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Touching gift for best friend girl Life is busy. Christmas is busier. Do you ever feel like it’s hard to incorporate Christmas when life already feels too busy? I know I do. My family is still recovering from a housefire that happened over a year ago, my van died in the carpool line last month (yes, the carpool line), and I can hardly keep up with our four young children. And now the holidays are here… and so is the pressure to make everything magical and memorable for the people in my home.

This is a busy time of year, and it can be hard to remember why we celebrate Christmas. Here are some simple ideas from the Crossing Kids team to help your family celebrate Jesus (even amidst a very busy season!).

1. Serve Together

Serving together is a great way to bring meaning to the Touching gift for best friend girl season. You can serve with your family or invite some friends and neighbors to join you. You might make cards for people in nursing homes, participate in Christmas with Coyote Hill, or serve families in our community.

Sign up to serve or donate a Christmas meal to families in Paquin Towers.  

2. Discover Together

It’s easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas when things get busy. Take a few minutes out of your day to discover with your family. Watch a watch a short video or listen to a podcast to jumpstart a conversation about why your family loves to celebrate Jesus at Christmas.

Gift ideas for female friend As dependable as gifts from Santa and the Nativity story on Christmas mornings growing up was the phone ringing before we were barely out of bed. “Christmas gift!” my grandmother would exclaim when we answered. She lived across the street and would see us later at brunch, where she would serve ham and fresh biscuits. But she often couldn’t wait till then. She had to be the first to say, “Christmas gift!”

The tradition came from her large family, who lived in upstate South Carolina. Back then, in the 1930s and ’40s, the saying was a way to claim the first gift of the day. By the time the custom trickled down to me, there was no particular prize—just the glory of having been first. For years I didn’t question the tradition—I only knew I had to try to beat my grandmother to the saying; I would even sneak over to her house early, ring the doorbell, and, before she could answer, yell, “Christmas gift!” through the glass of the dining room window. She’d appear at the door with a big, exasperated sigh, but I always saw a twinkle in her eye. She loved that I was carrying on the ritual.

Grandma died almost two years ago, and I regret not asking her about a lot of things, including about the origins of “Christmas gift.” Was it just our family? A South Carolina thing? A Southern thing? No one else I knew seemed to do it.

I contacted a couple of Southern linguists who were unfamiliar, too. Then I was introduced to Dr. Michael Montgomery, a University of South Carolina professor emeritus of English and linguistics. Jackpot.

“I can remember [my grandfather] throwing open the door and yelling, Gift ideas for female friend says Montgomery, a Knoxville, Tennessee, native. “It was a pretty indelible memory, even for a small child.”

Although Montgomery says there’s no way to know the exact origin, the Dictionary of American Regional English does claim the usage is chiefly Southern, and cites alternatives such as Christmas box, Christmas give, and Christmas treat. Montgomery is putting together the Dictionary of Smoky Mountain and Southern Appalachian English, to be published in 2018, and the saying gets its own entry there, too. One of the sources he cites is Jean Thomas’s Blue Ridge Country, a 1942 look at mountain customs that offers this description: “The young folks of the community go from home to home, bursting in with a cheery ‘Christmas gift!’ Those who have been taken unaware, though it happens the same way each year, forgetting, in the pleasant excitement of the occasion, to cry the greeting first, must pay a forfeit of something good to eat—cake, home-made taffy, popcorn, apples, nuts.”

Gifts for women in their 30s With decorations hanging around our homes and indulgent feasts in the works, there’s no doubt that Christmas is a time of celebration with our loved ones to cherish our blessings and the year gone by. 

Yet, for the millions of people living in poverty worldwide, their Christmas can starkly contrast our own. As the holiday season draws near, it’s crucial that we remember all the vulnerable people worldwide that still need support.  

How you can help those in need this Christmas 

With the ongoing ramifications of COVID-19, conflict in Ukraine, famine and climate change, many people across the world remain impacted by these devastating events.  

Those displaced have no four walls to call their own, moving from one shelter to another for their safety and protection. Struggling families continue to worry whether they’ll have food daily, let alone on Christmas day. And millions won’t be able to afford presents to give their loved ones as the cost of living continues to drastically rise.  

Christmas invites us all to show kindness, especially towards these communities facing hardship. Gifts for women in their 30s gift donations are a way for many of us to participate in the season of giving and give back to those in need.  

Gifts for women in their 20s While you are waiting for your stain or paint to dry you can start cutting your old Christmas cards into something useful. For this project, I was given the opportunity to use beautiful holiday cards from Shutterfly. They have gorgeous designs, high quality paper and flawless photos– almost too pretty to use up.

These upcycled Christmas Topiaries are made by cutting old cards and paper into circles with scalloped edges in varying sizes. Because I am using just three card designs, I wanted to fill out my tree using scrap paper to give extra color. I found Gifts for women in their 20s paper in a large pad for a very reasonable $6 in non-traditional colors that matched the bright hue of my cards. I then interwove a variety of scrapbook paper in between the scalloped cards to give a bright and cheery design.

You can choose to download a free scalloped edge circle template (just do a quick Google!) and cut each by hand, or you can have a cutting machine do it for you. I personally chose to have the machine cut all the scrapbook paper for me to make the process a little quicker.

You can also just cut regular circles, or circles using scissors with fun edges. The best part about this craft is that the pieces do not need to be perfect––the more whimsical the better!

Related Resources To A Santa Key

If you liked this resource on how to craft Santa’s Magic key, you may also like our other Christmas crafts for kids or our printable Christmas coloring pages. And for any additional holiday filled activities and ideas, make sure to check out our Christmas content hub.

Finally, don’t forget to finish any last minute Gifts for women shopping! Check out our personalized Christmas gifts to find the perfect present to fit under your tree.

6. Incorporate Christmas Card Quotes To Share The Magic Of The Season

Quotes are often the perfect way to inspire your loved ones during the holidays. It can get your card recipients in the holiday spirit and share the magic of this jolly holiday season. Don’t be afraid to use cheerful or jolly quotes that spread your festive spirit.

7. Don’t Forget To Sign Your Christmas Cards

Use a warm closing for close family and friends, use formal titles for those recipients’ you are not as close with, and utilize a more professional closing for your business Christmas cards. Each message you put into your Unique gift ideas for women or holiday card, it will be a reflection of your thoughts this holiday season. Spread the joy that is this fantastic jolly party of the year.