Christmas shopping and celebrating
Treetopia: Your Place for Fun Artificial Trees, White Christmas Trees, Wreaths and Garlands, Palm Trees, and Decorations
Treetopia has a completely awesome selection of fun and traditional Christmas trees. I am definitely going to keep them in mind for next year. They’ve been featured on Regis & Kelly and more…check out their media page.
And of course, don’t forget this stunning Stephen J. Colbert National Treasure Tree.
I also can’t help loving the Smurftastic Blue Christmas Tree.
Now is the absolute best time to shop for Christmas 2009. Besides my annual day-after-Christmas trip to Target, I’ve been browsing the great deals on Christmas goods online, such as these from Pottery Barn.
Did you know that Amazon.com sells fake Christmas trees? This knowledge may come in incredibly handy, as I am planning to upgrade my fake tree after this Christmas season.
I’m particularly smitten with this Barcana Alaskan Deluxe Fir PE/PVC Ready-Trim Christmas Tree with Clear Mini Lights. It has 2,000 lights! If only spending $729.99 sounded like a good idea. (It does ship for free with super saver shipping.)
Nonetheless, there are some other cute options here, including some mini-trees, which I’ve been looking for in stores but have been disappointed with the selection.
Here are some lovely ideas from the Los Angeles Times: 50 ways to make your holiday gifts homemade.
Not only are homemade gifts less expensive, they also capture the spirit of holiday giving in a way that purchased gifts simply can’t. And if you consider the ubiquitous traffic and holiday crowds, a leisurely morning spent baking breadsticks or whipping up a batch of homemade marshmallows seems positively Zen-like by comparison.All of the gifts are food-related, from cookies to a winter soup starter. I love the idea of food as gifts, especially sweets.
Christmas Lights Regent Street London
Originally uploaded by keithhull
If you are looking for a little distraction, Flickr has so many great Christmas photos to look at, like this one. A good place to start is the Christmas cluster.
Last year for my family’s Christmas dinner I made this Apple Cranberry Stuffed Pork Roast from Elise’s Simply Recipes. The stuffing is a delicious chutney of apples, cranberries, shallots and spices. I think it went over well.
If you can, do a test run of your Christmas dinner beforehand; it’ll make Christmas day a lot less stressful.
One of my favorite food bloggers, Deb from Smitten Kitchen, has a fabulous roundup of her cookie recipes, most of which would make a lovely addition to your holiday season.
I’ve been looking to make these peanut butter cookies for a while now and will probably give in over Christmas.
I’ve always loved the idea of cookie cutter ornaments, because sometimes they are just to pretty to keep in a drawer. Try out this ornament craft from Martha Stewart.
They also have a wide variety of additional ornament craft ideas.
The MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) Store always has many unique gift ideas for that person on your list who has everything. They even have a breakdown by gifts less than $50 and gifts $50 - $100. The store also has a holiday section, including their fantastic holiday cards. Some picks:
I was pretty excited this morning to visit Blik’s website and find snowflake wall decals.
Dreaming of a white Christmas? Put blik snowflakes on your wall or front window. Shovel not required.I think they’ve had them in the past which would make these a reintroduction for the holiday season. They are $35 for 16 decals in your choice of white, white and blue or blue and gray. Of course, I ordered them immediately. Blik is a line of “self-adhesive wall decals” that you can affix to almost any flat, smooth surface.
