I loooove Burgundy. Love, love, love it. It's such a rich color, and it's also a color that I personally look very good in.

When burgundy is paired with gold, it gives it even a more rich quality.

I just asked my husband (whose background is graphic design) what he thought of the four Christmas ornaments below, and he said, "Instead of being 'light and fluffy,' they're more 'deep and rich.' They would work nicely as a accent for natural wood tones."




It's no secret that we're big Disney fans, so I'd have to say that my favorite of these ornaments is the Disney Park Exclusive. It's made of matte burgundy glass with red rhinestone Mickey ear heads. Wow!

We have been luck enough to have two different Disney World trips during the Christmas season: one was last November, when we stayed off-property at a Marriott, and the other was a few years ago in December, when we stayed at the Grand Floridian (which, by the way, none of us liked as much as either Port Orleans Riverside or Caribbean Beach).

Gingerbread House at the Grand Floridian

One really fun about the Grand Floridian, however, is that they have a life-size gingerbread house in the lobby that stands 16 feet tall and features 40 window panes.

I did a little research and found that it takes roughly 400 hours of baking and is made with 700 pounds of chocolate, 600 pounds of confectioner's sugar, 35 pounds of spices, and 800 pounds of flour.

Animal Kingdom never stays open past 5:00pm, so they don't have any lighted Christmas decorations, but they do have an impressive animal-themed Christmas tree to greet you at the entrance.

One thing to keep in mind if you visit Disney World during the Christmas season -- it can be cold! Last November we all wore jeans and jackets to Illuminations at Epcot, and we were still chilly enough that I almost bought a hot chocolate just to try to keep warm.

We've never attended Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, but I've heard it's really great. Here's a video of some highlights:

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party -- Magic Kingdom

If you're a Disney fan, or planning a trip there, here's my other blog where I wrote about our latest Disney vacation:

Why We Love Tusker House at Animal Kingdom

Kona Cafe at Disney's Polynesian Resort

Cool Things to Buy for Your Trip to Disney World

Our Favorite Snacks at the World Showcase in Epcot

Wait! Isn't Christmas supposed to be about things like snowflakes and earmuffs and sleigh rides and drinking hot chocolate? Why are we talking about Beach-themed Christmas stockings!

Well, these four stockings make me think of my husband's family, who live in Florida near the Gulf coast. For them, starfish and flip-flops might be more appealing decor than reindeer and snowman.

They also make me think of one of my son's friends, whose family is from Australia and staying in the United States for three years. Christmas probably makes them think of warm weather and these stockings would make total sense.

I don't have any beach Christmas decor myself, but if someday I were wealthy enough to have a beach vacation house, this is totally how I would want to decorate it for December.

One of my daughters just walked in the room, and I asked her which of these four stockings she likes the best. She said she liked the ocean coral one because her favorite color is teal.





If you are, in fact, decorating your Florida home, Australian home, or vacation beach house for Christmas, you'll want to check out this video from Debi's Design Diary of how to make this lovely "Beach Ball."

DIY Seashell Christmas Ornament

I used to make these cookies every Christmas for gifts (and myself), and I would often tell people, "Here -- these are the best cookies in the world."

Interestingly, I haven't made these cookies in years, for two reasons:

1) If I make them, I will be forced to eat large amounts of them;
2) I just can't bring myself to pour an entire cup of corn syrup into something that people will ingest (maybe I should try it with honey ... or try the corn syrup alternative in the video below)

Babe Ruth Bar Cookies

(aka "The Best Cookies in the World")

1 cup sugar

1 cup light corn syrup (or honey??)

1 cup chunky peanut butter

6 cups Special K cereal

1 6-oz package butterscotch chips

1 6-oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1) Combine sugar and corn syrup in saucepan over medium heat and bring to boil, stirring occasionally.

2) Remove from heat, then add peanut butter and mix well.

3) Stir in cereal until evenly coated, then press the mixture into  9x13 buttered pan.

4) Cool.

5) Melt chips over double boiler, stirring to blend thoroughly.

6) Spread over the cooled mixture, let cool again, then cut into bars.


Well, look at this! Here's a video on how to make your own substitute for corn syrup.

How to Make Substitute for Corn Syrup

For us, Christmas cookies are one of the hallmarks of Christmas.

I baked Christmas cookies with my mother when I was growing up, and my children make Christmas cookies every year with me. We bake cookies, decorate cookies, give cookies as gifts, and eat cookies while we drive through neighborhoods after dark looking at Christmas lights.

Of course angels, stars, trees, and snowmen make great cookies -- and I certainly wouldn't ever complain if anybody offered me any! But if you're feeling particularly festive and creative and want something a little more unique, you could add one or more of these Wilton cookie-cutter kits to your collection.

I think my favorite kit is the one one the right. I never would have thought of making a Christmas cookie shaped like a stocking or a wreath, but what a great idea! They seem to lend themselves to a lot of decorating ideas -- you could even put someone's name or initials on the stocking cookie!

I am terrible at wrapping gifts.
Just terrible!

Either I cut waaay too much wrapping paper, or I over-cut just enough so that there's a spot on the back that's uncovered (causing me to start all over again.) My wrapping paper folds are usually crooked.

And don't even get me started on the corners!

Lately, my usual solution to this problem is to get either my husband or one of my daughters to wrap all gifts for me.

Another obvious solution which I sometimes use is -- gift bags!

Gift bags are great because
a) They require no effort or skill to wrap a gift, and you completely avoid the dreaded corners;
b) They can be reused again and again.

I found these three holiday bags, all with different themes -- candy canes, snowmen, and Disney fairies. I particularly like the snowman bags. They look like something you could use not only for gifts, but also just for toting things around during the holiday season.

If small Christmas gifts go in stockings, what do huge Christmas gifts go in?

Huge Christmas gift bags, of course!

I found these these three packs of huge Christmas gift bags on Amazon.
The pack on the right is considerably cheaper than they other two because it contains only two bags, while the other packs contain six.

The first thing I think of when I see these bags is that one or two Christmases ago my middle child saw a HUGE stuffed dog at the store that she fell in love. We managed to creatively smuggle it to the house and get it under the tree on Christmas Eve, to her delight the next morning.

In this case, it worked just fine to just Doggie sitting under the tree. But if we had a gift like that for, say, a niece or a friend's child, one of these bags would have been perfect for it.

Other than huge stuffed animals, what other types of gifts could use a huge bag like this?

* Play Kitchens
* Guitars
* Tennis Rackets or Golf Clubs
* Tricycles
* Baby walkers, Bouncy Chairs, etc

Depending on how likely you are to buy huge gifts for people anytime soon, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a pack of these handy. Then, when someone needs a huge gift, you're good to go!

See, this is why the Internet is important. Like so many things, it would never have occurred to me either that "Christmas Confetti" exists, or that I need any.

But look how fun! A cheap and colorful way to add some holiday cheer to just about anything.

Add it to a Christmas craft, school project, or homemade Christmas cards.

Put 4-5 pieces into each Christmas card envelopes before you seal them.

Sprinkle some onto the tablecloth at Christmas dinner.

Toss it into the air right before you snap some family photos!

Decorate gift bags and gift tags with them!

Maybe even sprinkle a few around the edge of a platter of Christmas cookies??

I'm sure there are several uses that other people who are more creative than I am can think of.

I think that my favorite of these three is Beistle Holy Night Confetti on the left, because it has so many different colors and because I think you could probably get away with using it for something other than Christmas if you wanted to.

I confess: We have cats.

Three of them, in fact.

Still, both my husband and I grew up with dogs: He had a beloved reddish-blond cocker spaniel named Rusty, and I had a black cocker spaniel named Ebony.

Well, Ebony was really my mother's dog, but I still remember going to the breeder to pick her out before she was even old enough to come home with us, putting cayenne pepper on our furniture so she would stop chewing it, and taking her for many many many walks over the years, so it feels like she was at least partly mine.

Anyway, the point is that even cat owners like us can appreciate a good dog and realize how cute these personalized dog Christmas ornaments are. I think my favorite of the three is the one with the snowman family and the dogs. It would make a great gift!

I love bears.

In fact, I love bears so much that when I was pregnant with my first child, my mother suggested that I name it "Teddy" if it was a boy. (It wasn't, and I didn't.)

Ironically, I bought teddy bears more before I had kids than after. I guess because after I had kids, my need for more bears took a backseat. And, interestingly, my kids were into stuffed dogs and other animals more than they were ever into stuffed bears.

Here are a few Christmas bears I found, all at a pretty good price.

If I had all the money and space in the world, I'd set up a decorative bench in my house that was lined with teddy bears like the first two.

And while I'm imagining having all the money and space in the world, I'd also have a tree with nothing but bear ornaments (like the one on the right.)

I don't know about you, but a HUGE part of December around here is baking (and eating.)

Every year my kids and I have a day where we make a triple batch of sugar cookie dough and decorate Christmas cookies in the shapes of stars, Christmas trees, snowmen, and reindeer. In addition, we always bake some "regular" cookies -- things like snickerdoodles, peanut butter cookies, and brownies.

Within the last year and a half, my middle child has gotten extremely creative in her baking. For example, last December she made Reindeer Cookies out of Nutter Butter cookies, using pretzels for the antlers and M&Ms and icing for the faces.

We donated them to our church's Cookie Sale to raise money for MUST ministries, and they were a total hit.

I'm anticipating her being even more creative this year, and adding cupcakes to our December repertoire would open up all kinds of ideas.

These sets of Wilton baking cups (24 cups each) are less than $3 and come with a decorative pick to stick inside each cupcake after you've decorated it (it's own little cake topper, basically.)




If you're going to be baking Christmas cupcakes this year, here are a couple videos to give you some clever decorating ideas:

Easy Christmas Cupcake Decorating Ideas

Santa Christmas Cupcake

We currently have a sparkly red tablecloth that we use in December, but I had never thought of using Christmas placemats until I saw these three featured on Amazon for $6 or less.

One problem with having a tablecloth is that it invariably gets dirty approximately twenty minutes after I put it on the table, and then usually ends up spending half the month of December sitting in the dirty laundry basket.

I got a second red Christmas tablecloth to help combat this problem, but that then usually ends up meaning that within 48 hours both tablecloths end up sitting in the dirty laundry basket, where they often will reside for up to two weeks. (Or often, on Christmas Eve, when we suddenly say, "Aack! Where's the tablecloth?" and frantically throw them into the wash.

Anyway, placemats seem like they could help with this problem. It's easier to throw a placemat (or two) into the laundry than an entire tablecloth, and hopefully they would keep the actual tablecloth cleaner longer -- ooh, let's say maybe for an entire 72 hours, even!

Plus, you can mix and match so that you have different colors or patterns for different people or different days.

The "Funkins Cloth" (the one on the right) is particularly interesting because it's designed to be not only a placemat, but also a napkin, particularly for kids on the go. So that's a simple way to dress up your kid's lunchbox during the month of December. (And honestly, I can't imagine why you couldn't use it for you own lunches as well!)

Image by Simon Howden at FreeDigitalImages.net

Something made me share this story with a friend a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd share it here as well.

When I was young -- around first, second, and third grade -- my aunt and uncle and cousins would have a huge Christmas party at their house one Saturday in early or mid December.

We lived ... let's see, I'm just guessing an hour or two drive away, at most, and we would arrive mid-morning and stay til it was dark, then drive back home. (Their house always still seemed full of people when we left, which makes me wonder how long these parties went on!)

My relatives were obviously big party people (they still are), and I remember these get-togethers being an event where every room was filled with people. They were other relatives -- some who I barely even know who they were -- plus their neighbors, co-workers, friends, you name it.

Anyway, not surprisingly, we would exchange gifts at these yearly get-togethers. I remember, among other things, getting a game called Beat the 8 Ball, which I owned and used for many years after.

Image Courtesy of Amazon

I also remember getting a bracelet that had white beads. Each bead had a letter, and it spelled out my name -- a little bit like this, although not quite:

Picture this bracelet, but a version for a seen year old girl

The next week at Show and Tell at school -- remember, I was in about second grade -- I got up in the front of the classroom and showed them my bracelet. "I got this from my aunt for Christmas," I said.

My memory -- which may or may not be completely accurate -- was that there was almost a collective gasp from my classmates, they were so floored.

How could she have a Christmas gift? Christmas isn't for almost two weeks! How is this possible?

And then, as I went back to my seat, I heard kids murmuring to each other, "Is she Jewish? She must be Jewish!"

"Jenny, are you Jewish?" a few kids boldly approached me and asked after Show and Tell was over.

I told them no, I wasn't.

***********

There are two things I find amusing about this story:

1) That I actually remember it at all;

2) The idea that getting a Christmas present before December 25 must mean you're some other religion -- and that Jews, in fact, celebrate Christmas too, just on a different day than everybody else.

Do you have a funny story about Christmas from when you were a kid? Tell me about it in the comments!

I found these three different Christmas headbands at Amazon for less than $6 each. I think they snowmen are my favorite of the three.

Of course, these are perfect for a holiday party, but I'll bet there are plenty of other times you could get away with wearing these.

For example, depending on what your work environment is like, maybe you could wear it to the office the week before Christmas. If you're a teacher, you can definitely get away with wearing this kind of stuff at work, especially on the day there's some sort of holiday assembly.

I play the piano for several holiday parties every December, and so far I've never worn anything more "daring" than Christmas earrings. But now I'm wondering if I should wear something like this  ... probably not for the entire evening, but just to slap on for some photos or before playing some particularly fun songs.

I'm getting ready to take a Disney trip in two months as I type this -- I just scheduled reservations for us at The Garden Grill with Chip and Dale, and The Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and Friends -- so it's easy for me to have Disney on the brain.

If you have any Disney Lovers in your house, you might want to check out these different Disney stockings that Amazon is running a deal on right now.

Each stocking is less than $6 each, and two of them are less than $4!

My personal favorite of the three is the Tinkerbell stocking. My younger daughter had a Tinkerbell birthday party when she turned four, and my older daughter's favorite book is Peter Pan, so I guess it makes sense that I would feel partial toward Tinks!