Traveling by air is usually stressful but when you have to travel during the holidays it usually means taking along family members and that can add extra stress. Reduce air travel stress by planning ahead and using these airline tips for a happy and stress free airplane ride.

There are a few things to keep in mind when traveling by air with kids in tow. The first is that airline food is tasteless, plain and unappealing to most adults and certainly kids will find it equally disgusting. You can bring plastic containers or baggies filled with your child’s favorite treats and meals such as fruits, veggie sticks, toddler finger foods, cheerios and such that will appeal to their young taste buds and keep them happily munching. Remember to bring along wipes to clean sticky fingers.

Unlike a car ride, where you can pull off at rest stops, a plane is a long endless ride for youngsters. To help pass the time you can pack in your carry on baggage some simple toys to amuse them. Pack crayons and coloring books, stuffed animals, dolls and action figures. You can also bring along Music CDs with headphones.

Flight discomforts:

Babies will need a pacifier or bottle to suck on during times when the cabin pressure is likely to bother them like during takeoff and touchdown.

If possible schedule the flight during naptimes or bedtime so that your child will be less disturbed by these minor discomforts.

Plan ahead

Check with your airline to see what carry – on baggage is appropriate for youngsters. Ask if it is all right to bring a booster seat so that your child can see out the window (ask for a window seat for your child over five).

Arrive at least an hour early for domestic flights and two hours early for international flights.

Be flexible when it comes to flights as changing departure days be even so much as one day might give you a cheaper rate or an emptier plane (who likes a crowded flight).

If flying internationally check for passport requirements and vaccination requirements. This Website has useful passport information:

travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html

Security wait times may slow you down so check before you leave home to find out if your flight has any wait times established. You can check wait times at:

waittime.tsa.dhs.gov/index.html

You may have better flights using suburban airports than big city airports because they are less congested.

Ship packages instead of using baggage to avoid overweight fees and long check-in lines. You can try using Greyhound’s PackageXpress

shipgreyhound.com

Security agents may open wrapped Christmas gifts so do not wrap presents until you get to your destination.

If you are bringing food aboard make sure they are in see-through containers, or factory-sealed food.

Book your flight with the right airlines for your destination. Usually expect more holiday delays than any other time of the year because of the increased amount of air travelers.
photo credit: GabrielaP93

Everyone is trying to find a great Christmas tree decoration idea! Homespun Christmas trees are moving to the side, it seems, for intricate themed trees with tree limbs full of carefully planned out decorations. Here are some great Christmas tree decoration ideas for your next holiday!

Decorate With Angels

A popular Christmas tree decoration idea is to decorate the tree with a realm of angels. The main theme of the angel tree is cherubs… kind of like that small angel at Valentine’s Day! You will decorate the angel tree with only angels. You can choose angels of any shape, size, or texture. What pulls the angel tree together is that everything on your tree is an angel. You may want to add some strands of white sparkling lights for an added touch of “the ethereal heavens.” Be sure to get angels of many assorted types. You might include homemade angels or angels that your kids made at school or church, as well.

A Color-Themed Tree

Another spectacular Christmas tree decoration idea is to create your tree around an array of coordinating colors. For instance, your Christmas tree decoration theme might be to decorate your tree in USA patriotism, in red, white, and blue colors. If this is your theme, you will purchase or MAKE decorations, Christmas tree balls, lights, and garland that are all red, white, and blue. Other popular color theme ideas are a gold tree, blue tree, white tree, and a even pink Christmas tree. Today you can even buy artificial trees that are in any chosen color that will blend into your idea. And the tree will blend into YOUR home, as a very special rendition of our Christmas holidays.

Other Themed Ideas

If your Christmas tree decoration idea does not involve angels or a certain color, there are many other kinds of the Christmas tree decoration idea out there. You may wish to decorate your tree to represent your career. If you are a teacher, you might want Christmas tree decorations that are apples, chalkboards, and other teaching-related items. If you are a “gardener extraordinaire,” you can hang tiny flowers and fruits and vegetables on the tree and decorate it with real garden tools!

The success to “building” a truly beautiful Christmas tree decoration idea is to think outside the traditional Christmas decoration boxes. For instance, if you want to decorate a tree to honor the fisherman in your life, you can decorate it with real pieces of tackle. Carefully choose colorful tackle and hang it from the tree with safe ornament hangers, not fishing hooks. You can also purchase decorations that depict tiny fishermen to add to the overall look.

In this same vein, if there is an artist in your family, your unique tree could sport actual art tools such as paint brushes, tiny jars of ink (which will collect and throw the lights!), decorative craft items such as colored hemp twine or colored yarns, and small toys found in craft stores… tiny palettes, artist easels, and small figurines that you will decorate and “clothe” to look like art gallery participants or famous artists!

The Christmas tree decoration idea list is truly endless. Use your imagination, and create a Christmas tree that you will be proud of! The sky is the limit when it comes to decorating the best Christmas tree ever! It will become a favorite family tradition, with the story telling of “how the tree came to be” as a central part of putting together your holiday.

All of us started decorating our houses to welcome Christmas and the Holy Spirit it brings. For decorating, you all must be thinking of a unique Christmas idea. Well, here is a wonderful Christmas craft which is unique and totally different and look astounding in your walkway.

Material Required-

1. One large straw broom
2. Two small brooms- approx 3 inch
3. One tan pompom of medium size
4. One large white pompom
5. Red and white felt scraps
6. White acrylic paint
7. White fur approx 13 inch long

How to make it-

1. Paint the broom whisks with white acrylic paint and leave some whisks in their natural color and also leave some portion unpainted for the face. This will give natural appearance.
2. To make the Santa’s mustache, cut off the handles of the small brooms and paint them white.
3. Draw the eyes on the white felt and cut out the shape. Glue it in place. Then cut small dots out of black felt and glue them on the white pieces of eyes. Then to make the pupil of the eye glue the tiny dots cut out of white felt on the black dots.
4. Cut a small mouth shape from the red felt and glue it in place.
5. For the hat, cut a square out of red felt and wrap it around the broom higher enough to leave space for face. Glue the hat in place.
6. Glue the white fur around the brim of hat.
7. Glue scraps of red felt on the hat such that the hat comes in the exact shape i.e. narrower at the tip and wider at the bottom.
8. Glue medium sized tan pompom on the broom for nose.
9. Glue the small brooms below the mouth for mustache.

Your broom Santa is ready.
photo credit: marada

Perhaps it is the unquestionable appeal of Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer that makes him the most famous or favorite of all Santa’s reindeers. It surely doesn’t seem as easy to come up with a similar catchy description for the others – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen – as named in the song.

The story of Rudolph glowing red nose made his, first appeared in 1939 when Montgomery Ward’s distributed about 2.4 million booklets with the poem in the form of a story about “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” It was written by Robert L. May, who worked in the store’s advertisement department, to be used to draw in more people into the store. When the booklet was reissued in 1939, sales soared to more than 3.5 million copies. But it was not until a decade later, in 1949, that the story really gained vast fame when Gene Autry sang a musical version of the fable. As a Christmas song, it is second only in popularity to ‘White Christmas.’

See larger image Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Rstr) (Audio CD) List Price: $10.98 USD New From: $7.36 In Stock Used from: $8.88 In Stock Release date September 26, 2006.

Rudolph, the ninth reindeer whose lighted nose guides Santa’s sleigh through the night, is now identified worldwide as the song has been translated into more than 20 different languages and an animated television movie has also been based on the story. Rudolph and his noticeable nose have also become the subject of jokes and sparked more interest in reindeers which has led to much research into Santa and the flying reindeers who pull his sleigh through the sky.

Along with the catchy rhythm of the lyrics, Rudolph’s story is also appealing because of the moral lessons it contains. As the story goes, Rudolph was shunned by the other reindeers, which laughed and teased him about his bright red nose. But on a foggy night, when Santa must have been afraid that he may not be able to deliver his Christmas gifts around the world, Santa spotted him and kindly asked if he would step to the front as the leader to ‘guide my sleigh tonight.’ His shiny red nose would after all be very useful in illuminating the way, Santa thought. From then on ‘all of the other reindeers loved him,” and rightly predicted that he ‘would go down in history.’

See larger image Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (DVD) Director: Kizo Nagashima, Larry Roemer Starring: Billie Mae Richards, Burl Ives, Paul Soles, Larry D. Mann, Stan Francis Rating: Unrated List Price: $14.93 USD New From: $4.30 In Stock Used from: $0.39 In Stock Release date September 4, 2007.

The question still hovers still of where Rudolph came from. He’s generally looked upon the son of Donner, one of the first eight reindeers. But the Snopes.com site rejects this however, saying that he dwelled in a reindeer village elsewhere and it was there that he was seen by Santa who had already started on his Christmas Eve journey to deliver gifts. And in a more modern evolution of the story according to Wikipedia.com, an animation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) introduced a son, named Robbie, of Rudolph. That son has now become the tenth reindeer.

It’s also fascinating to note that the idea of Santa’s sleigh being pulled by reindeers was originated in the poem, ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.’ That poem tells the story of St. Nicholas, who is Santa, calling his eight tiny reindeers by their names, as previously mentioned, just before he came down the chimney of a house to start filling the stockings from a sack full of toys he carried on his back.
photo credit: Ashley Coombs