Design Crafters

Colorado tends to have a magical affect on people, especially during the holidays. Perhaps it’s the fresh air or the beautiful snow covered mountains. Whatever it is, it seems to bring people very unique people together, with very unique ideas.

On Christmas Day a couple from Congress Park, Colorado, who originally met at a Christmas party, had the wonderful privilege of being married by Santa Claus. Ok ok, so maybe it wasn’t the real Santa Claus, as he was more than likely resting from a long night of delivering toys. This Santa Claus was however a real minister. Out of about 500 couples he’s wed, this is his first Christmas Day wedding he’d performed. Being the first Christmas Day wedding, one must not pass up the opportunity to dress as Santa.
Not only was Santa involved in the marriage, but the couple was also engaged while visiting Santa at the mall.
In celebration of the Christmas season, both the bride and groom were dressed in red and as their Christmas backdrop, they used Mother Nature herself.  Why spend your money on expensive decorations when you can use natural and free snow.
I hope you enjoyed this wedding story in today’s photo Christmas cards blog.
Link for this story was found at  http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2007/12/27/watercooler_stories/9655/

Gift giving has become a central focus of Christmas tradition, but it has not always been that way. The first record of gift giving, and hense the beginning of a new tradition, was when the Wise Men (Magi) brought gifts to Jesus as recorded in the book of Matthew in the Bible. "On coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and the bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankensense and myrrh."

As mentioned yesterday, no one was really in the habit of exchanging elaborate gifts until the late 1800s. The Santa Claus story which we will discuss later, along with the amazing retailing phenomenon that has grown since the turn of the 20th century, is what has made gift giving of such importance and focus of Christmas tradition. Christmas cards are usually included with gifts, especially those mailed to friends and loved ones far away. Sometimes, Christmas cards are used to transport cash, checks or gift cards as gifts.

Whether you teach your children to believe in Santa or not, is a personal choice.  Most do, and having to tell your child at a later time that it all was a fantasy is always hard on everybody and a bit of a disappointment and let down for the child, but they can still learn the concept and joy of giving to others as they have learned by example from Santa (their parents).

Be prepared for the fact that they will quickly be able to put two and two together and on their own after being told that Santa was not real, they will figure out that the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are also fantasy. It is one of the hard things to have to deal with in growing up. But many feel that the initial disappointment soon passes as their child has learned how much fun it can be to give anonymously.

Some families choose not to let
their children believe that Santa Claus is a real man. There are many reasons for this, but mostly
it is because they believe that the birth of Jesus Christ is the reason for the
season, and they do not want anything to diminish that truth. Just because children know that Santa is not
a living breathing person who will actually visit their house on Christmas Eve,
does not mean that these children will enjoy Christmas any less than children
who do believe in Santa. 

Remember the story about little Virginia who wrote to the New York Sun asking if there was a Santa Clause? Find the heartwarming answer at this Christmas site.