Search Results for: blog tales from the holiday kids table

Fairy Tales for the Kid in All of Us

Mary Engelbreit’s Fairy Tales: Twelve Timeless Treasures is one book you won’t mind reading to your kids night after night after night. The charming treasure chest features amazingly fanciful illustrations which only award-winning Engelbreit could create. However, the stunning pictures are only part of what make Fairy Tales a family favorite in our home. The stories, featuring classic childhood characters from Snow White to Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Cinderella are perfectly penned to keep youngsters coming back for more. Engelbreit’s Fairy Tales is modified to accentuate her gorgeous illustrations. Special emphasis is placed on passages that coincide with dream-like images … Continue reading →

Rich Parents Doing Away with Expensive Holiday Gifts

Did you hear the one about the billionaire parents who plan to give their family members homemade gifts only this holiday season? Actually, it’s no joke and you might have heard of the parents in question… their names are Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Despite Jolie just earning the title of highest-paid woman in Hollywood, and Pitt raking in $20 million for starring in his new flick “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the parents of six little ones say they won’t be placing pricey presents under the Christmas tree this year. In a recent interview with Hello! Magazine, Pitt … Continue reading →

Shop to Help Kids!

I’d like to remind all of our readers that we can use our holiday shopping dollars to support people around the world, including our children’s countries of origin. Charities and/or fair trade cooperatives, which provide local craftspeople training and the chance to earn a fair price for their work, probably operate in your child’s country of origin, whatever that may be. One website alone (SERRV, which I reviewed last year) carries plaques and sculptural art made by Haitian artisans using recycled oil drums. SERRV carries scarves and textiles from India, Cambodia, Vietnam and Nepal as well as tableware from Chile … Continue reading →

What Do You Do With Pictures of Other People’s Kids?

It’s that time of year again… time for your mail carrier to put on the weightbelt as she lugs batches of holiday greetings from around the world and crams them into your mailbox. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I thoroughly enjoy getting Christmas correspondences (even the ubiquitous four-page family newsletters packed with pertinent personal details like the fact that Susie lost her front tooth in August, Sam was successfully potty-trained in May, and Rover dragged a skunk home on Halloween). What’s more, any of these holiday greetings include adorable pictures of family and friend’s darling children (some of … Continue reading →

Holidays and Family Dysfunction

Twas the dinner of Christmas and all through the house everyone was stirring… while visions of food fights danced in their heads. If that pretty much sums up your family gatherings during the holiday season, then you might want to take a cue from Demi Moore and Bruce Willis. That’s right; the famously divorced Hollywood couple is now giving tips on how to avoid conflict during holiday get-togethers involving extended family. According to the actors, there is a way to co-exist with your dysfunctional family members minus the drama and fights. After all, they say, they do it on a … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Kids Safe During the Holidays

So, yesterday my friend calls to ask me if our Christmas tree was up and decorated. (It is.) Then, she proceeded to tell me that after spending three hours trimming her family’s 7-foot Douglas fir the entire thing came crashing down… on her 16-month-old son. Fortunately, he didn’t suffer any major injuries, but since the fall the tree has been banished to the corner of the living room and is trapped behind a wall of child safety gates. Not that it really needs the protection given that her son is now deathly afraid of the fir. My pal’s anecdote serves … Continue reading →

Holiday Travel with Allergy Sensitive Children

Sensitive to dust, pet dander, peanuts, wood burning fireplaces, etc. When you have children who suffer from allergies, asthma, and other immune deficiencies holiday travel can be down right horrific. You’ve hosted Christmas for the past five years in order for your child to remain in a controlled environment, but now your relatives are complaining about making the trip yet again. You can’t rob your family of holiday fun with your kids, so what do you do? Do you make the trip and deal with your child’s sniffling, sneezing, wheezing and coughing? Or do you stay at home and risk … Continue reading →

Family Holiday Viewing Traditions

Whether it’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “Frosty the Snowman,” or “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” we all have our favorite holiday TV classics. I listed some of my family’s must-see Christmas specials in a previous blog, but neglected to include another important part of watching TV as a family during the holiday season—-the commercials. Yes, even the ads are festive this time of year. In fact, besides the Super Bowl, this is probably the only time of the year that I actually sit and watch TV ads. The ones I enjoy the most are family-friendly and stick with you long … Continue reading →

The Annual Holiday Family Newsletter—Yea or Nay?

Ah, the annual holiday family newsletter. It reminds me of that Goodwill commercial that airs this time of year. You know the one about the purple paisley shirt. The worker sitting in the back of the Goodwill donation truck describes the polarized reactions of two people viewing the same article of clothing: “UGH! A purple paisley shirt.” Versus: “WOW, a purple paisley shirt!” Those are the same responses I’ve seen from people who receive annual family newsletters at Christmas time. Let’s face it; these yearly updates that often describe every single minute detail that Jack, Jenna, Henry, Bobby and Jasper … Continue reading →

Holiday Family Bonding Around the TV

If someone is getting paid to write an article about television and children you can bet that the tone of the piece likely won’t be very positive. TV generally gets a bad rap, especially when it comes to children being overexposed to it. However, this time of year I don’t think there’s anything wrong with children spending a bit more time in front of the boob tube—-with their parents—-watching holiday classics like “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “Frosty the Snowman.” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”–these are national treasures as far as I’m concerned and … Continue reading →