Strollerderby : christmas cards

White House Sends Chanukah Card With Christmas Tree On It

Brett Singer — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:00:00 GMT

The Bush family really can't win these days.

Not only is the sitting President receiving blame for Republican losses on Election Day, but first lady Laura is getting flak for a farkakteh (pronounced "fuh-kahk-tuh") Chanukah card that had a picture of a Christmas tree on it.

While its fun to make fun of this kind of thing, I have to admit that I don't really care. It certainly is a mistake and shows certain cluelessness on the part of the First Lady's staff, or at least a lack of organizing skills (shouldn't someone have looked at the card first?). But this isn't exactly Hunter Gibson (Mel's dad) denying that the Holocaust actually happened. Also, the card didn't have a picture of the Baby Jesus on it. It was just a tree. (For the record, apologies were quickly offered. Faces, already covered with egg, were red. Feet were in mouths.)

So was it a bit dense for the White House to send a Chanukah card that didn't have a Chanukah image on it? Sure. But is it really that offensive? I don't think so. I'm Jewish, and I happen to like Christmas trees. That's a topic for another post, but for now, I'm not ready to add CardGate to the list of Bush Administration screw-ups.

Source: NY Post via HuffPo

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Seven Holiday Card-inal Sins

Jen Chaney — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:33:00 GMT

Thanksgiving is behind us, even if the turkey leftovers are not. Now it's time to move on to the next task: sending holiday cards.

Before you start drafting that family Christmas letter and licking all those envelopes, you may want to pause for a moment and read this blog post. In it, you'll find a list of the seven most heinous holiday card sins, a series of yuletide-greeting faux pas that are both egregious and, sadly, very common. Before you embarrass yourself and your children, or potentially alienate friends and family for the entirety of 2009, make sure you don't commit any of the following Christmas card crimes.

1. Do Not Include a Family Photo in Which Everyone is Dressed in the Same Outfit: You are members of a family. You are not a Catholic school, a cheerleading squad or a bridal party. For the love of God, acknowledge that and act accordingly. P.S. That goes triple for anyone even considering dressing their children in the same reindeer sweater.

2. Do Not Brag Excessively About Your Children's Accomplishments: Yes, it's wonderful that 18-month-old Madison can count to 100 in German while standing on her head. And sure, it's impressive that, at the age of five, Wyatt has already read the complete works of Tolstoy. But here's the thing: no one wants to hear that s@*! in their holiday card. So just say the kids are doing well and leave it at that.

3. Do Not Write Freakishly Long Paragraphs About Your Pet: I love animals. I adore my dog. I'll admit to tearing up while reading portions of "Marley and Me." But even I don't want to read a monthly summary of everything that happened to your labradoodle in 2008.

4. Do Not Break News in Your Holiday Card: Here's a pair of sentences your parents do not want to read for the first time when they open your holiday card: "After careful consideration, we have withdrawn Jacob from the Wilshire Academy. We are now homeschooling him so he can focus more time on training to compete in his first ever 'Guitar Hero' battle." Here's another: "Our family has decided to move to Abu Dhabi for an indefinite period of time. Actually, we haven't just decided; we're already there." News should never be broken in a holiday card, at least not one that gets delivered to close family members and friends.

5. Do Not Forget to Send the Holiday Card to Certain Relatives, Especially the Year After Having Your First Child: It's an honest mistake. Anyone could make it. But that won't matter to your Aunt Phoebe, who will repeatedly point out that she didn't get a copy of that adorable photograph of Fiona with that sweet ribbon in her hair even though everyone else in the family did. Still, she knows this was probably a simple error even though the same exact thing happened back in 1974 when cousin Marjorie didn't send a Christmas card the year after little Tommy was born, so could it really have been an accidental oversight or is the entire family conspiring against her as she has suspected ever since the Rump Roast Incident of '65 and don't play dumb because you know exactly which one she means?

6. Do Not Go Into Excessive Detail About Your Pregnancy: This may go without saying, but the words "happy holidays" and "gestatational diabetes" should never be used in the same sentence. Neither should "merry Christmas" and "mucus plug." Keep the specifics to yourself. And if you really can't help it, at least have the sense to delete all those details from the copy of the Christmas letter that goes to your best friend from college with fertility issues. Honestly, that's just rude.

7.Do Not Get Too Cutesy With the Kid Pictures: Clearly this is a subjective area. One person's "totally adorable" is another person's "downright nauseating." So do your best to use good judgment. And remember this important tip: If your child is dressed in a Tweety costume and holding a sign that says "I tawt I taw a mewwy Chwistmas," um, yeah. That's wayyyy too cute.

Image: The Fun Times Guide

8-Year-Old Kid's Toy Drive

Kelly Mills — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 17:01:00 GMT

I've been feeling the tyranny of Christmas this year. Everywhere I look, there's displays exhorting me to buy more crap for folks; the stress of getting it together has been making me edgy; and frankly, people drive like jerks this time of year. So when I watched this clip about Stephen Smith in an effort to find things to post about, I was only slightly into it. (Partly because the newscaster's chatter is just idiotic.) Yeah, he's an 8-year-old who started a toy drive when he was 3. That's very sweet. But you know, somehow I was just feeling sold.

My 6-year-old was watching my computer from a ways away over my shoulder, and when the clip ended, she asked me, "What are you doing?" "Looking for stories to post about," I absently replied.

"I think you should write about that one," she said. "Because that kid is pretty cool. I mean, not everyone celebrates Christmas, but when kids do, and they don't have any money for toys...Well, that boy made a party for them. I like that." She smiled to herself. "He's a very, very sweet boy."

Okay, you got me. And here you go.

Crafty: What?! You Haven't Created Your Handmade Christmas Cards Yet?

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:03:00 GMT

Ambitious, organized and totally with-it crafty parents, your time has finally arrived. Not to worry, you aren't behind on your handmade holiday card creating. Well, not too late. If you really rally the family, ply the kids with candy, the hubs with booze and the some naive high school babysitter with a NetFlix gift card and spread out your supplies over the dining room table or wherever the children normally do homework, you might just make it in time. Let the simple, sweet and adorably anti-Martha kid-friendly card designs at Kids Craft Weekly be your guide into over-preparedness.

These designs aren't art deco or all tidy but, even better, they only require tools that you likely have at home (and if you don't have a hole punch or cotton balls, surely the president of the preschool board will loan you some) and that your kids can really dig into under your guidance.

Although I am notorious for throwing away almost all of the photo cards with families in perfectly-pressed khakis or the dog with a reindeer headband, I know I'd tape a homemade holiday card to the fridge. At least until Easter.

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