I am a 22 year old female. I love to travel to new place, and have mainly traveled within the United States; however, this last Christmas changed that. Last Christmas, my parents surprised me with a gift of round trip plan tickets to travel to Munich, Germany and Paris, France in March.

I loved this gift. They told me that my Christmas gift would be the best gift I have ever gotten and teased me about it for weeks and they were right. The only place I had ever been outside the country was Mexico, and living in Texas, that is easy to accomplish.

My father was born in Germany, so I was excited to see what it is like to spend time there and learn more about my heritage. I was also excited to go to France. My mother went when she was a few years younger than I am now, as a graduation gift from her parents. Read More »

As a Christian family, Christmas holidays mean a great deal to us. What we do every year, right after Thanksgiving, is to begin preparing for the Christmas “setup”, as we call it.

We have keep all ornaments and decorations in the attic. Every year we try to buy something new to add to our collection. But our greatest tradition is to use the same ornaments year after year.

We have some ornaments that date back to the 1970’s. These include crystal balls that our kids have decorated themselves, either in school projects or at home. Of special value to us is a small Angel, made out of plastic, that was decorated by one of our children who is now deceased.

He made that angel when he was about 5 years old. It consists of a plain, regular, white, plastic angel, as you normally find in any store. But he had decorated it in a very special way. Using glue and glitter he painted the wings in glittery white paint, the hair was bright yellow, the robe also white and the sandals were colored light brown.

The cheeks and lips of the angel were painted red. The angel had a little halo attached to the head and my son had added special shiny silvery glitter to that part, it was quite remarkable.

Each year we placed that little angel right in the front branches of the tree. It has been many years since my son passed away but the small plastic angel still takes front row on our tree. It is faded and most of the glitter is now gone, but everyone refers to it as George’s angel and we take loving care of it.

We use many other ornaments we have accumulated throughout the years made by all of our kids and now grandkids as well. We do make new bows each year to change the overall color of the tree decorations. Read More »

Shortly after Thanksgiving, I start pulling out my Christmas stuff. I start by going to the local grocery store and buying a tree.

When I get it home I put it in the holder thingy and fill it with coke and water. The sugar in the coke helps the tree stay alive longer. I pull out some small lights that I got from Wal-Mart and wrap a couple of strings of them around the tree, the lights are colored and white.

I pop some popcorn and string the popcorn and some cranberries using a needle and thread and then string it around the tree, I used to do this with my mom when I was still home during the holidays.

After that, I pull out the holiday tin full of the decorations that my mom gave me. They are all heirloom decorations, very thin ornaments hand blown, clip on fake birds, and small tin clip on candle holders, and you know the ones they used to use to light the trees before they had lights. Read More »

I buy my Christmas decorations on clearance after Christmas. Last year at Target I purchased a tree on clearance for $5.00.

It is a 6 foot artificial Douglas fir. I bought some of my ornaments on sale the same way.

My young children wanted to decorate their own tree this year so I brought them to AC Moore on the 1st of November.

They had Christmas items on sale for 55% off. They had a huge selection, and their ornaments are just as nice as the ones I purchased elsewhere.

While I was there I looked in the children’s craft section and found some cute things I could make with the kids to set on table tops, window sills, and my counter top. Read More »

I recently went to Royal Furniture, in Key West, Florida USA, to purchase a Christmas gift for my best friend.

She has a lot of books and magazines which she has scattered around her apartment and I decided that she could use a bookcase or cabinet in order to store them away from view.

The store is in a shopping center next to where I do my grocery shopping so it is convenient. I was greeted by a woman sales clerk as soon as I entered the store.

There were signs saying that they were having a special sale and, indeed, there were sale prices on almost all of the furniture tags that were attached to the pieces.

I explained to her what I was looking for but said I would like to look around myself to see what was available. The store is rather large and it took me quite a while to check all the cabinets and their sale prices. Read More »

Yes it is a Christmas time again….. How exciting it is and it was last Christmas also.

I have two kids in my lovely little home we welcome the Christmas as much as any Christian welcome it.

There is a joy and happiness in our house. Every year we decorate the Christmas tree with lights and all kind of other things like bells, balls, angles, Santa dolls, stars and colorful strings.

We also hang small gifts over it. My kids do all the decoration and I help them with it, they are so small but then also they enjoy decorating the tree. Read More »

My favorite Christmas song as a child was “The Pretty Little Dolly” by Mona Abboud. This is from way back in 1966 and was performed live on the Johnny Carson show many years before I was born!

I first heard it on the radio while I was in the car looking at Christmas lights with my parents. I was probably around 6 years old and I thought it was the most hilarious song I had ever heard. I would go around singing this and my parents actually have it on video. They still like to show it to people to embarrass me! This song still makes me laugh whenever I hear it.

Here are the lyrics:

Dear santa claus:

my mommy and daddy said that if i was very good,
i could have whatever i wanted for christmas.

Well, i would like a dolly for christmas.
It is a very special dolly.
I saw it advertised on television.
In case you don’t know which dolly i mean,
i will try to describe it to you. Read More »

When I decorate I start by going through all of my old Christmas decorations, those class decorations that breaks I go to a department store, ie: Target or K-Mart, to purchase them.

I start decorating the windows first. I like color lights around the windows. Then I put clear lights on the tree.

I have the star put on and the tree skirt. I place ornaments around the tree skirt, such as baby Jesus, etc. Read More »

My favorite Christmas song is “White Christmas.” I grew up in NY but have lived in TN for 12 years now and have not had a single white Christmas.

I love the snow and have fond memories of sledding and snow man building from my childhood with my father who died when I was 12.

Lyrics White Christmas

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten,
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white Read More »

My favorite Christmas song is “Breath Of Heaven (Mary’s Song)” sung by Amy Grant. I know this song because my mother played the entire CD it is on every Christmas.

Amy Grant’s “Home For The Holidays” CD says Christmastime to me. I have many fond memories of listening to it and singing these songs with my mother and siblings when I was younger.

We always had it on. Starting after Thanksgiving we would start playing (Well first on tape and then on a CD). We played it while we put up our Christmas tree, we played it while we made Christmas cookies.

We played it while we wrapped Christmas presents and various other times throughout the Christmas season. It is the soundtrack to my childhood Christmas memories and this song was my favorite.

My sister and I even dressed up and acted it out once for my parents. It just such a touching, deep song and it speak of Mary at the time of Jesus’ birth which is what the Christmas holiday is all about.

Amy Grant has such a beautiful, soulful voice. Now that I am grown and have my own children I also have this CD playing during the holidays. I have taught my young daughter this song and she likes it as much as I do. Read More »