A candy cane is a hard cane-shaped candy stick. It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint; however, it is also made in a variety of other flavors and colored stripes, and has long been a symbol associated with Christmas.

The candy cane dates back over 300 years and was originally a straight, hard, and all-white candy stick. Around the seventeenth century, Christians in Europe began to adopt the use of Christmas trees as part of their Christmas celebrations. They made special decorations for their trees from foods like cookies and sugar stick candy. The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape goes dates as far back as 1670 when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar sticks into canes to represent a shepherd’s staff, then handed them out to children during nativity services. This custom of handing out candy canes during Christmas services spread throughout Europe and later to America. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jennifer Landers

Themed Christmas trees are big this season. Themes are fun to create and gives your Christmas tree its own distinct personality. But if it’s your first time to veer from the traditional hodgepodge Christmas tree, you may feel overwhelmed and clueless as to where to start.

Here are some helpful hints to making a personality-filled tree you and your guests will love this Christmas season. Warning: your traditional tree will be envious of the new hot shot taking all the attention.

1. Choosing a theme

The first step is to select a theme. Your theme should coincide with your personality. You may generate your theme from anything personal, such as:

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By Lisa A Mason

Are you planning a party for this holiday season? Would you like some original ideas that will help you have the party people will still be talking about way into the New Year? Then you must read on because below are 10 cheap holiday party themes for families.

Christmas Tree Decorating – The theme of your holiday party can be Christmas tree decorating. You can invite your family over to pitch in so they can add their own personal touch to the tree. It is an excellent way to keep your guests happy and entertained plus it allows them all a chance to participate in the festivities.

Sing-A-Longs – Having a sing-a-long is a great party theme that allows everyone to gather together and sing holiday songs. You entire guest list will be filled with the Christmas spirit before going home.

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By Johann Erickson

Christmas table decorations for those one of a kind Christmas parties are fun and easy to make. If you do plan on making your own Christmas table decorations, they can be time consuming and if you have a dozen or so tables to decorate, you need help!

It depends on the type of Christmas party you will be hosting, the atmosphere you wish to provide and the style you want to showcase. If you’re having a Christmas party for children, simple centerpieces with take home accents will do but if it’s an elegant grown up Christmas party, your Christmas table decorations will probably be elegant and traditional.

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There are a lot of great advantages to Christmas shopping year round. Some of these advantages include avoiding the stress of last minute shopping, not having to worry about accumulating exorbitant credit card bills during the Christmas season and being able to enjoy the Christmas spirit all year.

One of the biggest benefits of Christmas shopping year round is not having to do the bulk of your Christmas shopping at the last minute. It also may means not having to do much Christmas shopping in the typically hectic time after Thanksgiving and before Christmas Eve when malls and shopping centers are usually crowded beyond belief and most people have a ton of other obligations to take care of during this time. Although there are some people who enjoy shopping during this hectic and chaotic time, most people find it stressful and only do it because they have procrastinated and still have some Christmas Read the rest of this entry »

New Year’s Day is always a time of resolutions and renewal. We take this chance to start fresh and change things which we have not been happy with the previous year. While some things cannot be changed, such as medical issues and the nagging car repairs that come at the most inopportune time, there are many things about our lives which we can change when we set our minds to the task.

The first tradition we have at our home is that of buying a wonderful and decorative calendar to hang on our wall. Sometimes we are given one for the holidays, other times we purchase our own. Every New Year’s Day I remove our old calendar and hang our new one. In the process, I first copy over any important family dates such as birthdays or anniversaries which I need to remember throughout the New Year.

Many people set out to celebrate New Year’s Day by making resolutions which they really don’t have any real desire to fight to keep going throughout the year. If you have ever been in a health club or gym in January, then you know how many people can be there that you will never see again come February. It would be almost funny, if it wasn’t so sad. Read the rest of this entry »

What You Need:

2 pints pomegranate juice
1 1/2 C sugar
12 fresh sage leaves, crushed
2 lemon peel strips
1 C lemon juice
1 (750 ml) bottle club soda, chilled

How to Make It:

Place the juice into a large saucepan and place the pan over medium heat.
Stir in the sugar, sage and lemon peel.
Bring the mixture to a brisk boil.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove the pan from the stove and stir in the lemon juice.
Pour the mixture into a glass pitcher and chill 4 hours.
Before serving remove the lemon peel and strain out the sage.
Fill 6 oz. glasses with a little ice, half full of the juice mixture and top with the club soda and stir. Read the rest of this entry »

Most people spend a great deal of time planning their guest list or deciding on food and decorations but do not devote a great deal of time to planning activities for their New Years Eve party. They may plan on having a live band or a DJ to perform but otherwise they may simply expect the guests to entertain themselves by dancing to the music or socializing with other guests but do little else in terms of planning activities to keep their guests entertained at the party. However, there are a lot of fun activities which can keep the guests entertained throughout the evening.

Planning on having karaoke is one excellent activity for a New Years Eve party. This activity encourages guest participation and allows the guests to entertain themselves throughout the evening. In fact karaoke can even provide a very cost effective form of entertainment for all the guests even those who opt not to participate. Karaoke will provide the guests with music and singing at a much lower price than it would cost to hire a live band or a DJ for the event. The music may not be as high quality as it would be if you hired a professional but of course that is also part of the fun of karaoke. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us can recall as children getting bundled up in our winter coats, warmest gloves and long, knitted scarves and touring our neighborhoods singing Christmas carols with family and friends. It’s a tradition that’s been around since the night Jesus was born. It’s been said on that night, a choir of angels sang out in celebration.

A Christmas carol is a song or hymn whose lyrics are about Christmas or the winter season. They are traditionally sung in the period before and during Christmas. The tradition of Christmas carols hails back as far as the thirteenth century, although carols were originally communal songs sung during celebrations like harvest tide as well as Christmas. Christmas carols and caroling in the old world was a mix of singing and dancing and was practiced for all festivals throughout the year.

When Christmas was firmly established to be celebrated on December 25, many of the existing songs were sung on that day and new ones written to celebrate Christmas.  St. Francis of Assisi was instrumental in making the Christmas celebration one for the people instead of just for the clergy.  He created large nativity scenes outside of his church and translated many of the Christmas carols from Latin into languages spoken by the average person and encouraged them to sing these songs to express their joy during the Christmas season. This practice of singing Christmas songs outside of the church near the nativity scenes spread throughout Europe and it was a natural next step for these Christmas carolers to start walking through the neighborhoods around the churches sharing their festive songs. 

But why are they called carols instead of songs? A popular urban legend was that they were named after a little girl named Carol Poles who disappeared in 1888 in the Whitechaple district of London. According to the legend, the little girl was reported missing around Christmas and many people went searching for her at night. Due to fears concerning Jack the Ripper, the group would sing Christmas carols upon knocking in order to declare their good intentions.

And even in today’s changing world, caroling is a Christmas tradition many people still hold dear.