In Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, there is a most incredible place nestled in the foothills of the mountains with over 30,000 square feet of Christmas shops and displays, with decorated trees, life size nativity scenes, Santaland for the kids, and more.

Here is also The Inn at Christmas Place, which is a 145-room 4-star hotel featuring year-round Christmas décor, in-room fireplaces and decorations of wreaths, swags, trees, figurines, and winter prints throughout the rooms and public areas.

A visit to this place will bring you the right Christmas spirit throughout the whole year.

Christmas cards are a splendid way to stay in touch with friends and relatives just as sending them your best wishes! Making the Christmas cards your own this year is not only fun, but will mean something as well to the recipient.

What do you need?

Paper – Check out the craft store or stationary shop for card stock. Other papers that are sturdy are fine too. Scraps of wallpaper are good for making cards and more economical.

Pens – Use pens in different colors, preferably dark colors.

Ruler – To make your work neat, use a ruler!

Glue – A regular glue stick will work for gluing paper bits, but it is recommendable to have some fabric glue at hand for the more creative cards.

Decorations –photos, stickers, ribbons, bows, and any other decoration or embellishments you may wish to use.

Scissors - A fine-pointed, sharp scissor that is small enough to work with smaller pieces of paper or fabric.

Envelopes

How to Make the Christmas Cards:

Take your paper and use the ruler to mark out the card size that you prefer. The postcard will need to fit nicely in your envelope of course. Take double the size of the envelope, to create a folded card. Then cut the paper.

Once the paper is cut, fold the card.

On the front side of your card, you can glue a family photo, a picture of a reindeer, Santa Claus or a Christmas tree.

Decorate the edges of the card with decorations of your choice. These could be stickers with phrases as “Merry Christmas!” or red and green ribbons. Use your ink pens to write your wish on the front of the card. Or cut out Christmas greetings from magazines or brochures.

Make sure that you let your card dry before you start to work on the inside of the card. You can work on other cards at the same time.

Don’t forget to write your name in ink, since a printed name is not very considerate.

Now you’re ready to put the Christmas cards into envelopes, address them, and send them off in time for the holidays.

Your baby’s first Christmas is an experience you will remember the rest of your life. Unfortunately young babies and lots of thrill and unfamiliar visitors do not always mix. You wind up with a howling and over stimulated infant as opposed to holding a tranquil bundle of delight in your arms if you’re not careful.

Obviously everybody wants to be part of your baby’s first Christmas. The upshot is more often than not that you spent most of the day visiting various relatives, or your entire extended family shows up on your doorstep. The last thing you want is ending up with a Christmas that’s exhausting to both you and the baby. Instead, ask relatives to understand that you can’t do so many things this Christmas and suggest seeing them on a different day instead. Then relax and have a comfy Family Christmas with the new baby.

Babies are normally most comfortable in a familiar situation and unfortunately Christmas is not a year round event. The baby will probably see a lot of new people in the house, or maybe is taken to visit other places. It is not strange at all that your baby is not overjoyed at the idea of staying in the arms of yet another person. Keep favorite blankies or familiar toys close by to comfort her.

Of course there will be lots of new toys and other Christmas presents for the baby, often in bright colors and sometimes noisy. Too much excitement, however, can easily add to overstimulation, which in turn will make your baby irritable and tired. Do not give your baby too many new toys at the same time, but give her time to explore one while you keep the rest for other days to come.

Babies are very receptive to mom’s feelings. The best method to keep your baby calm is for you to relax. When things start to get stressful, take a deep breath and calm yourself. Take a break every now and then from chaotic family reunions and find a quiet room to feed your baby and take a nap. When you and your baby are rested you can fully enjoy your baby’s first Christmas.

Furthermore, do not forget to save mementos from your baby’s first Christmas, take lots of pictures or video’s and write down the memorable details of the celebration. Buy your baby’s first Christmas ornament and make it a tradition of buying a new Christmas ornament each year.

If you belong to the rare group of people who gets their Christmas shopping done early on every year, you most likely receive a great deal of unpleasant glance from others around the festive season. This is particularly true if routinely let others know that you have already done all of your Christmas shopping. The reason for all the mean looks is that the best part of the public does not get their Christmas shopping and still have to go through the stress of overcrowded shopping malls and unavailable items. The fact that malls and shopping centers are so over-crowded in the last few days before Christmas proves that so many people wait until the last opportunities to buy something.

If you are part of that vast majority of people who spend every year last minute Christmas shopping and hate yourself for it each and every year, here are some tips to get your Christmas shopping done and over with quickly this year.

A first suggestion to get your Christmas shopping done is doing a great deal of Christmas shopping for the next year in the first few days after Christmas. This may sound weird and is only an option of it is financially possible for you. On the other hand, if you do this every year, you will actually save quite some money, since many shops are holding sales in these days. All the shops still carry typical Christmas gift items and you are probably very much in the Christmas spirit. Also, you usually have the best gift ideas right after the gift giving of this year.

A second idea for completing your Christmas shopping in time is to shop online. This is the best option if you are shopping for Christmas gifts for faraway relatives. Most online retailers will wrap your gift in an elegant box and send it directly to the recipient. Now you won’t have to wrap it up by yourself and stand in the line at the post office.

A third plan to get your Christmas shopping done early is spreading it over the whole year. Whenever you have to go out to buy a birthday gift for someone, buy two gifts for this person. One of the gifts is for the birthday and you store the other one for Christmas. This strategy does work best if you have a very solid group of people that you buy gifts for, like family members. You might still need to do some last minute shopping for a new colleague or any other distant friend.

Of course, there are people who love last minute Chrismas shopping. Some of them might see it as
a challenge. Other shoppers intentionally wait until the last minute to do their Christmas shopping because they like the excitement of the crowds. It gives them a sense of energy and get right into the Christmas spirit. However, joining the crowds for the atmosphere, while in your head you know that all shopping is done and wrapped at home already, or on the way by post to distant relatives, might be more relaxed.