Posts Tagged ‘santa phone calls’

It may be fall but it is only 2 more months until Christmas. There are many parents in particular who will in the next couple of weeks start to prepare for the holidays. So what do you need to know to make sure that you plan successfully and meet all your goals for Christmas for your children and family? This can be daunting especially at a time when many families have seen a decrease in their spendable income. However, it is not impossible. With planning and some innovative ideas the holidays can be as fun and memorable as ever. Here are some great tips to guide you as you get ready for the holidays this year.

Set a budget. Many of you already have a budget for normal expenses, however to get the most out of what you spend this holiday you need to formulate a holiday budget. This is going to be your plan for what to spend on decorations, food, and presents. Done right you will find that you have more to spend with than you might have originally thought. A great idea is to set a budget for each child’s presents. Have them ask if they would like one big present from Santa or a bunch of smaller ones. This is great for older kids who will by now know that Dad is Santa. But it also applies for any parent buying presents.

Come up with great traditions that cost little or nothing. They can be anything as long as it involves some sort of activity that allows your family to spend time together. For example an interesting idea would be to do a large puzzle with your children. You can choose one that will take a while to complete preferably until Christmas. Then on Christmas Day you can start a new puzzle that will last you until the next year. It can also be simple things like a special Christmas breakfast or dinner. These are traditions that won’t cost much more than normal and will become great memories for you and your family.

Take advantage of the sales this Christmas. This is normally the rule of thumb but the retail sector was really affected by the recession so there will be greater than normal sales. This translates into huger savings. Try to find out when sales are happening so you can save up and take maximum advantage of what they have to offer. You will probably find yourself able to get more this year than you did in the past.

Make sure to take advantage of new options in shopping such as online shopping and layaway. Online shopping allows you to get items without the hassle of the holiday rush. You can now purchase items on sale so you get the benefit of going to the store without having to sacrifice time driving and dealing with crowds. Layaway is another great shopping option that allows to pay for a purchase over time without using credit. This is a great way to help you focus funds that you set aside for the holidays.

Finally take advantages of special services this Christmas to create special moments for your younger children. For example you can use an online service to order a special call from Santa for your children.

Create magic in your child’s eyes with our letters from Santa & Santa phone calls. EZSantaLetters.com offers fully personalized Santa letters and 15 pre-written Santa letters. All letters are postmarked from the North Pole and will definitely put a smile on your child’s face.

Our children get a phone call from Santa and presents under the tree. Adults go to the office Christmas party and send Christmas cards to old friends. We both go to the parades and watch the specials. But there is a lot more to Christmas than just Santa phone calls and Christmas parties. You can really hear it in our dearest of Christmas hymns.

Some of our hymns have been around for a good bit. “God rest ye merry, Gentleman” is from the 1400’s. Most of the time it is sung a bit wrong. Wrong, you say? Yep. Notice the comma as it changes the meaning of the line. It doesn’t change the fact that it is just so fun to sing. As fun of a song as it is to sing, it does lack the slow beauty of “It came Upon a Midnight Clear”. That one was written by an American preacher as a poem. In 1850 he sent it to Richard Storrs Willis to set it to music. Willis had trained under Mendelssohn and wrote the tune. The music it’s self is called “Carol” (that makes sense) except in the UK where it is called “Noel”. Speaking of Mendelssohn, He wrote the music to “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”. It is not known when he wrote it but it was published in 1939. It is considered one of the four greatest Anglican hymns.

There are so many carols and each has its own story and everybody has a favorite. “O Holy Night” is one on a lot of list. It was commissioned by a preacher to Placide Cappeau. He wanted a Christmas poem and what he got was “Minuit, chretiens”. It means “Midnight, Christians”. From there Adolphe Adam (no s ) tooled it into the song we still sing. But some songs have a little surprise behind them. Do you know what carol was written asking for peace when the Soviet Union was doing naughty things down in Cuba? It’s “Do You Hear What I Hear?” It was written by a duo and the first name of one of them was Noel. And as a funny note they did another, non-Christmas, classic. They did “Rain, rain. Go away”. Back to older songs there is old Welsh hymn we know as “Deck the Halls”. No need to write down the welsh title as welsh doesn’t even look like a real language.

There are so many great carols because they have been writing them for so long from so many countries. Not all countries or even most countries but there are more than enough to keep us singing. We have some from Germany, like “O Tannenbaum”, aka “O Christmas Tree”. Really, a tannenbaum is a fir tree but in German the word gets used to mean Christmas tree too. The words were written in the early 1800’s by an organist but the tune is a different story. Like many songs or hymn of the day it was based on a folk tune and even back then it was old. Another great German carol isn’t really German but Austrian (same language though). It’s some of the only German most people know, “Stille Nacht”. You can translate that one yourself.

Funny as it might seem, more carols are written every year and 100 years from now people will still sing it. I wonder what it will be?

Create magic in your child’s eyes with our Santa Phone Calls. EZSantaLetters.com offers fully personalized Santa letters and 15 pre-written Letter From Santa. All letters are postmarked from the North Pole and will definitely put a smile on your child’s face. Written by: Ellie Evergreen