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Inflatable Outdoor Xmas Decorations

December 20th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

An inflatable outdoor Christmas decoration can turn a bare yard into a delightful display that people of all ages will love. There are tons of options available and you can create a great impression for your friends, family and neighbors. Choosing which inflatable outdoor Christmas decoration is fun and the kids can have a great time on the adventure.

I love decorating in themes and I chose The Grinch Who Stole Christmas as this year’s theme. We found the perfect inflatable outdoor Christmas decoration for the project. My kids loved going to the store to find the item and they really loved seeing the inflatable Christmas decoration in action.

The Grinch blow-up unit is huge and it takes up quite a bit of space but it space well spent. The kids adore this inflatable outdoor Christmas decoration because of its massive size. They keep talking about the giant Grinch in their front yard at school and at church. I love seeing them so excited.

The inflatable outdoor decoration lights up as well so it really shows up in the evening. When we go out the kids always say that they hope we stay out until after dark so they can point out the glowing Grinch from a distance. The bright display is so vivid that the lights on the house pale in comparison.

My oldest sings “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch,” whenever we approach the inflatable outdoor decoration and the younger kids laugh and sing along. Sometimes the kids dance and play around the massive yard ornament. We are building such great memories around the decorative item.

My husband and I love the product because it is really simple to set up. The inflatable outdoor Christmas decoration runs on air that blows up from underneath the billowy structure. The Macy’s Day Parade pales in comparison to the large inflatable Christmas decoration and it is the pride of our holiday home.

I used to associate the sounds of Christmas carols and jingle bells to the holiday season. Now the vacuum-like sound of the inflatable outdoor Christmas decoration fills my mind with holiday cheer as well.

Even though I sometimes look at the snow globe inflatable decoration with envy, I think that we made the right decision for our family. All and all I have to say that we absolutely love the inflatable outdoor Christmas decoration and we will for years and years to come.

Decorating for Christmas

December 19th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

There is nothing better than the very first day of December. The holiday season is my absolute favorite time of the year and I look forward to decorating for Christmas right after Halloween. I make myself hold off until the first day of December. Once that day shows up on the calendar, I start the official thrill of decorating for Christmas. I grew up in a household where Christmas was always a big ordeal. My mom decorated the entire house and some of the outside trees and bushes. Everything always looked like a page of a magazine. She loved doing it. I suppose I have the love for decorating for Christmas in my system because I definitely look forward to it every year.

I focus first on the outside of the house. I cannot stand when people decorate haphazardly and seem to just toss their Christmas lights on the bushes and trees. Take a few moments to look like you are organized and have pride in your decorating skills. When I am decorating for Christmas, I want my house to look like my mother's used to - elegant. I only use the white twinkling lights in all of my decorating. I secure the outside Christmas lights to their chosen bushes, trees and front porch, and then tackle the inside of the house. I have a gorgeous spiral staircase that I absolutely love decorating for Christmas. I wrap the white lights up the staircase banister. My husband loves when I decorate the staircase. We have made it a family tradition to pick out our Christmas tree. Last year, we decided to cut down our own tree and it turned out to be a memorable experience.

It was not an experience I plan on repeating. My husband, daughter and I decided to go tree shopping on an incredibly cold, snowy day thinking that it would further set the mood. Instead, we argued and froze for hours. Sure, we did find a wonderful tree but the entire day consisted of nitpicking and complaining. This year, we'll simply visit the local Boy Scouts tree sale lot and bring it home without any major hassles. The best part of decorating for Christmas is the tree. After the lights are perfectly placed, the fun begins. Each one of us has our own favorite ornaments that we have to place in the perfect location. Decorating for Christmas is not complete without the carols softly playing in the background. I can't help but love the holiday season.

Decorating for Christmas has been effective in not only being a seasonal hobby for me but it has also become something that my family looks forward to. It brings us together during the most wonderful season of the year.

Fun In The Christmas Village

December 18th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

I am a Christmas fanatic. I love everything about the season. I love the colder weather, the warmer clothes, baking goodies, entertaining and decorating the house. Each year I add to my collection of Christmas items. My husband gets distressed about this because we do not have a great deal of storage space. I have found the perfect solution. I have started a Christmas village. I started collecting houses for a Christmas village several years ago after I was given one as a gift. I used to display the houses through out the living room and dining room areas. Three years ago I decided to place them all in one area to create a winter scene.

We have a large bay window in our foyer. There is a shelf that is three feet wide and four feet deep in this area. During the summer I grow herbs in this space, but during the winter months it does not get enough light. I decided that this would be the perfect place to have my Christmas village. I place the fluffy white fabric on the shelf to create a look of snow for the scene. I place blocks of wood under the cloth to create hills and valleys for my Christmas village. I have collected a church, post office, general store, restaurant, school house and several houses.

Each year I purchase something new for the Christmas village to help create the scene of a small town at the turn of the century. Some years I buy additional people figurines to add to the scene and other years I have bought lampposts, ice skating rinks and a newsstand. This year I found a park set that has a bridge to place over a river, a gazebo and children making a snowman. This will create another area in my Christmas village. I do have Christmas trees, a Santa Claus area and a manager scene. I put these out when I set up the village the day after Thanksgiving and then I remove them after Christmas and leave the village scene up until the end of February.

The Christmas village is fun for adults and children to look at. Being located in the foyer, people look at it as they are removing their coats and boots. It is out of the way so it does not take up counter space and it is easily stored in one plastic container. This is a great idea to have in any size home because it is so compact.

Christmas Gift Wrapping Paper

December 18th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

This holiday season you can easily make your gifts stand out from the pile by picking simple prints and embellishing the package or by making your own Christmas wrapping paper. Each is fairly easy and inexpensive, but makes a huge impression before the recipient even opens the gift.

To embellish gifts, you want to choose a simple print on the Christmas wrapping paper such as simple snowflakes, plaids or stars. Sometimes the wrapping paper can go overboard and you don’t want your added embellishments to clash or compete with the paper pattern. You then run the risk of the box looking cheesy rather than fantastic! The Christmas wrapping paper may look boring at the store when you purchase it, but adding ornaments, jingle bells, candy canes and bows will make that simple Christmas wrapping paper look like something that was wrapped by a professional.

You can even personalize the actual paper by making your own Christmas wrapping paper. It is very simple and inexpensive, you just have to delegate the time during the busy season! To make sure it is completed, you can always start a few months beforehand and just store the paper until it is needed. To make your own paper, you will need a roll of packing or mailing paper. It is that brown or white kraft paper that you see in craft stores and often in super stores around the mail supply aisles. This paper generally costs less than three dollars per roll and you get quite a bit, especially compared to your usual Christmas wrapping paper that you purchase.

All you need in addition to this paper is a supply of paint or stamping materials. The easiest type of paper to make is with child’s handprints in holiday colors, which is just perfect for those gifts for the grandparents. Other ideas are to cut out simple shape stamps from unused sponges including Christmas trees, stars or snowflakes. All you need to do it dip your sponge stamps into paint and then place on the paper. This is an ideal family craft to do with your young ones and everyone that receives your gifts will appreciate the effort! If you are a stamper, ink and purchased stamps are also an ideal way to make your own paper. You can get quite creative while making your own Christmas wrapping paper and you will most likely save money while impressing your gift recipients!

Christmas Rubber Stamps

December 17th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Several years ago stamping parties were a very popular thing. People were buying all kinds of stamps as well as ink pads to make creative cards. A friend of mine was having a stamping party. I did not think I would be interested in getting into this, but I felt obligated to go. The demonstrator had many different stamps as well as ink pads and colored pens to make your cards. She also had a variety of card stock paper and matching envelopes. The stamps ranched from very general to Christmas rubber stamps. She discussed the importance in making sure the stamps are made of rubber so that they will stamp well and hold their image.

It is an expensive project to get into if you are going to purchase the paper, the pens, ink pads and the stamps. I thought out of all the things that I saw the Christmas rubber stamps would be something that I would use. We often times have gatherings at Christmas so I thought I could use the Christmas rubber stamps to create invitations. I was trying to decide which ink pads to purchase when the demonstrator asked me what my main use for the stamps would be. I explained that I thought I would make invitations. She mentioned that I could also make my own to from gift tags for presents. She suggested that I buy the markers rather than the ink pads. She said if I was not planning on doing a great deal of stamping I could use the markers for other things, where the ink pads are strictly used for stamping.

When my Christmas rubber stamps and other supplies arrived I began experimenting on scratch paper with the stamps and markers. One of the stamps had a pine bough with a pine cone on it. I cut tag size pieces of paper and began making to from tags for gifts. I also used a stamp that had a dove with olive branch image on it for our invitations. I used bright white heavy paper for the invitations and used a blue for the dove and brown and green for the olive branch. I used the same blue marker to write you are invited on the front of the card. They turned out very nice. I also used some of the card stock paper to create bookmarkers that I used the Christmas rubber stamps on. I enjoyed what I made however the projects are quite time consuming. I have a better time creating cards on the computer using clip art and different fonts.

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