christmas ecards – Page 2

Christmas Something Small for those who serve

This year, as the leaves begin to change color and fall from the trees; and as bare walls are covered first with Halloween decorations, then Thanksgiving decorations, and finally Christmas decorations, it’s important to remember the most important people in our lives, and let them know that we care about them, and that we are grateful for all that they do.

Many of us have friends or family members currently serving in the military—people we love who won’t be able to come home for Christmas. And though they defend our country and our livelihoods overseas without asking or expecting anything in return, that still doesn’t mean it would be anything less than a great idea to do something—anything—for them, to remind them that wherever they are this holiday season, we keep them in our hearts.

There are countless sites on the Internet, taking up collections for care packages—sites so numerous I won’t even bother listing some here. Other sites—like gotfreecards.com—give you the opportunity to send animated ecards to your loved ones overseas. You can even chip in some money at various sites to buy our servicemen and women phone cards, so that even if they can’t come home this holiday season, they can at least phone home.

They do so much for us, without asking anything in return. Let’s all do something for them—even if it’s something small.

Christmas Lights

Lights Lights Lights! Who doesn’t love Christmas and Holiday Lights? They’re pretty, they’re festive, and they stir up the holiday spirit in all of us. But while we love to look at them, even travel distances to see the houses with the best light shows, no one really wants to be the one to hang them up.

Case in point: A friend of mine hung up his lights this weekend. He finished just as his wife pointed out to him that the outlets for the plugs where located on the opposite side of the house than he thought. He had to take down ALL of the lights and start over. Who doesn’t love Christmas lights? My friend, that’s who.

When I was a kid, our lights were perfectly stored tangle free, thanks to my genius dad. Each January he wrapped the light strands carefully around paper towel rolls and carefully placed them in boxes to be stored until next year. Each December he’d unroll the strands in the garage, lay them on the ground to organize them, and plug them in to make sure they all worked. One December when I was 10, he asked me to help him in the garage with the Christmas lights. He picked up one end of a light strand to take it to the front yard, I picked up the other end, we started walking and wouldn’t you know I dropped my end and ALL of the lights broke. Who doesn’t love Christmas lights? Me at 10 years old, that’s who!

As I recall all of the Christmas light follies, and there are many, I can’t help but laugh. For all of the brave people hanging up their lights this year, send them FREE ecards from GotFreeCards.com, like the ecard, “Tangled Lights”. Let them know you are thinking of them and all of the hard work that they do to light up Christmas!

Commercial Christmas Commentary

Each holiday season, Americans are completely bombarded with advertising and sales promotions for millions of products. Toy commercials entice our children to beg for dolls and trains. Late-night infomercials convince us we need complete storage systems to hide away our extra belongings. In-store displays prompt last-minute purchases. And, in the frenzy of the holidays, the lists and the parties, we are often caught up by commercialism more than celebration.

It is a somewhat sad commentary on our society that we must constantly be reminded of the reason behind the season. However, this year’s economic crisis affords us a new opportunity to make changes in some of our holiday traditions. Our family, for example, has decided to forgo paper Christmas cards. We’ve gathered everyone’s email addresses, and have agreed that we will all use free e-cards from gotfreecards.com. This one step will save us the cost of the Christmas cards, as well as the astronomical cost of postage. E-cards also save precious storage space. After all, what are you supposed to do with a hundred Christmas cards? We also decided that this year, the youngsters will receive the bulk of the gifts. The adults will exchange only small tokens and stocking stuffers. It feels good to pull away from the frenzied spending habits of Christmases past. Instead of worrying how we’ll afford all those presents, we’re planning on enjoying the time we spend with one another. Happy Holidays!

Christma Take a Moment

As Thanksgiving comes, and quickly goes, we find that we barely have enough to catch our breath—let alone clean up the kitchen—before we start to fully realize that there’s less than a month left until Christmas.

Christmas is a wonderful holiday, and if you’re anything like me, some of the best, most cherished memories from your life involve the Christmas Holiday season, in one manner or another. It can be all too easy, though, to let the inherent stress of the Holidays get the better of us, and cause us to miss all the real joy that does surround us those few weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

I’m not leading into some great words of wisdom or advice, other than to say this: slow down, take your time, spend a few moments, every day, to remind yourself what the Holidays are really supposed to be about, and remember how, several months from now, it won’t be the hours spent in shopping lines that you remember, but the looks on your friends’ and loved ones’ faces when they open up that perfect gift on Christmas morning. Or the thank you note you receive for the thoughtful Christmas Ecards you sent from Gotfreecards.com.

So get to it, take a breath, and have a great Holiday season!