Thursday, April 29, 2010

Create Memories of Fun and a Cherished Christmas

Christmas has always been a celebration with a lot of fun and a magical touch. We can celebrate Christmas in such a way that it turns out to be a festive occasion that brings the whole family together. This gives the whole family a chance to enjoy the Christmas festivities and spend time together by interacting and creating warm and lasting memories.

With the start of the holiday season you can spend time with all your friends and family members and enjoy watching Christmas movies, pleasant conversation and great food that we save for holidays and other special occasions. This time of year gives you a chance to interact with your family free from the worries of your stressful work life.

Simply enjoying time with your family is truly the best part of any holiday. It helps to create memories and strengthen the bonds that hold us close. This helps us capture the magic of an old fashioned Christmas. Old and new traditions alike can be shared and enjoyed by all. A perfect example is that of decorating the Christmas tree. In the old traditional way the Christmas ornaments were traditionally made from hard cookies. The cookies can be baked, decorated and hung by the entire family. This is an extremely inexpensive way to adorn a tree but it is also one of the most enjoyable ways to spend time with your family and loved ones.

Hanging your Christmas stockings under the fireplace on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to drop by and fill them up with Christmas gifts is another part of the Christmas festivity that kids especially love. You can also involve children in simple Christmas crafts that will not only be fun but educational too.

You can start to buy Christmas gifts from discount stores or directly from manufacturers and also use discount vouchers and credit card reward points to buy the gifts as this will help you to spend less and still get good gifts. There are lots of ways to save money during the holiday season while still enjoying all the fun that goes along with Christmas. The truth is that some of the least expensive gifts and activities are the most fun and memorable. Create an exciting fun time in a cost effective way by adding new traditions to your family activities and making things by yourself.

Writing letters to Santa Claus is one activity that kids love to do. It’s thought provoking and fun, and it doesn’t cost anything to do. This helps parents out by providing them with a list of the things that the kids want for Christmas. In turn, some parents even write letters to their children and grand children from Santa. While this is a nice idea you can also send customized Christmas letters from Santa to your kids during the holiday season. These packages always bring a twinkle to children’s eyes and these become moments that you both end up cherishing for life.

Bookmark and Share

Friday, April 16, 2010

Christmas Festivity Brings Love and Respect

This article post was written after a discussion I had with one of my neighbors. Fran, my neighbor, wanted to know how to bring up the subject of writing letters to Santa Claus – according to Fran her nieces and nephews do not traditionally write letters to Santa. At first I thought she was joking but after a serious expression I could tell that she was indeed sincere.

It turns out that my friend will soon have her nieces and nephews living with her. This will be her first Christmas to design the holiday for children. Obviously I did what I could to come up with some quick ideas – but I will be available to help Fran when the holiday season approaches. Anyway, in case you may be in the same or similar situation as my friend Fran, here you go – if you want a simple way of bringing up the idea of Santa letters and other things related to Santa Claus just read this post.

Start by making an announcement to the kids, “Come on children it’s time to write a letter to Santa Claus for all the gifts you want for Christmas. Santa Claus will work hard to see that his elves make the gifts in their workshop so each and every child around the world can get his Christmas present."

Santa’s elves are ready to make the Christmas occasion a magical one and Santa is eagerly waiting to hear from you so make a list of all the Christmas presents you dream of and Santa will surely try to send you those presents on Christmas Eve.

You can share your likes and dislikes with Santa as everything is kept confidential and you can start off with the most important items first and then continue on with a sequential order of importance so that you may get the things that you need more urgently first. It is important that you start to behave yourself as Santa knows the good and the bad that you do.

Santa Claus lives in his own secret world and also has a secret workshop. The strange thing is that Santa can hear the good all the bad that you end up doing and the elves jot all your deeds down in their gigantic notebooks. They keep a close watch on the children who lend a helping hand and try to help others in need.

Santa Claus chooses gifts for the children according to the good deeds that they do and if the child is good enough Santa personally visits him and presents him the most precious gifts that he longs for. Start off by giving a little bit during this joyous season from your heart – always remember that it is the thought that counts.

Send Christmas Holiday Cards to your family and friends because these Christmas cards show that you care and think of them and they experience a feeling of being loved and they respect this little gift of happiness with joy. With all the joy of the Christmas festivity that is spread around you need to hug your loved ones and show them that love and respect that is in the air.

Actually Christmas is not only about gifts, it is the season of loving and caring for each other as it is the thought that counts and these valuable gifts are worthless in front of the love and respect that you have for each other during the Christmas festivity. So stay positive and be good all the year round and you will surely have many moments of love that you can cherish for your life.

All of these suggestions can be improvised to meet your own ideas and needs.


Bookmark and Share

Monday, April 5, 2010

Making Your Own Christmas Cake As The Kids Write Letters To Santa

As children reflect on whether what they wrote in their letters to Santa was accurate, you can go ahead and create a fantastic Christmas cake. A Christmas cake usually consists of fragrant spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Not only does it fill the house with a delicious Christmas smell, you can bake as you listen to your children talk to each other regarding what each one included in their letters to Santa Claus. That is always a big part of my fun during the holiday. One grandson is very secretive about everything and another grandchild will tell you everything and more than you would ever want to know. Take my word for, including this tradition is as much fun for the adults as it is for the kids. After all, children are only young once, and to fill it with fun filled traditions just like this one will make Christmas an extra special occasion for them, as well as sharpen their letter-writing skills.

Okay – back to the cake! Undeniably, it is quite tempting to just go ahead and buy a Christmas cake at the neighborhood bakeshop. After all, they do it best right? No matter how tempting it is to buy a Christmas cake, it is much better to make your own Christmas cake. The delicious smell coming from your oven will be something that will stay in your children’s minds when they think of Christmas all their lives. Making your own Christmas cake will give them a dimension of Christmas they will remember forever.

Here is an easy Christmas cake recipe which will put a smile on everyone’s faces each Christmas. Ingredients include raisins, chopped prunes and an equal amount for pitted dates that you have chopped, sultanas and currants, glazed cherries and an equal amount for dark chocolate, a cup of brandy or rum according to your preference, a cup and a half of dark brown sugar, a teaspoon vanilla, four eggs, half a cup of apricot jam and another half a cup of apricot nectar, a couple of cups of plain flour and half a cup of self-rising flour. You will also need a tablespoon cinnamon and another one of tablespoon of icing sugar.

The first thing you need to do is mix all the fruit in the list in a large mixing bowl and add the rum or the brandy. You need to let this soak overnight for best results. Next, preheat your oven to about three hundred and twenty five degrees Fahrenheit. Line a nine-inch round cake pan with two layers of parchment or baking paper on the bottom and on each side.

Next, you need to mix the vanilla, butter and sugar until the entire mixture is creamy. Add in each egg individually and beat well until the entire thing is combined. Stir the fruit into the mixture and make sure that you have mixed it thoroughly. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for about half a minute. Take it out of the microwave and stir in the apricot nectar and jam. Pour this over the fruit mix and stir it well. Add in all the cinnamon and the flour and fold.

Pour this into the prepared cake tin and spread it very evenly. In order to settle the contents, tap it a couple of times on the table. You can then bake the tin in the middle of the oven right in the center for three hours. Test the center with a toothpick to see if it is done. Remove the cake from the oven, cover it with a towel and let it sit in your counter overnight. The next day, unmold the cake and sprinkle with sugar.

Trust me – you will love this cake and you can adjust the amounts of the ingredients to suit yourself.

Bookmark and Share