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 The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape goes dates as far back as 1670 when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar sticks into canes to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.

The peppermint candy with red stripes first appeared in the mid-19th century in the Swedish town of Granna, and striped candy canes in the early 20th century. The first historical reference to the candy cane being in America goes back to 1847, when August Imgard, a German immigrant, decorated the Christmas tree in his Ohio home with candy canes. It’s not clear who came up with the idea of striping candy canes, but it’s known that Christmas cards prior to the year 1900 showed only all-white candy canes, where Christmas cards after 1900 showed illustrations of striped candy canes.

It’s about that same time that candy makers began adding peppermint and wintergreen flavors to their candy canes, which grew to become traditional favorite flavors.

In the 1950’s a Catholic priest named Gregory Keller invented a machine to automate candy cane production.

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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:

• A hobby
• Your career
• An existing collection
• A favorite color or
• A personal interest

Think about what makes you original to create the most unique theme that reflects your individuality. Do you have a shoe and purse fetish? Obsessed with Elvis? Utilize your quirks to make a one-of-a-kind tree that’s so you.

Coordinating your theme to your personality results in a tree you will adore and allows you to showcase to your guests what makes you, you.

2. Start with the foundation

Start your theme at the bones, (or rather, the branches), of your tree. Spray paint the tips in a color that makes your theme pop, or add lights in the color of your choice. Even better, make your own lights by covering bulbs with lanterns made from materials related to your theme. Just be very cautious what you are using is fire-resistant. If you have any doubts, call the fire department. Better to be safe than sorry. Once you are in the clear, you can create an unexpected light source to make your tree pop.

3. Ornaments that Wow

Ornaments are the most critical aspect of your theme. They are what make your tree have a theme, using ornaments with the same motif.

The key with ornaments is to think outside the box. Some of the most creative themes do not have a single ornament that was manufactured with the purpose of decorating a tree. Car lovers can hang small car parts and tools, gardeners can use (new) gardening tools and silk flowers and grillers can attach barbeque sauces and grilling utensils.

Think outside of pre-fab figurines to make your theme original. If you want some standard ornaments to maintain some of the look of a traditional Christmas tree, or if your theme lacks cohesion, incorporate small, sold-colored ball ornaments.

4. Topping it Off

Too many people neglect the top of the tree, putting all their focus into the ornamentation and leave the peak bare. Topping the tree is a perfect opportunity to put your creative mind to work. Since a topper must be open at the base in order to rest on the pointed tip of your tree, it can be somewhat difficult to think of a clever solution.

You may be able to find a pre-fab topper to suit your tree, but designs are somewhat limited. If your theme has nothing to do with stars or angels, you are probably better off finding an open-based item, or get crafty and make your own topper.

Hats are simple toppers that add whimsy and fun. There are many varieties to choose from: baseball caps, chefs hats, tuxedo hats and more. Although it’s a fun element, a hat doesn’t always fit your theme.

To make your own topper, roll a piece of thin cardboard into a cone shape and decorate your cone to match your theme. Not crafty? A simple backup that still gives your tree a finished look is to tie thick ribbon in a coordinating color to the top. The bow should be large and its tails should cascade down for a dramatic effect. Topping your tree will make it look polished and complete.

If you want to impress your guests this Christmas with something out of the ordinary, creating a theme is easy and fun. Choosing a theme that reflects your personality makes for a tree that is all your own. By starting from the base and thinking outside the lines, you can make a stellar themed tree to adorn your home.

Once you see how simple and fun themed trees are, you’ll want to make more and more to fill each room in your house!

Learn more about Christmas Tree decorations at ChristmasTreeForMe.com.

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.

Party Games – What’s a party without games? You can have a variety of games that are appropriate for each age group. The guests that do not want to actually play the games will have a great time cheering everyone else on.

Outdoor Games – If you live in areas where you can gather together outdoors for fun activities this makes a great holiday theme. If you live in the colder climates you can take part in an ice skating tournament or sledding. If you live in the warmer climates you can have a softball game or badminton tournament.

Decorating Party – This theme allows families to gather together and decorate your home for the holidays. It is a creative way for your family to spend time together and have fun getting into the holiday spirit, which is why it is one of the top 10 cheap holiday party themes for families.

Baking Party - A baking party can be a lot of fun, just make sure that everyone you invite loves to cook or loves to eat. You can bake Ginger bread cookies, cakes, pies or any other item you enjoy. The reward for all your hard work is being able to eat the baked goods after everything is done.

Gift Exchange - Your holiday party can be Christmas themed and you can have the whole family get together and exchange Christmas gifts. If you have a large family then drawing names in advance is suggested to eliminate the problem of having to buy multiply gifts that could get very expensive.

Costume Party – Who said costume parties are only for Halloween? There are many great costumes that are available that would be perfect for this holiday season, which puts costume parties among the top 10 cheap holiday party themes for families.

Girls Only Party – Sometimes the women of the family just need to get together without the men and this is the prefect way. It gives all the women in the family from the grandmother to the youngest child an opportunity to gather together and enjoy spending a wonderful day together.

Caroling – Having a caroling party is a great idea. The whole family can get together and go door to door signing holiday songs. It’s fun and entertaining and after the singing you can all gather around the fireplace and sip specialty coffees, cider or hot chocolate together.

Holiday and parties just go together and having a theme for your party will help everything run much smoother. By choosing one of the 10 cheap holiday party themes for families listed above, you will be able to have the party of the year without spending a lot of money.

Lisa Mason is a freelance writer with a specialty in Internet content and SEO articles. She has written thousands of articles, hundreds of ebooks and thousands of website pages and related content. She has also authored her own books and works as a consultant to other writers, Internet marketers and Internet businesses.

Lisa Mason, Professional wordsmith for hire: gamer, wife, mother, entrepreneur, published poet, co-owner of game guides company (http://www.liti4.com), public speaker and Internet business consultant. You can learn more or follow Lisa’s blog from her website: http://www.freelancewriter4hire.com

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.

If you’re indeed hosting a Christmas party for children, be as creative as you wish. A good idea is to decorate using styrofoam balls. They are inexpensive, usually around five dollars at the craft store and they are sold in bags of single sizes or mixed sizes. With some non-toxic craft paint, some glue on eyeballs and seed beads, you can turn a ball into an adorable snowman or an ornament fit for the tree.

The best way to make a snowman who will actually stand up straight is to cut a small circular piece of thick cardboard, using a thin bamboo stick put a hole in the center and allow the stick to stand. Take one of the largest styrofoam balls and slide it down the bamboo stick to the base of the cardboard, then repeat with a medium sized ball and then a small one for the snowman’s head. Decorate with your imagination!

To give the illusion of bright ornamental balls, either paint or spray paint the different sizes of the styrofoam balls and roll them in glitter. Add stripes and stencil on stars or snowflakes to make them unique. Use a paper clip to secure a ribbon for hanging.

For adult parties, sometimes more design effects should be used to create the perfect Christmas table decoration. Start with the other decorations in the room, the theme and go with it. Start with the tablecloth…if it’s country style then use a bright flannel topper or Christmas colors like red, green, gold, silver or white. If the room is dim, consider adding lighting elements on some of the tables.

One beautiful way is by adding floating candles in dyed water.

At your local discount store in the craft section there are beautiful glass and plastic bowl options to choose from and the average price for a small to mid sized piece is about a dollar and a half or three dollars for the larger ones. Fill the bowls ¾ full, add food coloring and stir in your desired color. Packages of floating tealites or votive candles are about five dollars for a twenty-four pack and when lit in a darkened area, they appear so elegant.

Confetti sprinkled around the bowls on the tables in holiday colors with twirls of ribbon adds just the right finishing touch.

Another idea is to make your own crystal balls using etching solution; you can even purchase festive stencils to etch. Using the same bowls turned upside down with a small candle with do the trick as long as they are sitting on a base that allows air to flow for the flame. To make a fitting base with the look of gold foiling, without the cost or the time, use aluminum foil and gold craft paint. Wad up the aluminum foil to give it a crinkled appearance and carefully open it up to its original size. On a flat surface lightly paint gold accents all over the shiny silver side of the aluminum foil. Two oblong wooden blocks, also available for pennies at the craft store will do the job when wrapped and placed beneath the crystal ball. Finish off the look with small gift boxes wrapped in multi designed Christmas wrapping paper or foil with a hidden dinner mint for each guest at the table.

Christmas table decorations are a must for any Christmas holiday party and the guests will be astounded with the creations. These are all easy and they don’t take much time to put together. Make your party unforgettable using simple elements for your Christmas table decorations and explore the creative aspect of Christmas décor in it’s many forms.

About The Author
Johann Erickson is a writer for such sites as Online Discount Mart (http://www.onlinediscountmart.com) and TV Products 4 Less (http://www.tvproducts4less.com)

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 shopping to get done before Christmas Eve. However, making a conscious effort to Christmas shop all year round helps to eliminate a great deal of the stress which is typically associated with last minute Christmas shopping. It also helps you to purchase more meaningful gifts for everyone on your Christmas list because you are not rushing around to purchase the Christmas gifts at the last minute. You may find a gift you think is absolute perfect for your sister in the month of April. All you have to do is purchase the gift when you find it and save it for the Christmas season.

People who do their Christmas shopping year round are not only less stressed around the holiday season but they also have more free time to participate in other activities. Those who like to bake may skip baking if they feel like they still have too much Christmas shopping to do while those who did their shopping ahead of time can take some time to relax and bake wonderful cookies to enjoy during the Christmas season.

Another downside of last minute Christmas shopping is the amount of bills which accumulate. For those who rushed to get their Christmas shopping done in the month of Dec. the New Year can bring in a new set of financial problems as repaying the debts accrued while Christmas shopping can be quite daunting. However, those who wisely did their Christmas shopping throughout the year do not have this problem. If they budget a certain amount of their monthly income for the purpose of Christmas shopping they may not have even noticed the financial strains typically associated with last minute Christmas shopping. Although last minute shoppers may save up to do their Christmas shopping all at once by putting their money into a special savings account, it can be difficult to stick to a budget when you are shopping at the last minute. This is because there they may wind up spending more than anticipated on each person on their list because they cannot find anything else to buy which seems appropriate. When this happens and there is a shortage of time, it is common to just purchase the more expensive item rather than keep looking.

Finally, Christmas shopping year round is a great idea because it helps people to stay in the Christmas spirit throughout the year. While many of us get caught up in the spirit of giving during the holidays, those who are always Christmas shopping may enjoy these feelings of generosity throughout the year. Giving is a wonderful experience and although you may not actually be giving the gifts until Christmas you are purchasing them at other times during the year and this can be very fulfilling. Sometimes simply finding a great gift for a loved one can put you in a great mood and make you feel as though you have really accomplished something wonderful.

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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.

The key to making your New Year’s resolutions and having them become reality in your life is to start small and really dedicate yourself to what you want to change in your life. If you are overweight, or even simply want to get into better shape, start with eating better and walking around your own neighborhood before you shell out the big money for a membership to a gym.

Another good way to spend your New Years Day is to take the opportunity of the New Year to clean out and purge your living quarters. It is very common to bring home your gifts from holiday celebrations and then have no where to put them. By doing some much needed de-cluttering and purging you can have space for all of your new treasures and make some nice donations of your unused items as well. Two of the best places to get rid of your unwanted items are through your local thrift store or freecycle.org. Thrift stores will generally take just about anything which they can re-sell to others. With freecycle.org you send out an e-mail to your local area and the person interested in what you have to offer will come pick-up your unwanted items. Both your thrift store and freecycle.org are good ways to keep your unwanted items out of the landfill.

In our home, we spend New Years Day first transferring the calendar, and then we move into the kitchen where we go through all of our cabinets and take a good inventory of what is in each of them. For things we have a lot of, we make an effort to use some of it up in the next few months. For things we will need to purchase we put them on our master shopping list. While we are in the kitchen we also try to find items which make good donations to our local food pantry. For instance, if I have been getting great buys on soup and have 30 cans of it, I will usually give half to our local food pantry and keep the rest to cover us for the rest of winter.

On addition to some of the suggestions above, it is always a good idea to look at the New Year as a time of renewal and a time when you can make changes to your life. However, rather than having lofty resolutions which you cannot keep, start small and make goals to change things over the next year or even longer. By making realistic goals you can change the things in your life that you choose to.

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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.

Serving Size: 12

Santa sippers can be made and kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 week before using. Replace the club soda with a dry sparkling wine if you prefer.

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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.

Hosting a murder mystery event is another fun activity idea which is becoming very popular for New Years Eve parties. These events are typically a dinner theater where guests are encouraged to participate in the drama and work together or alone to try to solve the mystery of the evening. You can either hire a troop of actors to perform the murder mystery and allow the guests to interact with the actors to try to solve the mystery or you can assign guests to portray different characters including the victim, the murderer and the other guests. The guests should keep their identities a secret to keep everyone else guessing.

The food can also be a source of entertainment for the guests at a New Years Eve party. You can serve items such as fondue which require the guests to participate in the preparation of the food. Another idea for an activity is to design a party where the preparation of the food is a part of the party. For example you could hire a sushi chef to come to the party and teach the guests how to make sushi. The guests can all make their own sushi rolls and the sushi prepared by the guests can be served as appetizers during the party.

Activities as simple as viewing movies can even be fun activities for a New Years Eve party. If your party has a particular theme, you can select a series of movies which reflect the theme of the party to keep your guests entertained throughout the movie. You might even serve foods which are typically found at a movie theater to tie the theme of the event to the food.

If the New Years Eve party will include children it is important to spend some time planning activities for the kids. You might want to include some kid friendly activities as well as activities which are suitable for children and adults. If there will be adults in attendance there should also be activities just for the adults as well to ensure everyone has a good time.

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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.

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