Letters From Santa & Christmas Trees

If you celebrate Christmas, chances are you will celebrate the holiday season with a Christmas tree in your house. Although all across the nation there will be Christmas trees decorated this holiday season, none will be exactly like yours. Christmas trees are a tradition – many of us plan a special day of writing letters to Santa (and dreaming of getting letters from Santa!) and decorating the Christmas tree.

You may choose to use a theme in your decoration, or even stick with one or two colors. Using a theme is nice because it helps makes the shopping experience easier when you are purchasing your decorations – it helps you focus in.  Most of us have some great decorations that we use year after year – so we want to always find a way to fit those in with what we do every year.

Department stores or even drug stores are usually the least expensive places to purchase Christmas ornaments and other decorations. This means you should be able to purchase your Christmas tree decorations, whether it’s lights or ornaments, at a relatively affordable price.  Another place to check is a dollar store. It’s amazing what you can find in these shops.

Christmas specialty shops are another option and depending on where you live, you are likely to have at least one or two of these shops near you. The only concern about these Christmas shops is that they tend to have high prices on their items; however, the quality is often better than what you usually find in typical department stores. 

If you don’t have one of these shops near you, you can still find great Christmas decorations online. Countless websites offer high quality, elegant Christmas tree decorations and ornaments. Other ideas you might want to keep in mind include companies or individuals that specialize in creating unique, handcrafted Christmas ornaments.  As you might expect, handcrafted Christmas ornaments, especially those that are customized, can be quite expensive.  Another option is creating some of your own Christmas decorations. There are lots of websites that offer instructions for Christmas craft projects – and most of them are easy to do. 

As mentioned earlier, there is a good chance that you already have a collection of Christmas tree decorations saved from previous years.  Re-using these older decorations can save you lots of money – seeing those older ornaments has a way of bringing back memories from days gone by.

The Christmas decoration business has become a huge business. In fact, it seems that as soon as Halloween is over the Christmas decorations are on the shelves at our local department stores. While shopping for Christmas decorations is fun, the best part is trimming the tree with someone you love.

Have a Chic Christmas - All About Style and Fashion for the Holidays

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    In New York, a style capital of the world, black is always a chic and
fashionable selection. That's even more so in the Fall and Winter seasons when
dark colors are favored. But even the fashionistas who like somber colors add a
bit of sparkle and cheer to Christmas and holiday clothing with some color,
usually magnificent red.

    Dominant colors at Christmas are red, black and white and a red scarf, or
a white one, is a must-have accessory.

    Holiday-themed apparel with snowflakes, candy canes, stars, Christmas
trees, are also popular during the season. Along with being colorful, they also
convey the message that the person is fully embracing the spirit of the season
and is in a festive mood. When individuals wear holiday-themed apparel, they are
therefore radiating a positive attitude and giving the signal that it is
pleasant to be around them. After all, nobody wants to be around the 'grumpy
bah-humbug' type of personalities during the Christmas season.

    Holiday-themed jewelry also works well as accessories. These can add that
little sparkle to an outfit that makes it stand out in an admirable way.
Holiday-themed jewelry is also perfect for those individuals who simply want to
show a touch of the holiday spirit without having to actually wear holiday-
themed apparel because it maybe too different from the conservative style of
their wardrobe.

    It is necessary to add some sparkle to apparel during the Christmas season
and current style trends of having jewel-engraved or embroidered tops play well
for the Christmas season. They will allow the wearer to look festive in a very
understated but elegant way.

    Fall popular styles will also undoubtedly be a fashionable way to dress
for the holidays. Based on the Fall Fashion Shows in New York, there are five
basic outfits that stylists say should be in the wardrobe of all women. They
are: the Tunic, Winter Short - which is cut just above the knee - the Vest,
Pencil Skirt and the Super-wide pant.

    The vest can be a dressy one with embroidery or other adornments, or it
can be more minimal based on the overall outfit. The Winter Short and Pencil
Skirt can easily convert from working outfit to party wear with the right
accessory, making them perfect to wear to an early evening Christmas or holiday
party. A variation from the Pencil Skirt is the Pencil dress. This too is likely
to be popular for Christmas as it can be easily accessorized with a broad belt,
which is one of the accessories that top fashion advisers say is a 'must-have'
accessory for the Fall.

    The Tunic and Super-wide pant are also liked for Christmas and the Holiday
season because they are very flexible in how they can be paired with other
garments.

Another fall fashion staple are Knit Sweaters - oversized and as tunics. They
will also work well with black tights and leggings, which has made a comeback in
leg wear. Leggings can be worn under skirts or dresses. Very slim leggings can
also be worn simply in place of pants, worn with a jacket or again, with an
oversized knit sweater. Using the basic colors of red, white and black that are
popular during Christmas and the holidays, colored leggings will definitely add
a nice touch of style to outfits and make them seem perfect for the Christmas
and holiday season.

    It is also good that dresses are once more welcomed among the fashionable.
And the red dress for Fall fits well into Christmas and the holiday season.
The latest in jeans, which is a mainstay in everyone's wardrobe and suitable to
wear at all times including during Christmas and the holidays, is that a skinny
fit is in. And if ultra-skinny is not very complimentary to your body shape, you
can still get one of the newer types of jeans that are said to have a lot more
stretch, giving a 360-degree or all-around wrap to the body for a perfect or
near perfect fit.

    And since Christmas is the season to be happy and cheery, the truly jolly
can always top off their Christmas outfit with a cone-shaped, red and white
Santa hat.

Asides - Interesting Facts/ Notes About Christmas

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    It is an accepted fact that the Christmas tree tradition is one that was
brought to the shores of America by German immigrants who continued a practice
that was popular in their former homeland. Today, a Christmas tree, even a
miniature one, is present in just about every home at Christmas. It is therefore
interesting to note some little-know facts about the Christmas Tree and other
traditions related to Christmas.

    The first interesting fact is the source of real Christmas Trees for some
Americans. These can be bought at a Christmas Tree Farm or at many local stores
and other places of business in just about every town and city across the
country around Christmas time. But according to the National Christmas Tree
Association, Americans buy about 330,000 Christmas trees that are real through
e-commerce or from a catalogue and have them shipped by mail-order.

The scent of real Christmas trees is the reason they are so popular. But as they
stand silently in their decorative wonder, they also are providing another
benefit. The Christmas Tree Association says the amount of oxygen produced on a
daily basis by one acre of Christmas tree is enough to provide enough oxygen for
18 people. And during the first week, a Christmas Tree at home will use up to
one quart of water each day to help retain its longevity for the many days of
Christmas.

Since Christmas celebrations gained popularity in America, the Christmas Tree
has always been a big tradition. During the 1950s however, artificial Christmas
trees were not always green. It was very popular during those times to have
artificial trees with other colors such as silver, pink and aqua. The appeal in
having these colored Christmas trees may have been due to the fact that they
looked shiny and bright and appeared like tinsel instead of green foliage.
An important ceremony related to the Christmas tree that gains national
attention during the Christmas season is the lighting of the National Christmas
Tree at the White House. This tradition can be credited to President Calvin
Coolidge who lit the first decorated Christmas tree outside at the White House
in 1923.

The lighting of the National Christmas Tree has also been used to convey some
symbolic meaning not related to Christmas. It was not lighted until Dec. 22 in
1963 because of a national mourning period of 30 days for the assassination of
President Kennedy. And while Teddy Roosevelt was President he gave an order that
banned the Christmas tree from the White House, not for the assassination of
President McKinley in 1901, which caused him to become president, but for
reasons related to the environment.

Also of note is that when the National Christmas Tree was lighted on Dec. 13 in
1984, temperatures were in the 70s during an unusually warm December.
Christmas has been celebrated in the United States since the 1600s although it
wasn't always very popular. It took more than two centuries into the mid-late
1860s for Christmas to become a popular holiday season all across America. So
maybe the rest of the country owes the holiday of Christmas Day to the state of
Alabama, which in 1836 became the first state to declare Dec. 25 a legal
holiday.

It is interesting to note that on Christmas Day of 1789 Congress was in session.
And to show how far ahead of the game Alabama was, it wasn't until June 26, 1870
that the federal government declared Christmas as a federal holiday.
Although Christmas is based on the Christian religion, not all Christian groups
celebrate the season. Among the Christian groups who do not celebrate Christmas
and related traditions such as sending greeting cards are Jehovah Witnesses.
Jehovah Witnesses and other non-participating Christian groups say Christmas
isn't specifically mentioned in the Bible as a time or reason to celebrate and
since they strictly adhere to the word of the Bible, they refuse to celebrate
Christmas.