holiday greeting cards this Christmas, then be sure to pick a design that is inclusive.  This way, you do not inadvertently offend any of your friends, and you get to save on costs.  Instead of having one set of cards for your Jewish friends, another for African-Americans, and yet another for your Christian friends, you can have a generic holiday card that still  conveys the season’s festive moods and your own personal wish for a happy time for them and their families.  You can start by choosing from the designs we have on MerryStockings.com.

We recommend:

Aloha Holiday Holiday Greeting Card

Send this Hawaiian-themed card to family and friends with its lively white flowers on a bright green background!

Happy Cardinal Holiday Greeting Card

An avant-garde holiday card that features a winter bird on the branches of a tree.  Great for including photos of your family in the design!

Crafter’s Charm Holiday Greeting Card

Your family and friends would surely appreciate the smiles you can give them with this design that features only photos of you and your family!

Get more design ideas here:

http://www.merrystockings.com/shop/holiday-cards-c177-page-full_list.html

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Christmas is a great time to be with your family.  And while everyone loves the season, it is mostly geared towards children.  If you are a parent of young kids, you surely spend a lot of time making Christmas a whole lot more fun and exciting for them.

Christmas is also an opportune time to build long lasting family traditions.  Christmas traditions vary from culture to culture, and each family have their own way of celebrating Christmas, but that should not stop you from creating your own.

MerryStockings.com presents these tips for building Christmas traditions.

1. Typical traditions.  There are traditions that we follow just because it is what we have known since childhood.  Think about Santa Claus and gifts on Christmas morning.  We tell our children that Santa will reward them for being nice the whole year by giving them treats and toys on Christmas day.  These are typical traditions, or those we hold on to because it is what has been taught us.

By all means, pass these traditions to your kids.  It would be nice to see yourself on the other side of the fence.  Instead of being the one who runs down to the living room on Christmas morning to ransack the gifts under the tree, you are the one who is sneaking down on Christmas eve to place the gifts in their Christmas stockings!.

2.  Start something new and make sure that they are observed every year.  There are a lot of things that you can do to help spice up the holiday season.  It could be a vacation that you all take, for example, one week before Christmas.  It could be having an elaborate Christmas dinner on Christmas eve.  Or you could all make it habit to pick out a tree together.  And then spend some real bonding moments while you all decorate the tree and the entire house in time for Christmas.

3. One novel idea comes with a personalized touch. Get personalized Christmas ornaments featuring pictures of your family, either as a group or one by one.  It should work better if you could get a theme behind the year’s photos.  For example, 2010 could be the year of the wacky.  You should find pictures of every one in your family in wacky poses, and then present these memorialized on a Christmas ornament on Christmas eve.

You and your family could easily get a good laugh at each other’s wacky pictures.  As the years go by, your collection becomes more and more voluminous and varied.  And because of this, Christmas could easily be a good time to reminisce.

Ten years from now, when your kids are grown, you can count on these traditions to keep you together during the holidays.  Gather your grown kids around the Christmas tree and look at the ornaments that features their photographs that could very well start from the time they were babies!  Share a laugh or a story as you all reminisce on family pictures that are immortalized on these ornaments.

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As we go through life, we achieve certain milestones that makes us glad to be alive.  We grow up, we fall in love, we take on jobs, we marry, we have kids, we raise families, we encounter successes and failures.  We go through the whole spectrum of human emotions: we laugh, we love, we cry, we become sad, we shriek with joy. These milestones may differ for different people but one definite milestones we go through are our firsts.  First love, first kiss, first day at school, first job, etc.

And of course there is your first Christmas together, either as a serious couple or as husband and wife.  Newly weds usually look forward to their first Christmas together.  They take it as a chance to get to know each other better, as well as see how different it is to spend Christmas with somebody that you could share it with for the rest of your lives.  How you spend your first Christmas together should  give you a preview of how all your future Christmases would be like, so make it very special!

One way is to start a new tradition.  You could write holiday cards to family and friends and sign it as Mr. and Mrs.  XXX, but make sure that both of you writes a brief personal message.

Or you could invite people over for a holiday party.  It should include family and friends from both sides, this way you set up the stage to have mutual friends and your families could take the chance to get to know the other side better.

A great idea would be to have personalized photo ornaments like this one:

This way, you could customize your decorations and have something to remind you of your first Christmas together in the succeeding Christmases.

Take this idea further and order different customized ornaments year after year.  Over time, when you are both in your 50s or 60s and putting up the Christmas tree, you could pick up each ornament and reminisce about the fun times and the bad times you have had along the way.

Another great personalized Christmas decoration are Christmas stockings that are matching with each of your names emblazoned on each one.  These coordinated Christmas stockings is sure to add a romantic touch to your holiday celebrations

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If you have a talent for sewing, knitting, or crocheting, then you might want to consider creating your own Christmas tree skirts this Christmas.  It is a fairly simple and fun project.

Aside from that, it is great to have something personalized and customized for you and your family to celebrate the holidays with.  Plus, it helps you blend any Christmas tree with the design philosophy you might have in mind for the year.  Christmas tree skirts also makes for a great gift idea.  The fact that you made it yourself would show your recipient that you took time to come up with a gift for them, and will surely love the fact that their tree skirt is uniquely theirs.

What are Christmas tree skirts?

These skirts are usually made of fabric and is wrapped around the base of your tree.  This helps you hide the base of your tree and provides a good place to place your gifts on.

Sewing Your Own Christmas Tree Skirts

To make your own, you simply need to have a good fabric and embellishments like tassels, lace trims, fringes, fur, felt appliques, stick-on letters.  There are a lot of tutorials online that are easy to follow, but here are recommendations from MerryStockings.com:

If you are the visual type, there are video guides available online.  Our favorite video tutorial is here.  You would be surprised at how easy it actually is!

You could have different design ideas from TLC from this URL:
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/how-to-make-christmas-decorations3.htm

While LovetoKnow.com has an impressive collection of Christmas Tree Skirt Patterns here.

While most tree skirts are round, it does not have to be.  You can make your tree skirt square, star shaped, or follow a flower pattern.  We recommend this hexagonal beauty, just to prove that tree skirts do not exactly have to be round.

If you just cannot stand sewing, or would like to make a Christmas tree skirt together with your kids, you can opt for a no-sew Christmas tree skirt, just like this one from Home and Garden Television.

Of course, if you do not have the talent or the time, you could simply skip all these and just buy a personalized Christmas tree skirt like this one:

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