The Christmas Tree

Gathering the family around to decorate the tree is one of the most popular holiday traditions that just about everyone enjoys doing! Bringing out the all the different ornaments that have been collected throughout the years will bring back memorable moments from the past. Read more »

If asked most people will state that the best part of the Christmas season is all the beautiful decorations and yummy food! Everyone adores all the sweets, cookies, cakes, pies and candy, but they also like all the cheery and warm decorations that abound everywhere!\r\n\r\nIf you are on a tight budget you might feel like you cannot offer much for the holidays, but as they saying goes, \’it\’s not the cost of the gift that counts, it\’s the thought\’. Just take a look around at what you have to work with, and of course you can always give some kind of baked goods or other homemade goodies.\r\n\r\nWhen my children were small we did not have much money, but I would make massive batches of different kind of cookies and then put them in cookie tins or on sturdy paper plates wrapped in cellophane! They were always one gift I knew would always be loved regardless if the recipient were young or old!\r\n\r\nDecorating is another thing that can be done without having a huge budget to work with. Maybe you have some decorations from previous years or you can pick up some simple red, green and gold streamers to decorate around the house.\r\n\r\nIf you have some old Christmas baby clothes or stuffed teddy bears around perhaps you could put them in a small child\’s chair by draping the sweater over the chair and have the bear sitting snuggled in the corner of the chair. Find a nice corner of the room to place the chair,or near the tree if possible.\r\n\r\nCandles are another thing that always add a nice touch and they can provide the atmosphere with some wonderful scents as well. The small votive candles are affordable and can be used in a number of ways for decorations. For instance you could put some votive candles floating on some water in a festive bowl of some kind or place them in groups of 3 on a small plate and scatter them around on the end tables or coffee tables.\r\n\r\nCandy canes are always popular and don\’t cost much. You can hang them around at various places or make some candy cane bouquets and place them in some green or red glasses or other festive glasses you may have. It\’s not about much you spend it\’s about spreading a tiny Christmas cheer in the best way you can.

Now the gifts have all been opened and paper is strewn around the room, but that doesn\’t mean the fun has to be over! How about some fun games to make the day even more memorable! Read more »

Fun Christmas Games at the Office\r\n\r\nGift exchanges aren\’t just limited to family members, most workplaces will have their own form of fun gift exchanges as well. For the workplace the \’white elephant\’ or \’secret Santa\’ gift exchanges are the most popular ones.\r\n\r\nThe most common gift exchange for the office is the \”white elephant\” method.  The rules will normally vary from one office the next but in general, they will set a price limit on the gifts and the idea is to bring some sort of fun gift that the recipient will like.\r\n\r\nWhen the gift exchange day arrives everyone who brought a gift will draw a number and they will get to pick a gift in the order of the number they drew.  After the first person has chosen his or her gift and opened it the next one can choose to open a new gift or \”take\” one that someone else already has. However a gift can\’t be \’taken\’ more than 3 times. The game continues until everyone has a gift.\r\n\r\nThe \’Secret Santa\’ game is another popular office gift exchange game. There are no hard fast rules as to how it should be played so they can vary from one place to another. One method is to have the participants make a list of what they would like to get but there would also be a set dollar amount of what the gift could cost so the items on the list would have to meet that criteria. Usually the dollar amount will be about $10-$20.\r\n\r\nThen all the participants’ names are put into a container so everyone can draw names. Then whatever name you draw will be the person you have to buy for.  What makes it a \’secret\’ is the recipient doesn\’t know who got their name. When the gift exchange day arrives you put the gift on the desk of the recipient before they arrive for work and you don\’t want to let anyone else see you do it either. This way it remains a secret. However some offices may decide to have the gifts come with a card attached that tells who the gift came from, so that the recipient will know who to state \”thank you\” to.