Happy Wednesday! This week is flying by, cannot believe it’s almost Halloween. It seems like It was just stifling hot outside, and now the leaves are changing and the grass is dying. I guess that’s why happens when you are out of town for work almost the whole month of October! I am not complaining though, because that means my favorite time of year is coming…CHRISTMAS! I can’t believe its less than two months away. I am so excited to start decorating and listening to Christmas music.
One thing I may have never shared on RWS is that I am obsessed with snail mail. Call me old fashioned, but I love getting the mail. My husband knows better than to get the mail in this house! So, with that being said, I LOVE sending and receiving Christmas cards! Not just any Christmas cards, but photo Christmas cards. I have always thought it was nice to see how a family changes year to year.
Once again, Shutterfly has made it simple and affordable to send out cards to your friends and family, and guess what? This year, THREE RWS readers will get 25 FREE cards! Here is the Shutterfly card I sent last year if you need some inspiration:
There are so many options to choose from! The photo cards are of course my favorites! There are so many designs to choose from I am going to have a tough time narrowing it down! They also have greeting cards (for all holidays) and the ever important Thank You card after you get all of those great Christmas gifts!
Shutterfly makes it so easy with step-by-step instructions to make your family look it’s best as it sits in someone else’s home, and they wish they were you…I KID! Just making sure you are paying attention!
I have used Shutterfly for my Christmas cards for the past few years and I have always been so happy with the results. I have (in the late past) done my cards with other stores/places and been less than thrilled. These memories are not the kind of thing you want to mess up! So, go ahead, hop on over to Shutterfly and browse their awesome collection! It’s not to early to be thinking about the holidays!
Oh, you want to win some free cards? Ok! Three readers will win 25 free cards! All you have to do, is in the comments section, tell me one of your favorite Christmas traditions. One of mine is every year on Christmas eve, we sit around the fire and my dad read’s Twas the Night Before Christmas, and the Christmas story out of the Bible. we have done this for as long as I remember and I hope we never stop!
QOTD: For a chance to win 25 free cards, tell me one of your favorite Christmas traditions!
I will randomly choose 3 winners Monday, October 31 and will announce on Tuesday, November 1. You have until Monday night at midnight CST to enter.
*I was compensated for my review of Shutterfly, but the opinions expressed are my own.
Hi Heather!
My favorite tradition is very similar! After a special Christmas Eve service at our church, we would head home to put on our pj’s, start a fire, snack on yummy food, read Twas’ The Night Before Christmas, and then open presents in front of a warm fire! 🙂
Courtney
oh fun! sounds a lot like mine!
I love holiday cards! They’re so fun to get in the mail.
My favorite Christmas tradition is watching A Christmas Story – it is on the TV for all 24 hours it is playing!
aahh!!! unfortunately I dislike that movie which is weird b/c I usually love all things christmas!
Our tradition is visiting my family for a barbeque the weekend before Christmas. It means a lot because it’s an extended family get together, and we do it the week before so that all of us can spend Christmas morning with our own families :). I love it! Plus we also watch A Christmas Story every Christmas Eve and eat Chinese food like the people in the movie!
Amy Lauren
proudpatriot2007(at)yahoo(dot)com
I always see so many people with the cutest x-mas cards! I want to win this! ha My favorite x-mas tradition would be hosting christmas eve at my parents house. The only unfortunate thing is that most of my family lives out of state now! It’s harder and harder to get everyone together 🙁
I LOVE sending and getting holiday cards! My husband does not understand it at all – but I still make him take photos 🙂
As for my favorite holiday tradition – it would probably be Christmas services at church. From Christmas Eve services to Christmas plays to Christmas choir performances, we would always go as a family (and participated in many too!)
I LOVE sending and receiving Christmas cards! This would be an awesome early Christmas present for me 🙂
With our two little ones we are just starting traditions for our family. My husband reads The Night Before Christmas on christmas eve. We usually drive around and see all the Christmas Lights (FYI-awesome display in Long Beach off of Pineville Rd) on the 23rd. We go to the 9AM Christmas Mass because it’s usually not too crowded then head to my Aunt’s for lunch.
Awww your shutterfly card is so cute! (of course, you can’t go wrong with puppies in sweaters!)
One of my (new) holiday traditions is a Cookie Decorating Party… not a cookie swap, but we bake a metric ton of sugar cookies and then drink wine and ice them! This year will be the 2nd annual.
My family holiday tradition is that we always play cards (crazy 8’s) after Christmas Eve dinner. Suzy
I love Christmas Eve. We go to church, meet my Dad’s family at our favorite Chinese restaurant, and then open presents together. Sadly, this may the last year we get to do that as my grandmother is about to go into assisted living.
There are so many traditions that I love about Christmas, but one tradition that we do that not many people do (and I’m still shocked about that) is celebrate St. Nicholas Day. Its like a miniature version of Christmas for us. St. Nicholas comes on the evening of December 5th and stuffs our stockings with treats, small toys, and an orange in the toe of the stocking for us to open on the morning of December 6th. My mom’s side of the family is Scandinavian, so I think that’s why we celebrate it and not many other Americans do. I always thought growing up that everybody celebrated it.
Hi Heather!
There are so many things I love about Christmas…but one of my most favorite traditions is actually the weekend after Thanksgiving…we always go cut down our Christmas tree with my family (have been doing this for 26 years!) and then go to eat at a cozy restaurant nearby. That same weekend, we have family pictures taken, and my mom puts out all of the pictures from every year as part of her Christmas decorations…I love it!! 🙂
Reading the CHRISTmas story as a family. And maybe the food too…
of course the food.
It scares me how quickly Christmas is approaching. I’ll be a mom by then, aaaaah!
I have so many wonderful Christmas traditions, it’s so hard to choose! For the past 10ish years, I’ve been in charge of breakfast on Christmas morning. I prep pumpkin french toast the night before and bake it while we open presents. The yummy aroma makes a great morning even more enjoyable!
Every year we select a new, special/significant-to-us ornament for the tree. It it doesn’t have the year on it, my husband paints it on so we can lok back and see our growing collectioin and reminisce about the years we have spent together and the memories the ornaments invoke.
For example, we have a sailboat, a photoball with pics of our dog, a bear on skis, etc. It is fun and we look forward to making our selelction together.
My favorite tradition is baking and decorating christmas cookies! Ok, eating, too. 😉 Also, when I was growing up, we would get to open one gift on christmas eve, and the rest christmas morning. Alas, that is not the tradition in my married family.
I bought a set of wine glasses about 15 years ago; each is hand-painted to represent a day in “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. At Christmas dinner, we each take a day (glass) and sing the song. Depending on the wine, we sing it several times. Such FUN!!!!
Cute card! Every year on christmas eve my family gets to open one present each and it’s always pajamas so that we can look good for christmas morning photos. 🙂
we used to do that!
I love Shutterfly! I use them all the time! 🙂 One of my favorite Christmas traditions is that my mom always reads “The Night Before Christmas” to us kids every Christmas Eve. Even now that we’re all adults, she still reads it to whichever of us kiddos are home on Christmas Eve. 🙂
One of my favorite traditions is baking all day Christmas Eve…we make homemade apple strudel, and cream cheese danish! Passed down for at least 4 generations!
oh yum!
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is our stockings. My mom still does everyone’s stocking and we have to wait until Christmas morning to see what Santa brought us!
My family never really did Christmas but Thanksgiving is a huge deal. And rather than Xmas cards we always sent out New Years cards. Every try finding holiday cards without a reference to Xmas or Santa?!
I love doing Santa stuff with the kids, visiting, setting out cookies, or making lists. Too much fun!
One of my favorite traditions is opening something from the stocking or a little gift on xmas eve. We have been doing it since I was little. My niece and nephew love the tradition too.
I always made deviled eggs with my grandma and when she past away I continued the tradition on my own.
My favorite family tradition is making peanut butter balls with my mom and now my daughter. Then giving them out to friends and family!
My favorite Christmas tradition is the one Husband and I started. We go and see a movie on Christmas Day. Since we’re so far from our family, we decided going to the movies was a good way to give us something to do together. Then, whatever movie we saw ends up as his birthday present the next year.
thats so fun!
My favorite is Christmas Eve, which I think I like better than Christmas Day. My mother has a formal dinner w/ my aunt, uncle, and cousins. After they leave, we go to 10:00 mass and listen to the most beautiful soprano you’ve ever heard. When we get back to my parents’ house, we do presents with them. I love it.
Love Shutterfly! – add me to the list of those hoping to win this giveaway!!
Until writing this response, I didn’t realize how many holiday traditions we hold. My daughter and I always spend a day baking “genettes”(Italian cookies), as well as “garbage bread” for Christmas Eve. Then we spend a day putting up the Christmas creche and village – made in Italy by my great grandfather back in the 1880s. The whole extended family goes to Christmas Eve Mass and then it’s back to my parents house for a late night dinner and a visit by Santa Claus – with just one gift for the kids to open! No one is allowed downstairs on Christmas morning ’til my husband and I go down to put the Christmas lights on, then we all open presents. My husband’s extended family comes out to our house for Christmas day dinner and later on, my family joins us (again). It’s crazy and chaotic and I love it.
Bavk to Shutterfly – I was picked to have one of their houseparties!! I am so psyched. I remember you had one and blogged about it. Can you offer any good suggestions?? Thanks!!
hhmm suggestions…
lots of food! I blew up the balloons, had food and drinks and examples of the books they sent plus ones I have already made. I also had my laptop up and open to shutterfly so i could show everyone how easy it was to make a book!
My fav tradition is to make cheese fritters and hot apple cider. then we go outside and like the hanukkah lanterns and sing songs while we eat and drink and enjoy the beautiful night.
I Love christmas cards!!! This is a tradition in our home every year!! My sister and I dress all cute in our festive colors and we pose for my mom! We have shared many laughs and fun times while attempting to get the best shot!! Although I am married now and I send out Christmas cards, my mom still makes us pose for her because she can’t stand the thought of not continuing this tradition! We used Shutterfly last year and I LOVED the way my cards turned out!!
Growing up, my entire extended family lived on the MS Gulf Coast. Every Christmas eve we all piled into a tractor trailer filled with hay and cruised around town singing Christmas carols as a huge group. We looked ridiculous but it was so fun. Then we all headed to grandma’s to warm up and open presents!
so fun!
Favorite tradition is going to Christmas Eve church service as a family and coming home and eating little appetizers and Christmas candies/cookies. I love going to church together — to prepare ourselves for the real meaning of Christmas the next day.
Hi There!
My name is Amy! My husband and I have 3 children ages 3, 4 &5. One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the tradition we do with “The Elf on the Shelf.” The day after Thanksgiving I get “Star” (what the kids named the elf) out and I can get my children to lay in bed at bedtime like soldiers! No excuses for getting up..no I’m thirsty, no I have to go to the bathroom!! They believe that little guy is watching them and he reports immediately to Santa if they don’t do what mommy asks!! There are many other wonderful traditions we have for Xmas but I love the look on the kids face the morning after Thanksgiving when they realize Star has come back from the North Pole!!
thats such a fun idea, I love it!
I don’t celebrate Christmas but I absolutely love baking Christmas cookies. Does that count? 🙂
I love Christmas!! And I love Shutterfly and making Christmas photo cards!
One of the traditions that my family has done now for many years is go to the movies on Christmas Day.
Every year Santa brings my two daughters matching PJ’s to wear on Christmas morning. Santa comes “early” when we go out to the traditional Christmas Eve party at my BFF’s house. It’s fun and exciting to see them get so jazzed that Santa was at the house early. <3
Favourite Christmas traddition is going to church on Christmas eve…:) The Candle light ceremony always touches my heart!
Wow! I have so many favorite Christmas memories, but my favorite would be sitting together by the fire eating our Christmas candy (fudge, hot cider, fudge, cookies etc.) and reading the Christmas story from the Bible. Surrounded by your loved ones, eating sweets, and celebrating the sweetest gift of all is so special. 🙂
My favorite Christmas tradition was baking cookies with my mom. She was an absolutely amazing chef (too bad it’s not passed genetically!). My sisters and I would spend an entire afternoon in the kitchen, pretty much destroying the place, and the house would smell wonderful.
For Christmas dinner we always make my grandma’s recipe for mac & cheese, which involves spaghettie noodles and extra sharpe white cheddar cheese. It’s delicious 🙂
My favorite Christmas tradition is definitely tinseling the tree on Christmas eve. Since my four siblings and I are scattered all over the place, Christmas eve’s normally the first time we’re all together for the holiday, and it’s great to have this one tradition that we do every single year!
One of my favorite traditions is the “making” of our Christmas Card. Each year we place a small 7″ Santa some place in our Christmas Card Picture. Think “Where’s Waldo” This little Santa has been with us for 27 years. He has traveled with us out west to the Grand Canyon, been to Hawaii, Disney and of course has sailed on a Disney Cruise. He was also hanging out of my daughters Easter basket one Easter Sunday when we woke up to 10 inches of snow. What a cool picture that turned out to be…four children all dressed up in their Easter outfits with snow coming down around them and Santa hanging out the side of the Easter basket. This year, Santa traveled with us to The Ohio State University to be a part of my oldest child’s graduating from Law School. Santa is the “I” in the O H I O that the kids all posed for in front of the stadium. For those of you from the North know all about how alumni from OSU love to take pics of four people spelling out the O H I O with their arms.
I Love sending a receiving Christmas cards! A few of our Christmas traditions that I love are: My children always get new pajamas and a new ornament for the tree each year and we always open one gift each on Christmas Eve.
Hello again! What a cute giveaway!! I love Christmas! And the Christmas Spirit! There are (3) favorite traditions I treasure during the holidays (as they all pertain to a different subject!) 1) With my family – selecting and opening one gift Christmas Eve! 2) Dressing up my cat in a Holiday costume and sending out pics to all my friends and family. 3) Making “Reindeer Droppings” (Chex Mix with chocolate and Peanut butter dusted in white powdered sugar) with my hubby 🙂