1. Make sure there’s enough room for your letter. Amateur designers sometimes get carried away with their stationery artwork and forget to leave enough room for text. Be sure to pick something that will give you enough space to put your entire family letter on one or two pages.

2. Choose a light-colored background. A dark background will make it difficult for people to read your Christmas letter. Most professionally designed letterhead available at office supply and stationery stores has a light background designed for easy readability, but watch out for dark or bright colors when shopping for letterhead designed from amateur art.

3. Pick a paper with a simple border. Unless you’re comfortable creating multiple text boxes or manipulating tabs or indents in your word processing software, you’ll want to choose Christmas stationery that has even borders, not a design that juts into the main writing area of the paper in multiple places. Best choices are letterheads with banners across the top or bottom, with a border design that has a similar width around the whole page, or with an image in one corner so you can format most of the text around it.

You may also want to try using Christmas letter templates, rather than preprinted stationery. Templates such as the ones we offer here allow you to create your annual holiday letter in a Word document that has already been set up for your text. So there’s no guessing what the final product will look like when you print it on stationery from the store. See our Christmas letter templates here.

Sir Henry Cole, a British inventor and civil servant, produced the first commercial holiday cards in 1843. He commissioned an artist named John Horsley to illustrate them, and Cole obliged by drawing a three-panel image that included a family raising their glasses for a toast in the middle above the words “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.” Cole sold over 2000 of the cards for a shilling a piece that year.

Other cards soon followed, although they didn’t look like the cards we’d think of today. Rather than having winter or religious themes, early Christmas cards depicted flowers and fairies and other images that looked forward to the coming of spring.

The first holiday cards in America weren’t offered until more than three decades later. In 1875 Louis Prang became the first printer to offer cards in America. The advent of the postcard brought an end to elaborate Victorian-style cards for awhile, but by the 1920s, cards with envelopes had returned.

Christmas cards have been continually evolving and changing since then. During the World Wars, patriotic themes were popular, while in the 1950s, cartoon illustrations and cards with risque humor caught on. Today you can get holiday cards with a wide range of images and greetings. Nostalgic, sentimental, and religious images continue to be popular, and, now you can also purchase many “unusual” Christmas cards that can do double-duty as Christmas letter, calendars or or tree ornaments. Today’s Christmas cards can be anything from humorous to religious, simple to ornate, small to large, and everything in between.

Unfortunately, sending out printed Christmas cards is a tradition that’s in danger of fading out as more high-tech options become available and more popular. In recent decades, the number of cards sent during the holidays has been declining. The estimated number of cards received by American households dropped from 29 in 1987 to 20 in 2004. Despite the decline, printed cards are still popular – 1.9 billion cards were sent in the U.S. in 2005 alone. And new services that send cards out for you are making it easier to combine the popularity of printed cards with the ease of online ordering.

So even though the tradition of holiday greeting cards may be changing, it should be with us for a long time to come.

You'd think that it would be easy to spot a big, fat guy in a bright red suit with clunky boots, but he somehow manages to sneak in and out of houses with the stealth of a ninja. He has evaded capture for centuries. Until now. Now you WILL be able to capture Santa when he comes to your house this year.

I have two kids and have personally tried this method to be sure it works. I didn’t actually practice skeet shooting in step 4, so perhaps my hand/eye coordination wasn’t as quick as it should have been, but I have tried the other steps and am proficient at the most important one, which is step #5. If you follow these steps in order, you are sure not to disappoint your kids.

1. Wear warm clothes. To catch Santa in the act, you’ll need to be outside so you can spot him as soon as his sleigh nears your neighborhood. So be sure to don a nice warm hat, jacket and boots because you never know what time Santa will arrive in your area. It could be a long night.

2. Set your camera to the fastest shutter speed possible. Because Santa has to make it all around the world in a single night, the guy drives a supercharged sleigh that is faster than any known technology, so you’ll need to be quick to catch him. If you don’t have a camera with a shutter speed of at least 1/3200 of a second, well, you better borrow one from your neighbor.

3. Grab a snack so you don’t get hungry. It’s going to be cold outside, so you better grab some tasty cookies and a Thermos of warm cocoa to keep you company. Make sure you have plenty of extras so you can share when Santa arrives. And grab a few carrots, too. The reindeer like them.

4. Be patient and watch the skies. The secret to catching Santa is patience and a good eye. You may want to practice some skeet shooting before attempting to capture Santa, as this will improve your hand/eye coordination and make it more likely you’ll be able to aim and focus your camera in time. But don’t practice skeet shooting on Christmas Eve when Santa is flying!! You wouldn’t want to accidentally knock him out with one of those clay pigeons.

5. Cheat. Now that you’ve spent all night watching the skies without any sign of Santa (I TOLD you he was quick), you’ll have to admit defeat and resort to a fun service called Capture the Magic to prove to your children that you were actually able to get a photo of him at your home. They can get you the photo you need. Many parents have resorted to the same techniques so they wouldn’t disappoint their children. After all, that’s what we parents do – we go out of our way to make our kids happy, even if we can’t really catch Santa.

Reprinted with permission from How to Catch Santa at Home on Squidoo.

Great when paired with a Santa’s Nice List certificate.

To purchase, simply click the Buy button above or one of the links below to go to a secure PayPal page where you can buy one of these Santa letter templates for just $4.99 using either a credit card or your PayPal account. The PayPal page will open in a new window. You need to turn off your pop-up blocker for it to work.

Printable Santa Letters – Claus and Reindeer Design

Buy General Santa Letter with Customized P.S.

Buy New Sibling Santa Letter

Buy First Year in Kindergarten Santa Letter

Buy Response to Child’s Letter to Santa

Buy Baby’s First Christmas Santa Letter

In this printable Santa letter template, Santa is standing with one of his reindeer and they have gift-wrapped presents by their feet. This Santa letter template is available as an MS Word document so you can personalize your child’s name, hometown, age, etc. We offer an all-purpose Santa letters to print at home with this design, as well as personalized letters aimed at children who have just started kindergarten, recently had a new addition to the family, or are awaiting a response to the letter they sent to Santa Claus. There is also a special Baby’s First Christmas Santa letter.

Why Choose Our Printable Santa Letters?
- Pay Only Once! When you buy one of our Santa letter templates, you’ll receive a Word document that you can edit and use for multiple children or use again in successive years. You can use it over and over for your own personal, noncommercial letters.

- Easy to Use. Your printable Santa letter will be delivered in a Microsoft Word format, so it’s easy to edit and customize. All you need is Microsoft Word 97 or newer (compatible up to Word 2007). These letters will not open with Microsoft Works.

- Immediate Delivery. There’s no need to wait and worry about your letter arriving on time. As soon as your secure order is processed, you’ll get an email with a link to download your printable Santa letter, and you can customize and print it immediately – even if it’s the middle of the night or Christmas morning!

For personal use only. By downloading this document, you are agreeing to use it for your personal, noncommercial use only. No resale allowed.

Did you know that you can improve your sales and the success of your business just by using a few Christmas quotes this holiday season?

It’s true; you can use different quotes in a variety of ways that will actually make your customers more interested in your products.

Quotes are fast ways of conveying emotion and you can set an atmosphere where your customers will be more in the mood to shop and to buy products and gifts for the holidays.

If you operate an online business, quotes are a great way to communicate with your customers. Just think of it; whenever your customer visits your website, you can expose them to one or more Christmas quotes.

When they read the quotes they will feel the emotion behind the words and the quotes will have a unique meaning for every customer.

Since you can’t speak with your customers in person, the use of meaningful expressions helps to get your customers in a seasonal mood. They will make the customer focus on the holidays and they will have an enhanced desire for gift giving!

You can place Christmas quotes in unobtrusive areas on your website. You can place them by Christmas appropriate gifts, or you can simply place them on the homepage where web visitors first enter your site.

Finding excellent quotes only takes a few minutes and you can change the quotes each day until the holiday season is over.

You can also change your website theme to one that is Christmassy, and this too, will help establish a mood for your customers as they shop through your products and browse through your offerings.

Even if you don’t have an online business, you can use Christmas quotes to get your customers in the mood for shopping and gift buying. You might use quotes along with Christmas decor, or you can make window decals or posters with warm holiday expressions.

You can make cards the size of business cards that have wonderful expressions on them to give to every customer in person: this might encourage them to return to your shop again as they search for holiday gifts.

If you are looking for innovative ways to drum up business, using Christmas quotes is an excellent idea. It doesn’t cost you any money to look for quotes, and it doesn’t cost you any money to use them.

Set a mood, establish an atmosphere, and attract new business while you intensify the joy that should be experienced during the holidays!

Put your business on holiday season footing, woo in the customers with the help of these great Christmas Quotes and Christmas Sayings.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julia_K._Walters

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By Dwight Jonly

Christmas is coming soon, but are you tired of sending Christmas cards in any old ordinary way? So, this year you would like to send a special Christmas greeting card-something a little different-maybe for a special person in your heart. If you have a personal computer with Microsoft Office software, the creative Christmas cards comes: why not create a Christmas multimedia greeting card with PowerPoint? It would not be that hard to create such a greeting, and while you could use simple clip art, you could instead add videos, a movie, even sound.

One advantage of creating a Christmas multimedia greeting card is that you can save your card as a template. After saving your creation as a template, you can reuse the card many times. You can create many cards based on the original.

Step 1: Create a New Slideshow

Open PowerPoint, from the File menu, click new. You will then be given the chance to use an existing template, a blank presentation, or to use the AutoContent Wizard. For our purposes, click blank presentation.

Step 2: Adjust the page size to whatever you desire.

Click page setup on the File menu. You can adjust the size to anything you want, but for our purposes, change the width to 7.5 inches, the same as the height.

Step 3: Set up the layout for the slide show.

On the Format menu, click slide layout. You have a variety of templates to choose from, but for our purposes, choose the blank one.

Step 4: Set up the slide show and the speed at which the slides will move from one to the other.

Click slide show, then slide transition. In the advance slide section, click automatically after box. Change the delay time to 00:03, and close the slide transition pane.

Step 5: What this step is would depend on whether or not you want to create your card from clip art, to add a movie, or a picture you already have.

Add a picture to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

Let us say you want to create a card from clip art. Click picture on the Insert menu, then clip art. Do a search for the type of picture you want to add. Double click on the image you want to add. It will be added to the slide, unless you get a message that says you have to use a CD that came with your computer to use the image, in which case you will have to use the CD. You also can add download clip art to your computer from the Internet-sometimes for free-after doing a search for clip art. You will also find a link to a clip organizer, if there are any clips there on your computer and a link to clips online.

You can also format the picture, including the size of the picture in your multimedia greeting card created with PowerPoint. Click picture from the Format menu. Click size and then you can make the size of the picture however many inches in height or width that you want-at least if it will fit in your browser. Drag the image of the picture you inserted to the center of the screen.

Add a new slide to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

If you want to insert a new slide, click new slide on the Insert menu. You can then follow the same procedures for formatting and adding clip art.

Add a movie to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

You can add a movie to your multimedia greeting card which you make with PowerPoint, instead of clip art. Point to movies and sounds on the Insert menu and click movie from clip organizer. Click the desired movie-that is if your computer hard drive came with any movies to add, or if you have downloaded any off the Internet. You can format the movie the same way you would a picture.

Add sound to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

You can add sound to your greeting card. Click movies and sounds on the Insert menu and then pick the sound you want to add from the Clip Organizer. You will also be given the choice to add sound from a file or any CD tracks you have saved to your computer. You may have sound elsewhere on your computer, but you should find sound files by clicking your C drive, then Windows, then Media. You should have a wide selection of sounds to add to your card.

Add text to your Christmas multimedia greeting card:

It is simple to add text to your multimedia greeting card made with PowerPoint. On the Insert Menu, click text box. Click and drag the text box below the picture, movie, or clip art you added. Drag the text box by the resize handles to whatever size you want. In the text box type your desired greeting, such as, “Merry Christmas.” You can create a second text box below the first to add your name or the name of the recipient. You can size or format the text and the font color in whatever way you would like. Click on Format and then font. Choose your options.

Step 6: Save your Christmas greeting card as a template.

Click new on the File menu, and then save as. In the save as dialogue box, choose new template. Name your template.

If you think it is too troublesome to make a PowerPoint all form the beginning, you can also use some free Christmas PowerPoint Templates instead.

Many items such as photos, movies, sounds, background images, and border images are on the Microsoft Clip Art and Media Web Site and can be added to your multimedia card created in PowerPoint.

Step 7: Deliver your Christmas greeting cards.

Of course,you can send your elaborate Christmas greeting cards through e-mail as an attachment,but sometimes it is troublesome to send a PowerPoint file with sounds and movies. If you don’t deal with the sounds and movies well, they will not play in the recipient’s PowerPoint.Or the recipient has a different OS or he/she has not installed a PowerPoint app. in her/his computer,what will you do? Don’t worry, here are the solutions:

Convert the Christmas greeting cards to video with Leawo PowerPoint to Video.So you can easily send it with an e-mail,and make it playable on a different OS or even without PowerPoint installing computer. What’s more, you can upload the greeting cards to your blog, SNS or to video sites, and more crazily, you can send the Christmas greeting video card together with mobile device (for example iPod, iPhone, Blackberry etc.) you’ve chosen as a gift. That is a real surprise! Haha! But if the recipient has no computer or he/she knows nothing about computer, I’m afraid that you have to convert the Christmas greeting cards to DVD with Moyea PPT to DVD Burner,and send the DVD copy to he/she so that he/she will receive your warm Christmas greeting by watching TV. Really remarkable, isn’t it? Why not start your own now?

Dwight, a PowerPoint expert serving http://www.dvd-ppt-slideshow.com/ who is a provider for PowerPoint to DVD, PowerPoint to Video, PowerPoint for WEB solutions

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dwight_Jonly

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Several years ago, it was harder to feel confident about giving an online Christmas gift card to your friends and family. Not everyone was web savvy and many people were leery about shopping online. Now virtually everyone shops online, so your gift is likely to be well-received.

Online gift certificates and gift cards are great presents for almost anyone of any age. You can give gift certificates for toy stores or video stores to kids, cards for clothing shops or jewelry stores for women who love fashion, and certificates for sporting goods stores for men who love the active life. And if you can’t decide, you can select an all-purpose Christmas gift card that the recipient can use at the store of his or her choice. For instance, SuperCertificates from GiftCertificates.com can be redeemed at any of the 200+ merchants on that site. You can also create personalized photo gift cards at GiftCards.com.

Some online gift certificates can be printed out so you can stuff them in a Christmas card and give them directly to your gift recipient. Others will be emailed directly to the person, but you can usually add a personalized message to go along with the gift certificate.

If you need ideas about a specific Christmas gift card for friends and family, here are some options:

For women: Amazon.com, HSN.com

For men: SportsMemorabilia.com, Omaha Steaks Gift Center

For teens: iTunes, GameFly

For couples: BedandBreakfast.com, Cloud 9 Living

For children: Back To Basics Toys, Discovery Channel store

For everyone: Gift Cards.com , GiftCertificates.com

You can go directly to your favorite merchant to buy a gift certificate or shop at a gift card mall such as GiftCertificates.com. If you shop at an online gift certificate mall, just remember that it’s the individual merchants that set the rules for their gift cards, not the site where you’re making the purchase.

An online Christmas gift card is a great last-minute gift for coworkers, family and friends.They’ll love getting to pick their own present and you’ll love the simplicity of it. Happy shopping!

Yet another year has commenced, and already it is time for businesses to think about that ever-important Christmas party! It is very easy to accidentally leave it to the last minute, and exacerbated by the whole thing, you quickly put together a selection of Christmas foods that you offer around the office in place of a Christmas party. However, there is no need to worry anymore over that vital Christmas party, as a quick phone call to a party organiser will wash away all of your worries.

Christmas Party organisers now offer a variety of parties, including custom made parties that enable you to make a bespoke party suited to your company’s requirements, as well as an assortment of themed shared parties, where your employees get to share the glitz and glamour of the night with a variety of professionals. Bespoke parties have the advantage of being a more intimate and private party that is directly tailored to your requirements, whilst shared parties are an inexpensive way of you and your employees to share the night with other establishments and make new acquaintances. Whichever you prefer, professional Christmas party organisers will provide a spectacular night of entertainment that will make this Christmas truly memorable to all your members of staff.

All parties, whether bespoke or shared, are created and managed by professional party planners. Party planners will provide as part of their service, the highest quality seasonal and festive entertainment, an exquisite three course meal, and professional DJ’s, all hosted in the most stylish and stunning venues.

On arrival, you will be greeted by a host of professional staff, dressed according to theme. Either a traditional Christmas or an alternative meal will be served, with usually wine or champagne, which can be ordered prior to the night. Then the party really begins with a variety of hosts and entertainment. Entertainment can range from tribute bands to glamorous showgirls and enchanting magicians. So whether your staff are avid Abba fans, prefer a laugh or want to be entertained by sensational dancers and singers, party organisers will find entertainment best suited to your needs. Dj’s are also available so that you can dance the night away to traditional Christmas tunes, classic songs ranging from the 60’s to the 90’s and the newest chart toppers. Lastly, its photo time! Take away those memories with you forever with a professionally hired photographer, which is available as an option on individually created parties, as well in some shared parties.

Party organisers will take away the strain and worry of organising a party – all you will have to worry about this Christmas, with a professionally planned party, is what to wear! They will also craft a party that will leave everyone in the festive spirit! No scrooges will be insight throughout Christmas with a professionally organised Christmas party.

For a professionally organised Shared Christmas Party or a bespoke party
Try: http://www.christmascorporation.co.uk/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marie_Coles

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The Internet has made it easy to go digital, but if you’re still a fan of paper Christmas cards, you can also use the web to find great paper Christmas cards that give you options you won’t find at your local Wal-Mart. Here are a few places to shop online for great printed holiday greetings.

PhotoWorks
PhotoWorks has a wonderful selection of photo Christmas cards. In addition to traditional photo card designs, they also offer many unusual designs you won’t find elsewhere, such as tri-fold and oversize cards that can include your Christmas letter printed as part of the card and punch-out cards that can also double as Christmas ornaments.

Gallery Collection
Gallery Collection offers hundreds of traditional paper Christmas cards for both business and personal use. They have a great selection of holiday images on their cards, though you won’t find any of the popular photo Christmas cards here. They can customize your cards with your own printed message for a personal touch.

My Good Greetings
This site only sells cards made of 100% recycled Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-Certified card stock (50% post-consumer waste) and pairs them with 100% recycled envelopes manufactured with 100% post-consumer recovered fiber. They then send their eco-friendly cards with 100% recycled labels and recycled shipping materials, and they offset their carbon footprint through Greenshipper. If you want to celebrate a green Christmas, this is a good place to shop.

CardStore.com
The wonderful thing about CardStore.com is that they make your card mailing easy. For a very small fee, they will send cards out for you. Yes, they do the hard work! You simply need to sort through hundreds of great card designs, customize and place your order, and give them the mailing details. Sending out cards was never this easy!

Paper Christmas cards not only help you say hello to friends and family during Christmas, but they give recipients something to touch and enjoy for the entire season. There’s something about the texture and the smell of paper that cannot be replaced with an e-card or phone call. So go paper!

He glanced up. “You can fix that. Christmas is coming – perfect time for a family letter.” He returned to work, leaving me to ponder how to begin such a project.

For those of you who, like me, are not natural letter-writers, below is a list of family Christmas letter ideas. Hope they help if you decide to start a new tradition this year.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!
While you can fit a few photos into a newsletter, more is better for your family Christmas letter. Try including a CD of favorite photos and special events. For more pizzazz, try using online services such as Smilebox. You can pick out a background and song to lend emotion to your slideshow. Then have fun and create! Include a copy with each mailed newsletter (or at least with Grandma and Grandpa’s). You can also share your creation with email recipients online.

The Countdown!
David Letterman loves them, Johnny Carson loved them, and we all love them too. The Top Ten List is the hit of the show! Include it in your newsletter or family Christmas letter. Ideas for lists range from sports activities for the kids to best moments on vacation. Include baby’s top ten new words, or your kindergartner’s top ten favorite new books, movies or games. The top ten dumbest/cutest things said in the household is sure to be a hit, but keep careful notes through-out the year to make sure you get them all down!

Make Them Laugh!
Ask each family member to include their favorite joke, riddle or pun. Sharing humor is always a family favorite. For humorous holiday jokes, search online or visit Funny-Christmas.com.

Use a Template!
Trying to format everything just right can lead to frustration, un-Christmas-like obscenities and un-mailed letters. Using a template makes layout easy and allows for more time to write and less to try to fit-it-all-in. You can search for printable Christmas letterhead online or for less than $4, download an awesome Christmas letter template right here at Christmas Letter Tips.com. Using these formats, you can easily summarize important evens of the year, insert family photos and get it done in time to get it mailed. Or, to save a tree and ensure on-time delivery, email your newsletter.

However you choose to share your lives with family members far away, it will be appreciated all year long. Keeping the family tie alive may be the best gift you give or receive!