Christmas is Coming: Some Novel Christmas Card Ideas
Looking for Christmas card ideas? Then you have probably decided to do something different from the mass market store bought cards this year. Congratulations! You have a lot of options in front of you and your friends and family are sure to love your cards.
Christmas is coming and you are probably already thinking about all the things you want to do to make this holiday season special. For many people, sending Christmas cards to family and friends is a very important part of spreading the joy of the holidays.
Gone are the days when it was hard to find store bought Christmas cards that were different and imaginative. You may have even received one like the ones you sent. Today the variety of styles available often makes it difficult to decide which ones to purchase. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in your local card shop the internet is sure to provide you with unlimited choices.
If you want printed cards but want them to be individual, you can go to an online printing store where they will print cards to your design. You can also choose there from many designs of cards that can be overprinted with your signature or personalized in other ways. If you have a batch of cards printed all the same way, this does not have to be very expensive. However, if you want a different card for everybody, you can expect to pay a high price.
An online printing store can print cards with your design on them. If the cost of the cards is not a concern for you there are online stores that will print individual cards for you. You can also purchase cards overprinted with your signature or personalized in other ways. A batch of cards all printed the same way can be unique and personal to you but not be as expensive as having a different card for everyone would be,
Most Christmas card ideas focus on homemade cards. Homemade cards are not necessarily cheaper than ready-made ones. The cost of all of the materials and the time involved can actually make them pretty expensive. But handmade cards send a message that you think the recipient is quite special.
Of course, you can make them inexpensively if that is your priority. The only thing that you really need to buy is the blank card itself, and maybe some envelopes. After that, you can make everything else from used materials or those you already have on hand if you want.
Homemade Christmas card ideas can include everything from the simplest drawn or pasted illustration to a complex cross stitch or needlepoint design sandwiched between two layers of card.
If you choose the needlepoint option, you can find a wide variety of printed patterns from Christmas trees to Santa and snowmen, or you can design your own. You can then paste your finished needlepoint onto a section of card. From the full size, folded card you cut a square or rectangular hole, using a cutting knife and making it the correct size to display the needlepoint. Then stick the first section of card to the full sized card so that the needlepoint shows in the ‘window’.
If you don’t have a needlework shop close by you can get all the materials needed to make beautiful cards from online stores.
Children often love making Christmas cards for special people in their lives. Many will happily sit for hours with paper, scissors and glue cutting and pasting to make a card for grandparents, aunts and uncles or neighbors, as well as their own friends.
For kids, a great way to make individual Christmas cards is to have them draw a tree on the front of the card, or cut and paste a tree shape from green paper. Spread some glue onto the tree and cover it with glitter. Leave to dry, then shake off any loose glitter. You can also trim the tree with old buttons, sticky gold stars and short lengths of tinsel.
Another possibility is to have your child write a message such as ‘Merry Christmas’ on the front of the card with a glue pen, and cover that with glitter so that the words appear to be written in glitter. In fact, you will probably find that your kids enjoy trying out all of these ways to make cards. They may even come up with Christmas card ideas of their own.
If you are not the artsy crafty type or don’t have a lot of time making homemade cards is probably not your cup of tea. However, you can still have cards that express your holiday wishes. There are many ways to make your cards personal and let the recipients know you were thinking of them at this special time of the year.
Christmas is Coming: Two Ideas From Our Sponsor Click on The Picture To See
Filed under Christmas cards by on Sep 20th, 2011. 
We in the United States know well the customs we observe during the Christmas season but those celebrated in Africa may not be as familiar to us. There are some traditions observed in both but there are differences as well.
One big difference is that in African nations many celebrations occur outdoors because Christmas comes during a time when the weather is very pleasant. Activities that occur outside in Africa include one that occurs for the most part outside in the United States-caroling. In South Africa Christmas occurs during the hottest season of the year and the beach and mountains play an important role in the celebrations. Families take advantage of the pleasant weather and often go on sightseeing trips in the countryside or take a relaxing drive late in the evening on Christmas Day.
A traditional South African Christmas dinner is a rich and sumptuous meal that includes a suckling pig or roast beef, turkey, mince pies, yellow rice, vegetables and puddings. A festive environment is created using decorated pine branches and fir, sparkling cotton wool and tinsel as decorations in homes and businesses.
A similar decorative pattern of using evergreen, palm trees and lighted candles are also seen in countries such as Ghana and Liberia. While these are used in homes and businesses, they are also often carried in processions and during caroling activities. While South Africans gather at the beach during Christmas time to enjoy the warm summer waters, people in other African nations often gather outside at in town squares and in the streets to march, sing and enjoy an overall feeling of merriment. Despite the seemingly general similarity in activities, however, different countries have their own individual style that makes Christmas celebrations unique.
Of all the celebrations in African nations, Christmas activities in Ethiopia stand out for their difference in when they are celebrated and how it is done. One of the features that make Ethiopian Christmas different is that the main celebratory event occurs on Jan. 7, around the time known as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day in North and South America. Given the general modest economic financial situations of a significant number of the population in many African countries, Christmas celebrations also tend to occur over a shorter period of time, compared to activities in more wealthier countries.
Many Ethiopians take part in a pilgrimage and converge on the capital city on Christmas Eve. These wanderers fill the night air with a din of praying and chanting and then create a multicolor spectacle when they gather on Christmas morning to have a religious service.
The Ethiopians retain a similarity with other African nations by enjoying a Christmas dinner that includes a meat stew. Stews, rice, root vegetables such as yams, breads and soups often are part of the menu of traditional Christmas day dinners in African nations.
All over Africa Christmas dinners are often enjoyed by families outside, where everyone shares the meal while sitting in a circular pattern under the shade of a sprawling tree, instead of sitting in a formal setting at a table.
As is the practice in most household during Christmas, Africans also exchange gifts. Popular items that are exchanged as Christmas gifts include cotton cloth, soaps, sweets, pencils and books, all very practical items that can be readily used. Giving practical gifts is related to the modest financial resources of up to half the population in many African countries, as well as to cultural norms. Individuals aren’t able to give extravagant gifts but they still want to surprise the children, family and friends at Christmas with an unexpected gift. The generally pervasive cultural norm of humility and modesty that exists among traditional African peoples, also plays an important role in not having overreaching extravagance at Christmas.
photo cards at Cardstore.com
Filed under Christmas cards by on Sep 15th, 2010.
One of the joys of the Christmas season is receiving Christmas cards. For many of us this is the only communication we have with some friends and family all year. It is always good to get cards even if it’s from someone we didn’t send one to. It’s easy enough to add that person to the card list for next year if it arrived too late to send one this year.
In England in 1843 Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy and successful London businessman, commissioned John Calcott, an artist, to create a card that he could use to send Christmas greetings to his friends and business clients. This is the first known time a card was made for just this purpose.
In addition to sending Christmas greetings Sir Henry Cole wanted to raise awareness in his friends and business associates to the needs of the poor in London. The card that John Calcott Horsley created was a triptych which is a card with three-panels; the two outer panels fold in towards the middle panel. Each side panel showed a good deed being performed: people feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. The inside panel, with its depiction of a wealthy family a feast raising glasses in a toast, caused quite an uproar at the time.
One thousand cards were printed in black and white then hand colored. The inside message read “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.” Neither Sir Henry Cole nor John Calcott Horsley knew the impact this first Christmas card would have on England or the United States. For several years many thought the idea of sending Christmas cards was just a passing fancy.
Somewhere around 1845 Americans began sending cards to each other through the mail. But it wasn’t until 1875 that Americans could buy cards made in the United States by a German immigrant, Louis Prang. Until that time they had to buy cards that were made in Germany.
The cards that Prang made were high-quality but expensive. In the beginning his cards didn’t look like what we think of as Christmas cards with the manger scene or Santa Claus. Rather his designs were mostly of floral designs. Americans became enthusiastic about Christmas cards, but not those made by Prang. In fact he was forced to close his business in 1890. His cards were just too expensive. Americans went back to buying cards from Germany and it was the cheap penny postcards that they favored. These cards were popular until the end of World War I. By the end of the war American companies had started making cards.
Today, more than 2 billion Christmas cards are exchanged each year. As you send and receive cards this year may your heart be filled with the joyful Christmas spirit. Personalized photo cards at Cardstore.com
Filed under Christmas cards by on May 25th, 2010.
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