Monday, December 24, 2012
How much will we spend this year? And what's the best-selling Christmas song of all time? Find the answers below.
We know that there were three Wise Men, 12 days of Christmas and that Santa delivers all his presents around the world in one night. But did you know... $23,439.38 How much it would cost to buy your "true love" all the gifts in the 12 Day of Christmas . 12.9 billion hours, $447 billion How many hours Americans were expected to spend shopping, wrapping and returning gifts last year. That was about 42 hours and $688.87 per person. Get your postman/postwoman a gift According to Hallmark, Christmas is the largest card-sending occasion . Nearly 1.5 billion cards are sent to friends and family every Christmas Season. (That's actually down 400 million cards since 2004.) $983 million The value of U.S. imports of Christmas tree ornaments from …
Saturday, December 22, 2012
A look at the hot toys for tots this holiday season.
Every holiday season, the mailbox fills with the latest toy catalogs. Children peruse the pages as they scribble their lists, daydreaming about what they will find under the tree come Christmas morning. Parents pull out their pocketbooks, spending hard-earned cash as they anticipate the joy on those little faces. What will be the runaway favorites this year is always a guess, but here are some of the latest trends, mixed with tried-and-true perennial favorites. jChews Smartphone teether by Jellystone No tears for parents or babies. Babies love nothing more than to gum Mom and Dad’s cell phone, but now they’ll be too intrigued with their own smartphone to chew on. The Jellystone smartphone teether comes in seven funky colors and is BPA …
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Need a quick holiday cookie recipe? Make one of these for your parties this season.
One of the most important holiday questions to ask yourself is: What kind of cookies will you be baking for your get-togethers this season? From sweet to savory, holiday cookies come in all shapes and sizes. And what’s better than to top off a tray of cookies than a glass of homemade eggnog? You can check out myrecipes.com to learn how to host a successful cookie swap and view more holiday cookie recipes. You can also head down to Splurge Bakery, Patch Readers' Choice 2012 award winner, or check out Bella's Bakery if you don't feel like making the sweets yourself. Want to do it yourself? Check out the recipes below: Eggnog In a saucepan over low heat combine milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, cinnamon stick and clove. Bring to a slow boil…
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Secret codes, sagas
My husband and I grew up with very different gift-giving rituals at Christmas. Luckily, we have two Christmases: One with my husband's family and one with my family. Room for his and hers traditions. To answer the "what do you want for Christmas" question, his side of the family efficiently uses Amazon wish lists and passes around want lists by email. My side asks each other what we would like, then we either get the best-of-the-best version of that thing or, more fun, we take that information and go off-listing and try to think of something that we think the person would like, but wouldn't even think of themselves. A risky challenge, I know, but when it pays off, there is nothing better. On our secret mission to find that perfect present…
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
History of family Christmases remembered in ornaments
The annual opening of the boxes of Christmas ornaments I've collected over the years has become like pulling out old photographs and revisiting years' worth of memories. Although I didn't mean to, my saving ornaments has added up to nothing less than a family and personal history in glitter and glass. Ornaments from other family collections are now part of mine. Not that they are precious or pricey, but some of these ordinary ornaments from years ago have come to be the last tangible trinket from a particular time and place. Digging through the box is like digging through a family time capsule. The satin, golden drum first appeared as one of many on our artificial, all-white, trimmed-in-gold-satin tree my mother bought sometime in the mid-…
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Remembering the excitement of holiday TV specials
You might expect a column about gratitude the week right after Thanksgiving. I certainly have a lot to be thankful for, but instead of using the Thanksgiving moment to reflect, I choose to do as Macy's and NBC do: I choose to use Thanksgiving to hype Christmas. When I was a kid, I soaked up all the hype I could from television. My sister and I got ourselves into a holiday frenzy watching everything that '70s TV had to offer. The viewing began with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, then we watched each holiday classic we had circled in the TV Guide. We watched all the standards: "How the Grinch Stole Christmas;" any and all of the Rankin/Bass claymation specials; the Charlie Brown specials; and the Christmas variety shows (anyone remember…
Scott Helming
1:21 pm on Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Actually, there is no firm evidence there were three wise men. We know if three gifts, hence the thought of three persons...An ongoing mystery! more ›